October 20, 2022

Hello all,

Here is a short State of the Nation for WineWorks Hawke’s Bay about our capacity constraints and some prospective solutions on the horizon.

Capacity Constraints:

The higher than usual demand means we’re all exercising as much flexibility as possible with our team and equipment, to meet the short term requirements. Everybody’s diligently working together, looking at ways to increase volume on the bottling lines.

We are currently onboarding new team members to build up resources to accommodate our growth. With more staff, we will be able to review the shift structures and stretch our current working hours in the week. This is a long game, but we are determined to optimise our facilities to accommodate your collective needs.

Warehousing growth:

While we are processing more wine, we also need to store more of it. We are full of finished goods ready to go to your market. We are in the early but serious stage of scoping and planning a new warehouse at WineWorks Hawkes Bay to meet forecast growth. Our team is excited about this development which further strengthens our commitment to the wine industry.

Sparkling growth:

To enhance our position as the WineWorks sparkling centre of excellence, we are going to increase our tank capacity allowing us to handle more Charmat manufacturing. Watch this space and tanks for your patience!

In conjunction with the sparkling tank review, we are also reviewing our filling capacity and considering various options to increase the speeds of our current fillers, and/or add an additional filler to our arsenal.

It’s full noise here in The Bay, but it’s an exciting time to be in!

Cheers,

Steve White
Hawke’s Bay General Manager