Excellence in Business & Innovation Awards
The awards keep on coming for entrepreneurs Wilco and Waverley Klein-Ovink who own The Wrangler Limited.
The Whakatane business won the Excellence in Medium Business award, and were joint winners of the Excellence in Innovation award. This comes just months after winning the top Innovation Award at Fieldays with their latest product invention, Pollensmart.
Pollensmart was designed and manufactured specifically for kiwifruit orchards, as a collaboration between the Wrangler and Opotiki orchardists David Horwood.
The latest awards coincide with the upcoming window for kiwifruit orchard pollination. Pollensmart has been tested and proven to match ‘perfect pollination’ in achieving 88 percent exportable fruit compared with 47 percent for ‘bees only’ pollination. It’s best advantage though is its patented ability to recapture lost pollen, recycling it back into the system to be used again, saving money by not wasting precious pollen.
Pollensmart sources parts from local suppliers where possible and with The Wranglers engineering experience combine to make a product that maximises high-cost pollen, increases yield and reduces costs.
Formerly sharemilkers, the couple’s engineering business began when they designed the first Wrangler for themselves 21 years ago.
The patented Wrangler, which makes hoof care hassle free and safe for both the animal and the farmer, has also won Fieldays Innovation awards and is proudly made right here in Whakatane from galvanised NZ steel. With wet spring weather the catalyst for hoof problems, The Wrangler is the ideal solution to handle animals safely and quickly, ensuring their long-term health and optimum productivity.
The Wrangler also manufactures the ‘Ride Over Gate’ (ROG), ideal for those high-use areas, such as the gateway into the race from the cowshed. The Ride Over Gate automatically lowers when nudged by a motorbike, quad, or farm vehicle – saving precious time and ensuring animals don’t beat the farmer out gate. An alpaca shearing table is another product The Wrangler produces and sells throughout New Zealand through farm stores RD1, Farmlands, Wrightsons and direct. For more information, please contact The Wrangler on 0800 466837, visit www.thewrangler.co.nz or email info@thewrangler.co.nz
