Bells Produce Ltd
Offering speciality foods since 1995
- HISTORY -
Bells Produce Ltd was formed in 1995 between brothers Allan & Nick Bell and cousins Jeffrey Moore & Johnny Reed, when Jeff & John who were growing and retailing produce in Kerikeri moved to Kaitaia to join Allan & Nick on the Pukepoto property to enable expansion and growth as a business.
In 1997 Bells Produce built their new shop in North Road and in 2008 added their butchery and deli. Jeff runs the shop which is open 7 days a week with his growing experience giving him a greater understanding of a fruit and vegetable retail shop. The shop has its own freshly grown produce plus buy in a full range of other fruit and vegetables, also supporting local growers where possible. Along with a butchery with a full range of meat we sell grocery items like milk, bread, butter, eggs, drinks, frozen foods, nuts and spices, convenience food products creating a one stop shop aiming for quality and competitive pricing.
The shop employs 21 fulltime staff, 3 fully qualified butchers, 1 apprentice butcher and 5 part time school aged staff. Together we work as a great team.
Allan, Nick & John work the 351ha market gardening property specialising in early sweetcorn, early kumara, early mandarins, crown pumpkin, buttercup, squash, watermelon and fresh produce for the shop. Our land is flat, north facing, fertile and free draining with our own dam for irrigation.
Kumara is the main crop with 130 acres between early and late crops and on site sheds for kumara storage all year. We have our own grading shed and these are marketed through Delta Produce throughout New Zealand. This gives Delta Produce a 12 month supply of kumaras which strengthens them in the marketplace and also strengthens our business.
Mandarins are also a big part of the business averaging 700 tonne a season marketed under our own BELLS label. We aim to be consistently first in the market with big sweet fruit and these are shipped throughout the country. We use a combination of our own local workers and an extra 30 backpackers when we are picking and packing in April-June and pruning July-August. We have our own full washing and waxing plant for our mandarins.
We have our own 50 tonne truck and trailer to transport our produce to the markets in Auckland and to bring produce back to our shop.
The farm employs 23 fulltime staff and 1 fulltime mechanic. All of our employees are essential to the prosperity of our business and we value experience, reliability and conscientiousness.