NEWSLETTER
SUMMER 2016
Safety
- for our
people and
our products
Message from Craig
Carrfields show trailers
The show season has once again kicked into
full swing around the regions and Carrfields
are attending many A&P shows throughout the
country. We have commissioned the customised
build of our second show trailer which enables us
to have one based in each island.
In October Henry McElrea towed the existing
trailer up to the Poverty Bay Show in Gisborne and
handed responsibility over to Pete Mackie. There
was a great turn out of clients at the show and
our CP Wool and Livestock teams put on plenty
of paua patties, hamburgers and refreshments
for the crowds. The following week, the teams
were present at the Royal Hawke’s Bay three day
show and again the crowds were plentiful and
appreciative of a bite to eat and an ear to bend.
Having the two trailers allows our team to support
as many rural events as we can in the heart of
rural communities.
You might see them travelling on the roads over
the next few months as we are attending more
field days around the country, if you see us, give
us a wave and a toot!
As we draw to the end of 2016, we can look
back on what has been a challenging year for
the sector in general, but one where Carrfields
continued to consolidate the different businesses
that make up the group and put down very solid
foundations for the future.
With the introduction of the new Health and
Safety Legislation on April 1, there was much
emphasis put on safety, one of the five key values
upon which our company is based.
The demands of the new legislation are
comprehensive. To ensure that we are fully
compliant with these new changes a lot of time
was invested in ongoing training and upskilling
of our staff such as the Level 1 Health and Safety
training course run through the Canterbury
Chamber of Commerce and also in the drive to
continue the modernisation of all our sites.
During the year the family, board and senior
management spent much time both out in
the field and onsite, both in New Zealand and
overseas, talking with staff, customers and
suppliers so that we continue to deepen our
understanding of their needs and requirements.
Rural NZ sponsorship
This knowledge forms an integral part of the
Carrfields CARE Programme, our blueprint for the
future which focuses on continual improvement
and achieving excellence. As we continue to
further develop our different businesses, and look
for new opportunities, we do so with a sound
understanding of what the market requires. We
are committed to being an industry leader, but to
do this we must ensure that we continue to create
excellence in all that we do.
As already mentioned, the Carrfields Group
of companies became much closer, working
together on different projects and realising
the potential synergies possible with such a
diverse group. We will continue to work on this
throughout 2017.
Carrfields committed to the major sponsorship
of the Rural NZ television series that has been
screening on CTV for the past 4 months. During
this time each of our businesses have been
showcased doing what they do best – working
with clients to bring them maximum returns.
We have travelled from Feilding to West Otago
to capture everything from Livestock sales at the
Feilding saleyards, to achieving World Records in
Timaru with our Grain & Seed clients. Although
the show has now finished, we have uploaded a
copy of all segments to the Carrfields You Tube
channel, which you can search for at
www.youtube.com.
The refurbishment of the CP
Wool national head office is now
complete with the Carrfields
Corporate carpet installed and the
custom made reception counter
As we move into next year, we do so with
confidence, thanks to the foundations
that have been established in the last few
years. Confidence, however, does not mean
complacency and the drive for continuous
improvement will be followed unrelentingly.
We would like to wish all our staff, customers
and suppliers a safe and prosperous Christmas
and New Year and I hope you can spend quality
time with your loved ones over this period. I look
forward to catching up with you in the new year.
Craig Carr,
Managing Director,
Carrfields
New Smallbone Timaru
appointment leading the way for
Holden dealers in New Zealand.
CHCH
A&P
show
winner
We were extremely proud of
our CLAAS Harvest Centre and
Carrfields Irrigation teams for
taking out the title for the best
overall site 2016 at the
Canterbury A&P Show.
Smallbone Holden Timaru is leading the way when
it comes to breaking old perceptions of a male
orientated automotive industry, by becoming the
first dealership in the South Island Holden network
to appoint a female Dealer Principal. Roger
Harper, Smallbone Group Dealer Principal, said the
appointment of Gail Thompson to the position was
indicative of changing dynamics within the industry.
