For example, he owns a small vineyard in northeast Victoria, where, like all growers, he experiences frost issues around budburst.
At the same time he also runs a logistics business off farm – which includes a client who is a cherry exporter. And no surprise when you find out one of the biggest issues there is product degradation due to rain around harvest causing cherries to split and degrade.
There, Chris could see, was a challenging overlap.
And an opportunity.
“After discussing the market overlap with Duncan Smith of Hydralada (manufacturers of the Tow & Blow frost fan) we have developed a mobile fan rental model for growers,” Chris says.
“Think about it, having a portable fan is a better application than a fixed unit, which may only be switched on for just a few hours a year and is vulnerable to maintenance issues and other problems,” he says.
“So we looked at the Kiwi product Tow & Blow and being able to cover a multitude of locations with differing ripening times means we can offer the rental of ONLYfrostFANS at rates which are highly competitive to the alternatives.
“For example, vine budburst in the Yarra Valley is two and three weeks ahead of the state’s Alpine regions, and cherries only need drying from November onwards, so we can get really good utilisation from our equipment.
“Utilisation which means we can price the fan rental at a lower rate.”
Chris says ONLYfrostFANS has locations in South Australia and Victoria and the company charges a per kilometre mobilisation and demobilisation rate from these locations.
He says the equipment hire is based on a standby charge, calculated weekly.
“Which means the grower only pays for the hours the fan is running – so in a low-frost year we are providing insurance, whereas in frost-prone conditions our value is measured in buds saved,” Chris explains.
“And as with all new businesses, we always welcome customer input and look forward to being a quality service provider to Australia's grapegrowing industry,” he says.
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