Freezing companies produce own plastic wraps

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 18

Freezing companies produce own plastic wraps

When the export meat season opened this year, South Island meat companies began to make very substantial savings because of a co-operative plastic film manufacturing venture, which used machinery financed by N.Z.I. Finance, Ltd. South Island freezing companies formed a new company, Acme Film, Ltd, which will produce all of the plastic film required by the companies in the South Island plus the two Waitaki N.Z.R. works in the north

Island, says N.Z.I. Financial Corporation. The freezing industry is already a huge user of plastic film for export meat and offals and the trend is towards a growing export market in pre-wrapped meat cuts and shrink-wrapping of carcases. Production is now in full swing with output designed for 1600 tonnes a year, having a value of about S2M. Acme Film, Ltd, is the only works-owned plant of this nature in the country,

but the success of this venture may well lead to similar co-operative ventures between other exporters. The shareholders of Acme Film are Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, 36.9 per cent; Canterbury Frozen Meat Ltd, 18.5 per cent; Southland Frozen Meat Ltd, 15.1 per cent; Alliance Freezing Co. Ltd, 10 per cent; Co-operative Wholesale Ltd, 6.5 per cent; NCF Kaiapoi, 3 per cent; and Mr J. F. Bryant 10 per cent. The initiative for the project came from Waitaki N.Z.R. whose assistant general manager, Mr Alan Galbraith, is managing director of Acme. Waitaki’s purchasing manager, Mr Cliff Prinsep, also visited the U.K. to purchase the plant" which in addition to supplying the various freezing works will also supply Waitaki’s subsidiary, Tekau Knitting, Ltd.