Awards recognising CLAAS
top sales representatives
The very best dealerships, teams and individuals from throughout the
Landpower and CLAAS Harvest Centre network in New Zealand and
Australia were recognised at the inaugural Strive Annual Awards for
CLAAS UK CEO and regional director Trevor Tyrrell presented Greg with his
award. “Greg Carr has played a key role in the success of CLAAS in New
Zealand over the past 40 years, firstly as a contractor and then as a dealer
principal of one of our most successful CLAAS Harvest Centres.”
Greg also received a certificate congratulating the Carr family for the
planned opening of their fifth CLAAS Harvest Centre at Waipara in North
Canterbury.
Adam Clement
CLAAS Harvest Centre Canterbury dealer principal, Greg Carr and
sales representative, Adam Clement were named New Zealand’s top
salespersons for CLAAS Lexion and Amazone farm machinery, respectively.
A total of 11 salespeople in New Zealand and Australia were recognised at
this year’s awards and each will receive a tailored individual development
plan to further their careers as machinery professionals.
Greg Carr
Excellence were held during August in Christchurch, New Zealand.
“The role of the Dealer Principal is to be responsible
for the day to day running of and, by extension,
the overall success of a dealership,” said Mr Harper.
“Gail’s appointment is an exciting development and
evidence that gender is no barrier when it comes
to appointing the best person to a job as she is by
far and away the best person to drive the business
in Timaru.”
Mrs Thompson, who took over the management
of the Smallbone Timaru operation in September,
was similarly enthused about her new role. “The
next few years are shaping up to be a truly inspiring
time to be associated with such an exciting brand
and I can’t’ wait to be part of this journey with the
Smallbone team and our customers.”
Cam’s Corner
Cam Kirkwood is a Service Technician at our
CLAAS Harvest Centre, Templeton Branch. Cam
recently spent a few months working for CLAAS
UK on a work exchange programme. Over the
next couple of newsletters Cam will share his
experiences and travels.
I had heard stories from some of our senior
technicians and clients about their overseas
work experiences - working, training, repairing,
operating and had always thought I would like to
give that a go.
My time arrived when an opportunity arose within
the company for a work exchange with CLAAS UK.
I applied and I must admit I was shocked but very
excited when I was selected as I had never even left
the country before. I guess you could say this was
a really big deal for me!
From there everything happened so fast. Everyone
at work was so helpful in helping organise all the
important things such as a work VISA, passport,
flights, transport and accommodation.
Next thing I knew; I was sitting in the Christchurch
International Airport departure lounge drinking a
coffee with Matt Petrie who was giving me advice
on how to negotiate plane terminals. I was starting
to feel a little nervous as I had no idea what I was
getting myself into.
After 24 hours of flying and 36 hours in transit, I
arrived at Heathrow Airport in my stubbies and
jandals and was greeted by Rob, my UK host.
Starting out at Manns (a UK CLAAS dealership)
was like being in a new job and some of the lads
struggled with my accent. But the boys helped me
along and we soon got into it, cruising around
doing jobs in Suffolk and Norfolk. The first month
flew past and Debbie and Rob (my host family)
made it very enjoyable and easy.
I was fortunate enough to visit the JCB
headquarters in the UK and got what I thought
was a VIP tour. I also visited the CLAAS tractor
factory at Le Mans, France. Then the next stop was
the CLAAS factory in Harsewinkel, Germany which
was extremely impressive.
Once back in the UK, harvest began to take place
and things kicked up a gear. All of the boys
helped out where ever they could. It was such a
great experience - I got a lot of enjoyment and life
skills from it. I would definitely recommend this
opportunity to junior staff coming through. Thank
you to all CLAAS Harvest Centre Canterbury staff,
Tonks household and also the staff at CLAAS UK/
Manns who made this all possible for me.
Health and Safety
staff training
Carrfields have run a number of training programmes in the health and
safety space recently.
