MEDIA RELEASE – 2nd October 2017 - Owner of the popular Cuties brand and largest grower/shipper of navel oranges in the US adopts 64 lanes of Compac’s latest technology
California fresh produce growing, packing and shipping company Sun Pacific has upgraded three pack lines in its Maricopa Cuties packing facility to Compac's Spectrim platform, and purchased a new grader for the Tulare facility, for a total of 64 lanes of Spectrim technology.
Sun Pacific Shippers President Al Bates said, "As our operations continue to grow, maintaining accurate, efficient technology has become essential."
"Sun Pacific has been working with Compac for fifteen years. The Maricopa Cuties facility installed 84 lanes of 200-foot-long sorter between 2003-2005, making it the largest Compac installation in the world. We have been very satisfied with the performance and service of the existing sorter, making it an easy decision to upgrade to Spectrim."
Spectrim enhances the sorting process, putting the right fruit into the right pack without human intervention, improving the accuracy of the grade, consistency of the pack and increasing the throughput and predictability of the packing process.
The increased performance demonstrated by the platform during Mr Bates visits to Spectrim installations in New Zealand, Washington state and California was the key factor in Sun Pacific's investment decision.
“There have been technology advances over the last 15 years that haven’t met my expectations. But over the last 18 months I’ve seen Compac’s technology and I think it’s time to make the transition.”
Sun Pacific owns 30,000 acres and six packing facilities in California, supplying Cuties mandarins, Mighties kiwi and Air Chief table grapes and tomatoes to top US retail and international export customers.
"The move to Spectrim has been a significant investment, but the anticipated increase in efficiency and improvement in quality should more than justify the purchase allowing Sun Pacific to continue as a leader in the industry."
Compac North American General Manager, Ken Moynihan, said building partnerships with customers and providing an evolving service package as the company develops new technology was key to Compac’s growth.
“We supply customers across the world with innovative, intuitive sorting and packing technology. It’s important that we remain ahead of the pack and build strong long-term relationships with our customers and work with them to realize the benefits of the continuously improving technology.”
Spectrim was judged New Zealand’s best technology solution for the agritech sector at the 2017 Hi-Tech Awards. The platform combines easy to use software with the latest in high performance imaging and machine learning technology to give Compac customers a robust fresh produce sorting solution to help protect and enhance their brands.
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About Sun Pacific
Founded in 1969, Sun Pacific® is a leading grower, packer, and shipper of fruit with more than 70 million boxes of fresh fruit sold each year. Headquartered in Pasadena, CA, it is the largest navel orange and kiwifruit grower in North America, owner of the popular Cuties brand and renowned for exceptional quality Air Chief table grapes and tomatoes.
For further information about Sun Pacific, please see www.sunpacific.com
About Compac:
Compac provides integrated post-harvest solutions and services to the global fresh produce industry using the world’s most advanced grading technology. Combining industry leading solutions with award-winning grading platforms like Spectrim, the company’s mission is to enable its customers to improve returns, gain operational efficiencies, and ensure a safe food supply via smart, useable technologies. To achieve this, Compac operates centers of excellence, regional offices and manufacturing locations within the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
For further information about Compac, please see www.compacsort.com
Compac is member of the TOMRA Group that was founded on innovation in 1972 that began with design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers. Today, TOMRA has ~90,000 installations in over 80 markets worldwide and had total revenues of ~6.6 billion NOK in 2016. The Group employs ~3,500 globally, and is publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. (OSE: TOM). The TOMRA Group continues to innovate and provide cutting-edge solutions for optimal resource productivity within two main business areas: Collection Solutions (reverse vending and material recovery) and Sorting Solutions (recycling, mining and food sorting).
For further information about TOMRA, please see www.tomra.com
Issued for Compac by Pead PR
Contact: Jack Wheeler | Pead PR | jack@peadpr.co.nz | +64 21 0233 5803
