Producing the freshest quality juice year round is a task that Grove Juice takes seriously, ensuring every single orange is picked and grown right here in Australia. Food & Beverage Industry News reports.
Australian owned and operated family business, Grove Juice is the largest vertically integrated agri-manufacturing business with large scale Valencia production, high volume raw juice extraction and bottling factory.
Owner Dick Estens AO, together with the Estens and Quinn families, is proud to continue run the Grove Juice business that has been delivering fresh Australian juice to Australians since 1969.
The company was founded on a number of principles and values which still to this day underpin everything they do in delivering the best quality fruit to the Australian consumer.
Grove Juice has purpose built orange groves in New South Wales in addition to an extensive network of contracted farmers along the east coast.
Located in key areas with optimal soil conditions and temperatures, the company produces or procures over 17 different varieties of oranges, apples, mandarins, lemons and limes, with pineapple and ginger supplied from Queensland farms.
It’s the scale of this production and the balance of its own supply network that allows Grove Juice to pick, squeeze, bottle and ship its orange juice within as little as 48 hours of the fruit being picked.
Despite the growth and success of the company, the foundation of values and principles are just as important now as they were when Dick joined the company all those years ago.
It’s this foundation that has allowed the organisation to give back to their communities in which they operate such as partnerships with the Aboriginal Employment Strategy (AES), Australian Himalayan Foundation, Foodbank, Second Bite, Moree on a Plate, Rotary Mt Gravatt, Variety Club of NSW, and the Yamma Ganu Gallery.
The company has also launched initiatives such as their Limited Edition Indigenous Art Series range, with percentage of sales from every 2 litre bottle going to each artist for their work, the Warlukurlangu Art Centre community projects, and to Indigenous employment through the AES.
Over the years Grove Juice has grown considerably with over 150 staff across their sites. With a commitment to the customer on fruit quality and supply, the company has ambitions to see over 500,000 Valencia trees planted by 2030.
Testament to the quality and availability of Grove Juice is the national accessibility in the market.
Grove Juice is available in Woolworths, Coles, IGA, Drakes, Spar and Foodworks and supply arrangements for Boost Juice in grocery stores.
With such an incredible passion for what they do and care in quality of what they produce, Grove Juice is testament to their promise of delivering Better by Nature.
Supplying fresh juice year round on such a scale requires key partners in the supply chain. For several years Scully RSV has been supplying vehicles to Grove to supply juice to key locations in Eastern Australia and its extensive nationwide network makes it easy for Grove.
Greg Quinn, Grove Juice general manager, said partnerships were critical for the company’s success and Scully RSV had proved to be a valuable one.
“We use a lot of their refrigerated trucks which is important when you move natural fresh juice around and for us as a business, we want to produce the best product and to do that there are a lot of partnerships within our supply chain which helps us to the perfection in a bottle we strive for. Scully are a part of that,” he said.
“That helps us maintain quality of product, movement of product.
“We can’t attest to be the best at everything, so we partner up with those who are reliable, trusted, and good
at what they do. And Scully is a good example of that.”
Quinn said the strong community spirit both companies have, which align, was an-other reason Scully RSV were the sort of partner they wanted.
“They exceeded our expectations. For us when we are dealing with a consumer product the supply chain must be perfect or it can have a detrimental impact on the business.
“They are local, which we like to support, they are reliable, trusted, and easy to do business with. They aren’t just good at what they do but they are great to work with.”
Originating in Brisbane, Scully RSV provides services Australia wide through key locations in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville and Perth.
“That’s the secret to our success, is the ability to grow with and for our customers,” said Scully RSV CEO, Andrew McKenzie.
“We have a breadth of network offering that is comparable to other large generalist truck and trailer rental companies, but we are also very specialist in our offerings.
“We have a deep portfolio of products we can offer our customers. If a customer creates a new product or wins a new contract, whatever it might be in their business, they know that they can rely on Scully to not only have the refrigerated asset they need, but also the national support to support them.”
McKenzie said the company recognises the time constraints customers work under and the importance of being able to supply solutions quickly.
“Our job is to have vehicles available right now, when our customers need them, that is our most important job,” he said.
“We have offerings which range from a one pallet ute right up to a 14 pallet jumbo trucks, which is your high volume 14 pallet truck.
“From there we move into trailers, and we have an extensive range from 16 pallet bogey axel distribution vans right through to 22 or 24 road train rated multi-temp trailers that you see operating in road train configurations in outback Australia.”
According to McKenzie, being a valuable cog in the industrial wheel is about more than just asset availability.
“It’s also the other big part of what we offer is surety,” he said.
The need for accurate tracking of cold chain products is another area of extreme importance for Scully RSV and its customers, and continued innovations around tracking technology are being utilised successfully by the company.
“And as laws become more harmonised and stricter, and technology allows us to better manage that process, the better off the industry will be,” he added.
“We continue to invest a lot of money into helping ensure our customers have data available to them which allows them to prove and manage the temperature of product as it goes into one of the trucks.”
Expert level knowledge in the requirements around cold chain logistics is also a key to the success Scully RSV has experienced.
Scully RSV has been servicing the Australian food and beverage cold chain sector for three decades and in that time the company has built up a strong reputation for being able to provide customers with an extensive portfolio of truck and trailer options.