A Health and Safety Level 1 course was run through the Canterbury Chamber of
Commerce in August. This course was to introduce the new legislation to 33 of
our team members – a number of whom are our first point of call in the health
and safety space, acting as our business representatives in each area. They also
attended training on using our health and safety software ‘Assura’, which we
use to record everything health and safety related across our businesses.
Our first aiders have also updated their first aid qualifications over the past
couple of months through St John.
Left to Right: Janice Brown, Megan Ness, Brad Rodgers, Shea Rainey, Rere Keefe,
and Gordy Coxhill
Smallbone Holden
Krista Eliason announced
as Managing Director, Carrfields
Primary Wool, North America
CP Wool is gearing up for increased
expansion into the U.S. and Canada
and we recently appointed Krista
Eliason as our new Managing Director,
Carrfields Primary Wool, North
America (CPW, NA).
The position was created for Krista to
manage the projected growth into
this market. Krista comes to this new
role with a rich background in the
industry. She started out working
as the advertising and marketing
manager for Wools of New Zealand in
the late 1990s. She has deep roots in
working with wool growers of New Zealand - especially working with
influential and respected growers such as Anabel Tripp, Howie Garner
and Hamish de Lautour.
Krista has been a passionate supporter of our wool cooperative and
the growers of New Zealand for many years. As we look to expand our
footprint in North America, we are very excited to bring Krista onboard.
She brings a wealth of knowledge, creative ideas and an amazing track
record of leadership to her new role with us, and we’re very excited
about future projects and products that will come out of this.
- Colorado drive day
Robert ‘Biscuit’ McLean
joins Carrfields Livestock
With the launch of the new, highly anticipated 2017 Colorado Ute, Smallbone
Holden wanted to showcase it in a way customers could actually experience the
upgrades made to not only the look and technology in the Ute but also how it
drives. So on the 26th of October we held a ‘Colorado Drive Day’ where anyone
could go and check out the new vehicles for themselves.
Our sales team was kept busy showing customers all the new features of the
Colorado.
Gourmet beef burgers and hot coffee was well received on the day as the
weather was a bit nippy.
The redesigned Colorado is introduced with fresh styling, an extended range
of accessories and a raft of high-tech additions from advanced connectivity to
active safety features.
Sales Manager, Lyndon Moore was happy with the turn out on the day and
hopes to provide more of these events for customers to get in and drive
vehicles as well as the chance for an informal catch up over a coffee.
“We were also lucky enough to have Holden NZ on board who helped put
together a special four day only deal which we were able to offer to those
interested in purchasing,” says Lyndon.
Another Colorado Drive Day was also held at our new Smallbone Holden
Timaru branch for South Canterbury customers on the 23rd November.
Robert ‘Biscuit’ McLean is a wellknown figure in the livestock trade
throughout Northland, having spent
the majority of his working life in
the industry, so it was considered a
coup when he joined Carrfields in
September this year as Northland
Livestock Manager.
Robert, or ‘Biscuit’ as he is more
well known, and his 14-strong team,
cover a huge area, basically from the
Auckland Harbour Bridge to Cape
Reinga …. in excess of 400kms.
“There are good opportunities in
the north. Unlike other parts of New
Zealand, Northland is more characterised by smaller farm sizes,
smaller parcels of livestock and lots of different clients.
And where did the name ‘Biscuit’ come from? “When I was at school
I had red hair and was a bit feisty so got the name of ‘Ginger Biscuit’
which later was shortened to ‘Biscuit.’
As for hobbies, “I played a lot of rugby during my schoolboy days. I
managed to keep playing senior rugby until about 1996, but the time
I had finished I had moved from wing to prop. There had been a few
changes to my body shape and speed over the year,” he joked.
It’s certainly great to have such a well-known personality as part of the
Carrfields team.
Pacific Seeds Maize
Going into our second year of distributors for the
Pacific Seeds maize and forage business, Carrfields
Grain & Seed has seen overwhelming acceptance of
the new arrangement.
2016 like 2015 has been a difficult season, with
commitments to plantings being determined by
availability of silage and grain contracts. Despite this
year also been exceptionally difficult due to some
regions being extremely wet in the North Island, the
Carrfields Grain & Seed team have seen growth in
sales and in market share.
