Kiwifruit and kiwi tech; Frogparking installs at Zespri Global Headquarters

It’s one of Frogparking’s smallest hardware deployments, but one that’s having a large impact and solving problems using innovative technology at the headquarters of Zespri International Limited, the three billion dollar co-operative that’s the world’s largest exporter of kiwifruit.

Zespri International Limited is an iconic New Zealand brand, selling kiwifruit in more than 50 countries. They work with around 2,800 New Zealand and 1,500 international growers and post-harvest companies to source the best-quality Zespri Kiwifruit to sell around the world through their distribution partners to wholesale and retail customers.

In response to their rapid growth, Zespri built a new, 8,000m2/86,111 sq ft global headquarters in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand to be the new home for their powerhouse team. One of the main goals with the new headquarters was to create an environment where staff could have a smooth and enjoyable work day, could collaborate ideas, and be agile in their daily work.

The new building features an underground parking structure for staff to securely park their vehicles during work hours.

A challenge was presented owing to the design of the parking lot, being a single entry, with a combined down/up ramp. During the construction phase, Zespri was concerned with the safety implications of drivers potentially reversing into the path of other traffic moving down the ramp after seeing no available spaces.

To deliver a safer and easier journey for everyone, Zespri wanted an automated solution to display the availability of parking in the underground lot, to stop drivers from unnecessarily driving down the ramp and then unsafely reversing back up if there were no parking spaces available.

The Solution:

To make it safer and easier for staff to find a parking space, Frogparking’s laser indoor sensors, LED guidance lights, and dynamic wayfinding signage at the top of the ramp was installed to direct drivers to an available parking space.

Frogparking also installed dynamic monument and horizontal signs to indicate availability to drivers at the entrance and at the bottom of the ramp. These two signs remove the guess-work from finding a parking space and encourage or discourage drivers from entering the lot if there is availability or signs display full.

A monument sign is located at the top of the ramp displaying overall lot availability and a horizontal sign at the bottom of the ramp to show the number of spaces available to the left or right.

Zespri is also using parking data, provided by Frogparking’s cloud-based reporting suite, to improve operations. Parking managers were able to use accurate occupancy, utilisation, and duration data to identify peak days and times for parking lot use.

What they said:

Chris Teague, Facilities Project Manager, from Zespri International, who ran the competitive tender process said:

“We wanted an automated system to intuitively display availability in the underground parking lot for staff at our global headquarters in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. We ran a competitive process and were impressed with Frogparking’s offering; robust and accurate sensors, easy to follow guidance lights, super bright and clear signs, and a great team who are responsive and easy to deal with.

“Since installing it, we’ve been impressed with the plug-and-play, no-fuss, and hassle-free nature of the system. It was installed quickly, the Frogparking team commissioned it, and we haven’t had to think about it since, because it just works,”.

Conclusion:

Whether it’s a 10,000 parking asset or smaller, Frogparking’s technology can solve problems with innovative technology, as we did at Zespri’s Headquarters.

Talk to us today about how we can do the same at your parking lot today.