Apples have been grown commercially in New Zealand for over 100 years. New Zealand’s natural environment makes a perfect place for growing apples – cool winters, warm spring, good sunshine hours natural rainfall with a relatively dry growing season.
The Mr Apple story started back in 1980s under the government sanctioned single selling system (the New Zealand Apple and Pear board). The apple growing business has always been very important to New Zealand as our land, air and water are ideal for growing the perfect apples.
In 2001, following deregulation (the government gave up control of apple exporting and at that time), the two largest apple growers merged to form Mr Apple.
Mr Apple is now proud to be part of Scales Corporation. Scales Corporation Limited has its origins dating back to 1897 when it challenged the large British conference shipping. Today, after more than 120 years of operating in the New Zealand corporate scene, it has established itself as a market leader in agribusiness. To find out more about Scales Corp and our sister companies click here...
From small beginnings, we now export 25% of the NZ apple crop around the world.
From the start, we’ve only ever done apples – it’s what we’re passionate about. It sounds crazy – but we do love apples – and we may be a little obsessed. We always believe we can do better – our 5 point promise shows the commitment we have to growing safe, crunchy and delicious apples.
Our 2,000+ strong team works together as one team - that’s why we keep growing perfect apples and delivering the perfect crunch around New Zealand and the world. You could say, we’re a bit picky.
The Leadership Team is responsible for ensuring that everything outlined in Mr Apple’s plan comes to fruition, that all activity is aligned to the company's mission and vision and that the business is on track to achieve its goals.
Andrew has extensive experience in the apple industry. He has been at Mr Apple since it began in 2001, and prior to that, was the General Manager of Mr Apple’s predecessor, Grocorp Pacific Limited. With over three decades experience of all aspects of apple production, Andrew is a CEO who really understands the huge team effort that large scale apple production requires.
Ben leads an experienced team, selling and marketing Mr Apple to over 45-countries worldwide. With over 20-years’ experience in NZ and abroad with import & export sales he joined Mr Apple in 2010 to develop their modern retail business and help build their brand story, positioning, and overall company strategy.
Peter brings a wealth of global multi-asset leadership experience to Mr Apple . He was Group Officer of Strategy and Business Development at Duferco SA., and prior to that spent over a decade at BHP holding senior roles in mining, trading and distribution. Peter joins the primary industry to connect back to his family’s farming and orcharding roots and make a difference. With a combination of operations, commercial and investment experience, Peter is strongly positioned to lead the large number of orchards to grow premium apples every season.
Decades of experience implementing technology solutions in packhouses across the globe have given Allan invaluable insight into packhouse management best practices. As our technical expert, he has already played a pivotal role in Mr Apple’s automation journey. Despite his technical expertise, Allan is firmly focused on our fruit and enjoys leading his teams to meet the quality expectations (perfection!) set out each season for our fruit delivery.
Michael grew up in the horticulture sector, working as a teenager in his family’s orchard/packhouse. Since joining Mr Apple in 2016 he has grown extensive knowledge and experience across a variety of areas in the business. Michael provides a genuine understanding of the entire life cycle of our apples and takes pride in ensuring his teams handle the apples in a way to deliver apple perfection to every customer.
With international experience in all facets of leadership development, change and high performance – Nicola brings a strong and versatile skillset garnered from working across a range of industries, including clinical research, technology, financial services, and high performance sports. Nicola is skilled at embracing diversity in the workplace and building a team culture of inclusivity. Nicola leads the People & Culture team including the Health & Safety & Wellbeing team at Mr Apple.
After many years of agency and entrepreneurial experience in the technical space across Australasia, Aaron relocated to Hawke’s Bay to join Mr Apple in 2021. Aaron’s sense of innovation and intrinsic knowledge of all aspects of IT service management and delivery means that Mr Apple’s drive to continuously innovate is well supported in the technical space.
John has strong financial and treasury experience, gained from senior roles in some of New Zealand’s key organisations; leading the Treasury function for KiwiRail, and Group Reporting and Corporate Finance function for NZ Post. More recently, John was CFO of Brownrigg Agriculture Group, a large privately owned diversified agribusiness. He brings his finance and accounting experience to Mr Apple to lead financial management and drive performance.
Our values ensure we are all working towards the same goal and support the Mr Apple vision whilst shaping its culture.
At Mr Apple we mahi as one. With such a large team, it’s crucial that we work together to uphold our very high standards. We help each other and we support each other. We are one team, we are one community.
We respect each other, our workplace, our customers, the Mr Apple brand and we maintain integrity in all of our decisions and actions.
We are leaders in apple innovation and technology; we recognise that change is a challenge to be benchmark setters, and we embrace it. We seek and nurture creative thinking and big ideas.
We believe that we can set the benchmark only with a diverse team of people and thought. We embrace and celebrate difference. We know that we are so fortunate to have such a richly diverse team and this is reflected in everything we do.
We’re proud to attract and grow people to the best they can be whilst also being part of growing the best apples in the world.
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