The eternal question that faces any business – should I buy essential equipment or is it better to lease – is being answered for Villa Maria Estate’s vineyards by CHEP New Zealand, specialists in equipment pooling systems.

Vineyards are just like any other businesses which need specific equipment for use at particular times of the year.

However, the seasonality of the wine industry and therefore the wide variety of tasks that are only carried out at a certain time of year, such as pruning, harvesting or bottling, readily lends itself to leasing of equipment.

The benefits of leasing equipment from cars to shuttle bins for holding and transporting grapes at vintage are generally accepted by most company accountants.

It keeps cost off the balance sheet and offers the benefit of fully tax-deductible lease payments with no residual value risk.

Apart from the tax benefits of Villa Maria’s decision to lease CHEP 35 and CHEP 47 crates and CHEP’s Shuttle Bin product (pictured at right), also saves time and money. Under the leasing agreement, all cleaning and maintenance of the CHEP equipment is the responsibility of CHEP New Zealand, so that Villa Maria Estate vineyard staff can simply use it and then have it collected when harvest is completed.

This also means Villa Maria doesn’t have to sort out storage space for the equipment on its vineyards during the months when it isn’t in use.

Another benefit from leasing is that as the design of items of equipment is updated and improved, Villa Maria benefits by not having to dispose of its older equipment before buying new and improved versions.

Oliver Powrie, Villa Maria Estate’s viticulturist, says apart from the financial and taxation benefits from leasing some of its vineyard equipment from CHEP, one of the main advantages is the fact that Villa Maria’s demand for the crates and bins in all its grape-growing regions has its peak from mid-March to early April.

“For the rest of the year the equipment is not in use and by leasing this equipment we are able to invest elsewhere.”

Mr Powrie lists a number of practical benefits of the CHEP 35 and 47 crates (pictured right).

• convenient for use as handpick crates for grapes (particularly if going to cool-store)
• the sizes are ideal for transporting fruit and also in palletising
• vents in the side allow for more rapid cooling of fruit in cool-stores
• easily stackable and well-designed for easy handling in the fiel
• strong and robust for what we need
• CHEP offers convenient delivery to vineyard and distribution points nationwide.

CHEP New Zealand’s business development manager, Ray Coventry, says the wine industry is an excellent example of a sector that can benefit greatly from using the sorts of services offered by CHEP − being able to source specialised equipment in large quantities for short periods of time, without having to make any capital outlay.

“Our crates and bins form part of a much wider suite of products which enable CHEP to supply a range of managed, reusable, returnable packaging solutions.

In addition, our UNICON boxes provide a safe and secure method for transporting juice in bulk and our range of pallets facilitate the storage and transportation of goods such as cases of bottled wine both locally and internationally.

Complementing this, our stretch-wrapping machines and film ensure that loads are contained effectively on pallets for both storage and transportation. Our CHEPStretch concept provides for the supply of high specification machines and film with use being charged on a per pallet wrapped basis, again avoiding the need for any capital outlay.