Carrfields Grain & Seed’s wholesale sales team in the
North Island saw the inclusion of Michael Turner.
With a background in contracting, Michael has
been a welcome addition and has created a great
network of clients in the Northland and Waikato
regions. This year Rob Shannon also become a
full time employee covering the Bay of Plenty,
Gisborne and Manawatu region. His knowledge of
the maize industry has assisted in the growth of the
business. These two have been well supported by
the expertise of Scott Shaw in Product Development
and Research giving the Carrfields Grain & Seed
team a strong foot hold for future growth in
the maize arena. Another welcome addition to
the team has been Tony Jones as North Island
Relationship Consultant, assisting Carrfields Grain &
Seed as well as the other Carrfields businesses.
As part of the marketing campaign for 2016, the
team ran a selfie promotion with clients sending
through selfies of themselves with their bag of seed
maize - Pacific Seeds of course!
Greg Cuttance races at Bathurst European Seed
It certainly wasn’t for the faint-hearted, but for
Carrfields Livestock agent Greg Cuttance, it will
be a lifetime memory – racing in front of over
200,000 people around the testing Bathurst Mount
Panorama track in his 1982 XE Falcon Muscle Car.
Greg, from Dannevirke, was one of 26 New
Zealanders invited to compete against 24
Australians and an American over three races
during the three-day event. The races were billed
as a trans-Tasman Challenge and unfortunately the
Australians filled the first three placings.
“It certainly was pretty daunting. Bathurst is not the
easiest track for the experienced drivers, let alone
novices like us. Not only is it a big circuit, but also
steep. My very first lap took 2mins 55 secs, but by
the time I became familiar with the track I was able
to get it down to 2mins 40secs.”
“At top speed I was hitting 275 kms/hr on Conrod
straight, compared with 75kms/hr at the Cutting
in the tightest part of the track,” he said. After just
one experience at Bathurst Greg is certainly keen to
return to Mount Panorama.
Carrfields Contracting update
The silage season in Mid Canterbury is off to a
flying start with a lot of grass silage currently
being made on farm. The large amount of
grass around is partly due to a reduction in
cow numbers coupled with the dry winter and
early spring conditions as pastures aren’t being
pugged. We have recently received good rains
over the district and while this has made for
a difficult start it will prolong the work and
hopefully go some way to topping up the very
depleted ground water, as we are still behind last
year’s rain fall to date.
Association (ESA)
Conference
We also now have our full team of overseas staff
on board.
Maize planting is coming to an end with sweet
corn planting starting and we hope to be finished
all the planting by mid-November.
We have had a good run on compost over the
spring with strong sales to farmers. Although
these have come to an end now due to crops
being planted, the landscape markets are now
in full swing which keeps the product moving.
We hope to be back into the farming market in
February once crops are harvested.
This years ESA conference was held in Rome,
Italy. With attendees from the Canterbury Seed /
Carrfields Grain & Seed team consisting of Craig
Carr, Craig Graham and Tom Sherratt. Over 1000
participants were in attendance from Europe,
Africa, USA, Asia and New Zealand.
It was a great opportunity for the team to cement
their relationships with our large client base with
over 60 meetings scheduled over the three day
conference. Such conferences allow the team to
be able to meet a large number of clients in such a
compact time frame.
These clients include seed multiplication, seed
trading, cereal breeding and vegetable seed
suppliers so enables the Carrfields Grain & Seed
team to cover some important aspects of its day to
day activities in one conference.
For Group General Manager – Seeds Craig Graham,
it was a great opportunity to meet for the first
time a number of our European clients and gain
a greater understanding of the markets that the
business currently operates in. It also opened up
new opportunities for the business going forward
in new markets and geographies.
Wool
Livestock
Grain & Seed
Email queries: info@carrfields.co.nz
1 Range Street, Riverside Industrial Park, A
shburton, New Zealand 7700
T. +64 3 307 6014 F. +64 3 307 6960
www.carrfields.co.nz
Contracting
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