From a simple garage operation 30 years ago Bonson is today one of New Zealand's most sophisticated and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, January 31, 2014 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Into its 30th year of operations in West Auckland Bonson(manufacturing) and SavPac (marketing) consolidated its four premises and 60 employees into a 6,000M2, purpose-built facility about a kilometre away in Portage Road, New Lynn. The total site is slightly more than double that and can deal with 10-12 container trucks at a time – and often needs to.

The fact that it was seamlessly undertaken, with little to no disruption to its local and highly-significant Australian customers while the weather gods went walk-about and the formation of the SuperCity was in similar disarray, and ground conditions proved ‘challenging’, speaks volumes for the quiet, professional leadership and resolve of its CEO/owner, David Tsui (pronounced without the ‘s’) and the family-run operation – he prefers that description.

Tsui is quick to praise his bankers, Westpac, who funded the project and the designers, Woodhams Meikle Zhan Architects, who helped with both the integration from four separate locations and in future-proofing it to meet high standards in environmental sustainability and the all-important food hygiene area, while still giving it an air of functionality and personality. Offices, client meeting areas, the dominant production hall and separate warehouse, tool storage area and staff canteen complete the integrated facility.

Details and practical commonsense like a large stand-alone water tank which ensures that the essential sprinkler system will always have water and a separate closed-loop cooling system which recycles rainwater, without the dangers of infection we hear so much about these days, are but two examples of the product of the combined effort which went into the project.

There is much to admire. For a start; it’s a 24/7 operation. More than half the manufactured production is exported. And if you want a comparison; the complex is on par with the state-of-the-art, FoodBowl, out near the airport, when it comes to health and safety, piped, online capability, sustainability, working conditions and good, old-fashioned cleanliness. Or should that be the standards befitting a hospital ICU or high-tech manufacturer?

Which, of course, is what they are: one of the country’s most-sophisticated, designer-built, manufacturing, warehousing and exporting facilities for a wide-range of proprietary and standard design, injection-moulded polypropylene food containers, including dairy foods. The focus on proprietary products, made for the Australian market has recently secured two silver awards from the Packaging Council of Australia, and last year, two of the Bonson yoghurt tubs won the Gold Award from New Zealand Pride In Print.

In 1984, David Tsui, an immigrant from Hong Kong, brought his injection moulding experience to New Zealand against the uncertainty of what might happen when the former colony reverted to Chinese Mainland control. Over time, more of his family would join him and help to create this Kiwi success story. Legend had it that the family dinner table at night was the management committee meeting. Those days are long gone.

“We run our business by traditional ethics which care about people -- with trust, honesty and integrity to build a strong team and long-term partnership. We are passionate in the pursuit of excellence, through continuous improvement of our operating and management systems, and we are dedicated to adding value and to sustainable growth through our commitment to effective and responsible resource management.”

Today the company monitors environmental and personnel KPIs, such as power and water consumption, staff retention and employee training and development hours.

“Bonson, through our SavPac operation also looks to develop a range of biodegradable products, and we try to eliminate unnecessary by-products or waste and that everything we do is done as efficiently as possible. That’s both today and the future.

“No, it hasn’t been easy. English was a second language for us and we had to find out the hard way where our skills could best be used. That said, New Zealand has been very good for us,” says Tsui, who now has the facilities and the tools to drive both companies to even greater success.

For competitive reasons, details on the manufacturing processes have to be kept to a minimum, but if you wanted to see 20-odd of the very latest injection moulding process machines from Japan and Germany purring away in a monster facility, with room to double up, and some more, this is the place to be.

But first you would have to observe the stringent grey, blue, red zone health and safety requirements to the fullest extent – and bear in mind, there is no food processing on site – because that is the way Tsui and his customers like it. So you, and everyone else, conforms

The industry trend is to multi-cavity moulds, which in turn get bigger by the job. A five-tonne crane, high in this specially cooled and pressure controlled facility, is available for easing the mould changes. Once the machine is back online, there is as little human contact as possible.

Tsui points out that the manufacturing hall is one continuous slab, without a crack (and this in Auckland?) – so there is no space for dust to creep into. Likewise at the point where the walls join the floor. While he talks about productivity and optimisation a great deal, you suspect ‘perfection’ and innovation – the essential ingredient in the company’s sustained success -- is really what he is all about.

Clearly that appeals to its Australian business partner, Cryovac, through which it supplies key customer, Woolworths. And that company is known for its high standards in the international food industry, so it is both a major customer and a good reference point for others in the food business looking to Bonson to bring its technical skills and design innovation to bear in solving their presentation and packaging challenge.

It is just on a decade since the first export container left for Australia.

Tsui is not looking to conquer the world and is content to stick with what the company is good at – injection-moulded quality, food containers and focussing on the Australasian market. In reality, of course, Bonson is playing in the global market, because it is having to beat competitors from Asia on quality, price, reliability and increasingly, its ability to innovate.

Tsui is adamant that New Zealand can compete in virtually any market in the world if it focuses on quality and innovation.

“We have to be leaders, concentrating on design, innovation, quality and consistency. That’s what successful companies the world over want from their manufacturers. That’s where we must focus and not be concerned about being a ‘lowest cost producer’ – that’s not the market we will ever be in.

“The best clients want the very best products at a reasonable price. They know they won’t get the best products at the lowest possible price.”

Bonson has come a long way from its early days of supplying Chinese takeaways in Auckland to serving clients in food service, retail and food manufacturing sectors across New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific region. Originally founded as a partnership, the company was incorporated some 10 years later as Bonson Industrial Co. Ltd.

Technology plays a huge part in this manufacturing plant. Polypropylene product is delivered to a silo facility, before being pumped across to day bins matching the jobs. From there is it pressure-pumped to the production lines.

Everything about the place screams ‘next stage’. We’ve only seen the beginning of the Bonson story. I meet David hurriedly on a Friday afternoon, because he is shortly off to Australia to catch-up with clients. Are the employees coasting to the week’s end? No, a large group of them are being put through their paces on the benefits of continuous performance improvement and growth by Danie Vermeulen of the Kaizen Institute.

As you would expect the walls in the new premises and the website are adorned with ISO-9001:2000; ISO 14001; AS-NZS 4801; HACCP ratings and more. This is an operation that every Kiwi-born and –immigrated can be enormously proud of. Its success is proven over the years and its very simple vision remains constant: “Australasia’s First Choice for Food Packaging Solutions”. I’d say they are exactly that.

Source: MSCNewsWire

Max Farndale
Manufacturers Success Connection
64 6 870 4506
email us here

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.