The Ballance service centre in Hastings is back in full swing after a $500,000 upgrade designed to speed up its load-out times for carriers and spreaders.
The modernised site now also houses a wide product range for its subsidiary company Summit Quinphos, which has relocated from its Orchard Rd site.
The revamped service centre has an extra despatch lane, enabling the operators to load trucks and spreaders twice as fast. This could allow spreaders, for example, to handle an extra load in the mornings and another extra load in the afternoons.
‘The big gain is the second hopper,’ explains service centre manager Errol Gore. ‘We can be filling the second hopper while the first is being unloaded, rather than having to wait as in the past. It will make a huge difference to our customer service.’
Everything is high-tech, with the operator using a touch screen to route the products along a network of conveyors to the desired load-out point.
‘We can handle up to three tonnes a minute with the new machinery. That’s going to let us load a 30-tonne truck in about 10 minutes. The drivers will love it, and it will enable our farmers and orchardists to apply more of our fertiliser products in the one day.
‘Having Summit Quinphos and Ballance products available from the one site will also suit carriers and spreaders.’
Errol is working alongside Richard Mansfield, who has relocated to the 1172 Maraekakaho Rd co-share operation from the now closed Summit Quinphos site.
Local horticulturalists use a lot of bagged product from the service centre, and this too has been sped up. An automated one-tonne and half-tonne conveyor line has been installed that bags special mix product through a much finer 8mm screen, which will appeal equally to the cropping market. Bagged product is blended twice to provide the superior mix favoured by the cropping market.
Four additional bulk storage bins have been incorporated into the layout, with three extra external access points for ease of access. The site has a weighbridge as well, so trucks can be side loaded using the heavy loader.
‘Richard and I are stoked to have such a sophisticated operation at our fingertips. Ballance directors have responded to the surge in demand for our products in the region, and have suggested that further expansion may yet be considered to meet the growing demand for bagged product.’
16 August 2010
