Compac Sales Director, Dave Buys, said the NZD$12.5 million deal was a milestone achievement not only because it was the biggest contract the company had signed but also because it was a turn-key project – a future business direction for the company.

Based 120 kms north of Santiago, Propal is currently Chile’s largest avocado producer and second largest lemon producer. The company has been a Compac customer since 2002.

In 2007, Propal called for tenders to upgrade its existing four hectare plant in order into meet projected annual growth of 17 per cent.

“Compac won the tender based on a number of factors including the strength of the company’s ability to integrate technology and provide a complete solution, its patented Vision technology which was viewed as superior to any other competitor offering and follow up service.

“Under the deal, Compac will carry out a major upgrade and expansion of Propal’s existing equipment and facilities,” Dave said.

“We’ll be putting in place a complete packhouse solution covering all product handling equipment from fruit arrival and grading right through to sorting, packing and dispatch.”

Included in the array of equipment being supplied by Compac is a 10 lane pre-sorting line with 5 independent packing lines which will be used to grade avocados, lemons, mandarins and kiwifruit.

“The whole line is capable of grading, sorting and packing 80 bins of avocados every hour or approximately 2,600 pieces of fruit per minute.”

As part of the upgrade, Compac will also install a suite of smart software capable of tracing all produce and Compac’s own Vision systems which can detect external defects on produce plus sort fruit by size, weight, shape and colour.

“For the Propal contract, we further refined our software so that it could detect blemishes in avocados – a world first innovation as up to then it had been used primarily for apples.

“A large Vision cabinet will house 40 cameras across the 10 lanes inspecting produce and taking at least 60 images of each piece of fruit as it goes past – it’s impressive technology developed right here in New Zealand.”

The awarding of the contract caps off 18 months of negotiations by Compac’s Latin American sales team and another successful year for the company. The deal was achieved on the back of a NZD$4.5 million contract signed earlier this year with fresh fruit producer and exporter Frusan in Chile. As part of that package, Compac installed at Frusan its cutting edge blemish sorting system - InVision 9000CIR.

Since it was established in 1984, Compac has gone from strength-to-strength. Over the past five years, the Compac Group has more than doubled annual turnover.

“We’ve been fortunate to harness the skills and expertise of some of the country’s most talented engineers and become a truly inventive company. As a result, we’ve been able to take that kiwi ingenuity out into the world and become a global expert in and supplier of produce handling solutions,” Compac General Manager Bob Shaw said.

Bob said turnkey projects are a key future direction for Compac particularly as it provides the company with a way of showcasing the effectiveness of its technology and strength of key partnerships.

Despite the global economic downturn the company is enjoying solid growth with strong sales currently coming from southern hemisphere countries.

Up until early 2007, Compac was represented in Chile by an agent. With the assistance of New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the company established its own headquarters in Uruguay and sales offices in Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

“Aside from our proven success within that region and globally, having our own local manager on the ground in Chile played a key part in securing the Propal contract,” Dave Buys said.

Final assembly of some components destined for Propal will be done at Compac’s factory in Uruguay. Installation and commissioning will be carried out by teams of New Zealand and Uruguay-based engineers and technicians.

The refitted plant is expected to be fully operational by July 2009.