BA5 Southland Cool Stores
A bus load of Chamber members left the Chamber office at 4.30pm September 29th and headed to Bluff for the Business After 5. On arriving the bus swung through the gates and drove into a large storage shed on the west side of Southland Cool Stores. |  |
Kevin Frater in his bright coloured vest jumped on board and welcomed his guests to the tour and networking event and sounding like an Air NZ hostess went through the obligatory OSH spiel. He gave an overview on the company and its operations and invited everyone to follow him for the tour including the ‘North South Pole Challenge’. With the help of 4 staff intermingling with the guests, they pointed out the various aspects of the operation and explained where Southland Cool Stores fitted into the synergies with the manufacturing, fishing, produce and export sectors.
Enter freezer store #2 for the North Pole Challenge. This entailed the members in various light wearing attire such as suits and jackets entering through the plastic curtains and walking (not running) to the other end of the freezer around a red pole with North Pole written on it and returning without being frozen to the floor or ice skating into one of the frozen meat packs stacked in the room. The exercise was repeated in freezer #4 also at less than minus 24, around the South Pole, this time with some added light ‘Snow’ falling. This was not a good time to be offered a cold beer. Other parts of the building were also viewed including the 100 year old freezing quarters complete with lift and the still operational original motor room. After walking through the heat of the engineering section we were then invited into the offices where Kevin and his staff played wonderful hosts, in answering questions and supplying drinks and nibbles.
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