KARSTEN FRUIT
KARSTEN FRUIT
World Leaders In Quality Fruit
Production and Export PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder
The Karsten Group is one of South Africa’s leading agricultural businesses, specialising in table grapes, and is respected locally and internationally for the excellence of its products, cutting edge innovation and integrity in its dealings with staff, service providers and customers.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: AGRICULTURE
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The history of the Karsten Group is rich and diverse, one of continual growth and expansion. Piet and Babsie Karsten initially founded their family farming business back in 1968 on Kanoneiland west of Upington along the Orange River. Years later, in 1980, they bought the Roepersfontein farm, which has gone on to become the Karsten Group’s headquarters, and remains so to this day. Today, fruit is grown on several farms along a 250 kilometre stretch of the Orange River, in South Africa’s most important grape growing region. Piet Karsten sums up the philosophy behind the Group’s many successes as such: “Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.” Since the landmark acquisition in 1980, several further key additions have gone on to comprise the Karsten Group story. In 2000, taking on a deciduous fruit and vegetable farm
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in Ceres in the Western Cape has allowed the Group to diversify its product range substantially, and to focus primarily on apples, pears and cherries. In 2004, meanwhile, New Vision Fruit was established by the Group as its dedicated export and logistics arm. The company plans, coordinates and executes the Karsten Group’s fruit marketing, as well as fruit committed to the company by external suppliers and partners. These arms were joined more recently, in 2007, by Horizon Fruits, established to take care of the logistical services, in addition to sharing some of the marketing functions of New Vision Fruit. Having its own logistics company means that the Group has complete control of the products in the supply chain, and as a result quality is not compromised on the at times arduous journey from the farms in South Africa to its clients across the world. The volume of containers handled has grown from 1450 per year in its first year of operations in 2007 to its present total of 7500. The establishment in 2005 of Karsten UK as the distribution service
provider of The Karsten Group in the United Kingdom and Europe has allowed the Group to expand its footprint yet further. It looks to effectuate a seamless logistical operation to transport the fruit from where it is harvested in South Africa, to the customer base throughout the UK. Karsten UK’s primary facility is located at Bowman’s Chilled Stores, a cold storage facility in Spalding, Lincolnshire, and here it is responsible for receiving, storing and distributing the product according to marketing requirements, whilst also offering re-packing services. In 2012, the Karsten Group acquired table grape farms in the Western Cape as part of their strategy to broaden their marketing potential. Despite boasting a product offering which also includes citrus, top fruit, stone fruit and dates, table grapes are by far the company’s headline product, and in an effort to lengthen the season it has been seeking expansion both into the Western Cape and other grape growing regions. “The Western Cape is becoming a bigger part of the production,” says Karsten. “We needed to extend production to keep our customer base happy. 70% of our production is from the Northern Cape, but we also grow in Piketberg, the Hex River and Robertson too. We want to extend the season as long as possible but there are obviously some limitations; you can’t go much earlier because you get issues with quality and production. We start at beginning/middle of November and we can supply white grapes till the end of March, and red right into May.” The Karsten Group’s frequent expansion of all aspects of its business is a clear aspect of its plans for domination. In 2013 New Vision Fruit B.V. in Rotterdam was established to supply and deliver services to Europe, while in partnership with other South African companies it has also established a marketing structure, Hydix, to promote and market its products in the Far and Middle East.
KARSTEN FRUIT
Subsequently, the Karsten Group now has a strong logistics and international marketing structure with companies and offices in London, Rotterdam and Cape Town, as well as being backed by companies in the Northern and Western Cape. “Our preference is to work as directly as possible with the customer,” explains Karsten, hence the need of so many different subsidiaries to serve in all corners of the globe. “There is a lot of risk for us as well as for the customer, but also there are a lot of smaller customers who need a bit more personal attention, which is hard to do from South Africa. “We deal with other growers to bring down the cost of supply, as the value is in the product.,” he goes on. “When you rely on other service providers there is more risk involved so we prefer to do it ourselves. Service
provision is not a big driver for making profit, it is about making profit on the farms and if you don’t have the right supply chain then you won’t succeed. It is not about the extra Euro you can make, it is about the Euros you don’t lose along the way.” It makes perfect sense for the Karsten Group to maximise the scope of its grape operations, given that it is renowned for supplying a range of the best seedless table grape varieties available in the world. As such, the introduction of a twin-lane heat sealing machine, capable of sealing up to 200 packs a minute, marked a significant upgrade from flow wrapping to heat-sealed punnets and laid down a clear marker as to the company’s intentions to remain at the top of its field. The introduction of the tray sealing machine, manufactured by
Packaging Automation (PA), will also serve to reduce costs and bring notable environmental benefits by making the packaging more widely recyclable, while reducing unplanned downtime by up to 90% through continued operation during repairs, routine maintenance and breakdowns. Bernie Niehaus, packaging and equipment manager from Karsten UK, concluded: “Choosing PA was an easy decision, we had to make our film work. The machine is very easy to use and PA went out of their way to get us the setup we needed to make it simple.”
KARSTEN FRUIT +27 (021) 847 2200 info@karstenfp.co.za www.karsten.co.za
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Issue No.61
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JEGIE PADMANATHAN:
People Are The Power
of Bidvest Prestige ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
CCI South Africa / Thebe Tourism Group / RPP Developments / ALG Estates
A S F E AT U R E D I N
ENTERPRISE AFRICA
AUGUST 2017