Nav grew up in Katikati and his 16 year career in the Kiwifruit industry started as an after school job. He studied Business Management after college and not surprisingly, Nav worked his way up within the industry quickly and has held management roles from the ripe age of just 21 years old.

One of his biggest achievements so far is turning around a 3 million tray site to one that was pumping out 8 million in the space of just six years. He brings a wealth of experience to us here at Hume Pack N Cool.

When he’s not working, Nav enjoys playing golf and cricket as well as spending time with his wife and two boys.

Audrey is a born and bred East Coast girl who grew up in Matawai near Gisborne. Her career started off in customer service roles and due to a change in her partner’s work circumstances, relocated to the Bay of Plenty. It was at this time that she tried her hand in the kiwifruit industry, starting in the packhouse, moving on to Kiwigreen Pest Monitoring and finally finding her niche in Quality. One of Audrey’s favourite parts of being a manager is watching people develop their skillset and start elevating their career in the kiwifruit industry, just as she has done.

Audrey has three beautiful grand daughters to her one son and loves to spend time with them when she’s away from the packhouse. She’s also quite fond of getting in a round of two or golf in the weekends as well.

Chris joined the kiwifruit industry in 2008 after completing his studies towards a BSc majoring in Horticultural Science at Massey University. His first role in kiwifruit was at a postharvest supplier in a technical support role looking after maturity testing and the selection and monitoring of crops for controlled atmosphere storage, as well as carrying out a range of on-orchard technical activities.

In 2012 he joined Kiwifruit Vine Health as an Operations Advisor, providing advice to growers on the management of Psa on their orchards and helping to develop a range of best practice documents.

Following this, Chris returned to post-harvest in 2015 as an Operations Technical Manager, with a primary focus on optical and predictive sorting of fruit, as well as working with production teams to help maximise packhouse throughput and working on a range of automation projects. During this time, Chris also spent two years overseeing blueberry packing operations.

Chris is a previous winner of both the Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower and New Zealand Young Fruit Grower of the Year competitions.

I have been at Hume Pack-N-Cool Ltd for over 19 years and have worked in a variety of positions, learning about packhouse operations and processes.

I enjoy my role as Coolstore Technical Manager, working with the team to continually improve fruit storability. Outside of work, I am a volunteer fireman with the Katikati Fire Brigade which keeps me active and involved in the community.