The Reid family has had a rich history of working the land in Hawke’s Bay and in food production and processing. In 1992, after many years of working in horticulture and orcharding, founder Alan Reid launched Vegeez, a business specialising in peeling and preparing vegetables for local Hawke’s Bay food service customers. Over the years, Alan built strong relationships with local growers and suppliers and grew the business to support food service clients across the lower North Island.
When Alan Reid unexpectedly passed away in 2003, Glen Reid, Alan Reid’s son, took over as Managing Director with the assistance of Fiona Gunn, Alan Reid’s daughter, as Financial Controller. This started a new chapter for the business.
For the next decade, Glen Reid oversaw the growth of Vegeez with a move into a large factory site on Omahu Road, Hastings and investment in new processing line and freezing capabilities. The business continued to thrive and began exporting produce to Australia.
In 2013, Michael Reid joined the business to support his brother as a Sales and Procurement Manager. He set up and managed the whole fresh produce product line to complement the prepared produce lines for food service customers.
As the company continued to grow with the expansion of exports to Japan, it was time to relocate and rebrand the business.
In 2018, Vegeez relocated to a modern bespoke facility further down Omahu Road. The new state-of-the-art food processing facilities provided enhanced freezing capabilities to include individually quick frozen (IQF) lines, blast freezers, and large-format frozen storage. The move also saw the company rebrand as Reid Produce Co. to acknowledge the heritage of the Reid family name in Hawke’s Bay.
Today, Reid Produce Co. is one of Hawke’s Bay’s largest food processors, delivering fresh and processed fruit and vegetable solutions throughout New Zealand, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Hawkes Bay’s location in the central North Island of New Zealand and its close proximity to the international Port of Napier allow excellent transport links throughout New Zealand and abroad to serve its frozen export markets.
With its established decades-long relationships with local growers and producers, Reid Produce Co. is looking to continue to grow its export trading links throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Recent investment in steam and filler equipment, freezing options and general infrastructure has seen the business expand into bespoke produce solutions tailored to the Asian markets.
In 2020, Reid Produce Co. began exporting kiwifruit product lines to Japan and established trading links to South Korea. More recently, the business invested in Kabocha processing lines, including a puree and diced-cut product to support the markets of Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. We continue to explore new opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. If you have a product in mind, contact us to see how we can help.
