Kapiris Bros, recipient of the NORTH Link Chairman’s Award.
Businesses, tertiary education institutes, local governments & community organisations from the North of Melbourne gathered for the Northern Business Achievement Awards (NBAA) Grand Finale breakfast for 2016.
The event was attended by over 200 people & coincided with NORTH Links’s vision of fostering economic development/growth as well as promote Melbourne’s Northern region.
For only the third time in eight years the Chairman’s Award was presented, Kapiris Bros received the 2016 NORTH Link Chairman’s Award for excellence across a wide range of categories including customer service, high level of training for their staff at all levels, innovation in their quality control, software solutions, community engagement & waste neutrality. Kapiris Bros was 1 of the 12 businesses to be nominated for the award.
Kapiris Bros, Director of Sales and Marketing, Steve Tsakoumakis was humbled and excited that Kapiris Bros was firstly nominated & secondly received such an exclusive award amongst many worthy businesses.
“Kapiris Bros transition into Melbourne’s North has been great for us, we’ve been embraced with open arms. This award is a testimony to the hard work & passion of all Kapiris Bros employees towards one common goal of supplying premium produce from our family to yours”, he said.
The NBAA was created by NORTH Link with initial funding from the Victorian Government & the support of the Cities of Banyule, Darebin, Hume, Moreland, Whittlesea & the Shire of Nillumbik.
Conference Website – http://www.nbaa.com.au
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Kapiris Bros nominated for NBAA Business of The Year Award.
Recently, Kapiris Bros was invited to the NBAA Business Networking & Awards Breakfast, where small to medium enterprises of Melbourne’s North, networked and recognised business achievements.
Apart of the speaking panel, Director of Sales and Marketing, Steve Tsakoumakis presented on Kapiris Bros as an enterprise and elaborated upon the produce that Kapiris Bros grow along with the farms and distribution channels that it cherishes.
Just over 12 months ago Kapiris Bros moved to Epping, calling Melbourne’s North their new home and is extremely proud to do so. Further contributing to this pride was the honour of being awarded a nomination for the NBAA Business of The Year Award.
The award itself serves to distinguish businesses that contribute to Melbourne’s North, the wider community and the development of employability for the next generation of leaders.
The Grand Final Breakfast will be held on Thursday 1st December, where the awards will be announced and distributed to their respective recipients.
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Kapiris Bros, QLD Pride Tomatoes win first prize
THE sun has shone on Australia’s top tomatoes. Kapiris Bros, QLD Pride Tomatoes have beaten growers from Nth Queensland districts to be awarded the Grand Champion Ribbon at the 2016 Bowen Show. The award-winning Gourmet variety, sold in all major retail outlets across Australia, scored a near perfect score.
QLD Pride Harvest Officer Clayton Eatough said, “QLD Pride Tomatoes had placed first before, but this year’s ribbon was special. We’re super excited as it’s been a fairly tough start to the season for tomatoes.”
Exhibit organisers, reported that the judges commented that the QLD Pride tomatoes were firm, bursting with flavour and looked great. “There’s nothing like biting into a fresh, juicy, fully ripened tomato, right out of the field.”
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Kapiris Bros moves
into
State-of-the-Art Facility
Starting out and continuing as farmers and growers, we’ve seen both our farms and our business organisation grow. Originally at the Queen Victoria Market in 1958, later moving to the Footscray Road Market in 1969, and now relocating to Epping, this has been a story worth telling! The transformation has been an incredible journey.
While continuing to be a leader in farming, being a leading wholesaler and supplier into the food service sector, Kapiris Bros enjoys the luxury of growing produce, managing the produce along the entire cold chain knowing the end result will be consumption of fresh premium produce for all Australian families.
The result of strong, ongoing growth, the company’s new 4,200 square meter, energy efficient facility will accommodate Kapiris Bros’s corporate employees, as well as an integrated warehouse and packing facility.
Some of the special features of the new facility are 7 cool rooms with 1080 pallet capacity (equivalent of 49 semi-trailers), dispatch area of 204 pallets (equivalent of 3 semi-trailers), and total storage capacity within the facility of 1,214 pallets which includes chiller room and future fumigation areas.
The packing floor space is 1,500 square meters. In addition, there are various flow wrapping lines that have the ability to pack 1 Kg punnets, 6 pack trays and tri-colour capsicums.
Prepacking lines that have the ability to pack produce into bags of various sizes and configurations from 1 Kg bag to pillow packs. All packing lines have automatic check weighers and metal detection to adhere to SQF standards.
Being across from the Melbourne Wholesale Market in Epping, Kapiris Bros is placed extremely close to one of our key customer channels. With being in close proximity of this channel, this provides better customer service along with meeting facilities and providing fresher produce faster. As a result, this will continue to build the company into a leading supplier of Tomatoes, Capsicums and Rockmelons.
Kapiris Bros has taken further advantage of this move by bringing its various divisions together into one new facility. The benefits of having all teams in-house, is that team members can easily coordinate with each other, having an immediate positive impact on efficiency and creativity. In return, this will result in best in-class service to our wide range of customers.
The new office employs state of the art energy efficient materials and equipment, in keeping with the company’s values of being socially and environmentally responsible.
The facility showcases energy efficient cool-rooms, again underscoring the company’s continued commitment to improving the environment through sustainability.
We’ve developed a proven growth platform that has been a powerful influence in the produce industry. Our new flagship facility will facilitate that growth and support further expansion moving forward.
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KB attends PMA Fresh Connections
Conference, Melbourne 2015
(Left to Right) Steve Tsakoumakis, Kerry Day, Geoffrey Stor
(Left to Right) Harry Kapiris, Steve Tsakoumakis, John Kapiris, Peter Wilson, Trevor Wilson, Paul Aher
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Kapiris Bros Speaks At
City of Whittlesea
Kapiris Bros was invited to present at the Council’s Economic Development Team’s breakfast meeting this month. Kapiris Bros presented its view on the economic opportunities relating from a produce grower, distributor and wholesaler perspective.
Discussions centered around the many reasons Kapiris Bros chose to move their corporate office and facilities to the City of Whittlesea. Other conversations included opportunities Kapiris Bros foresees by operating their produce headquarters and wholesale distributor business at the Epping location.
Kapiris Bros was honoured to be a vital panel member discussing these important topics.
COUNCIL’S MEDIA RELEASE – 18 DECEMBER, 2014 – LINK IS: HTTPS://WWW.WHITTLESEA.VIC.GOV.AU/YOUR-COUNCIL/NEWS-AND-PUBLICATIONS/NEWS/CITY-OF-WHITTLESEA-IS-OPEN-FOR-BUSINESS
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Exciting New Product
Fresh Salad Pack To Go!
Kapiris Bros and Fragapane farms have partnered together to create a new fresh produce line that meets the needs of Australian health conscious, busy families.
The salad pack contains premium quality Australian grown produce. This complete convenient pack is ready to go and includes everything you need to easily create a fresh, healthy salad. Simply Grab and Go . . . for a delicious salad anytime!
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KB Teams Up with MasterChef Winner,
Brent Owens
Brent Owens creates a video using KB’s Australian Fresh Produce!
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Stage 4 “Fit Out” Complete
For
Administration & Warehouse
Progress continues to be made on the construction of the new KB facility in Epping. The fit out of the Administration and Warehouse areas has been largely completed as you can see from the pictures.
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Stage 3 completed Kapiris Bros new facility on it’s way to lock up!
Significant progress has been made moving the new Kapiris Bros facility close to lock up stage. As illustrated below the external components of the facility have now been completed with the next focus targeting the internal components of the 3,800 m² facility, work has started on the fit out of key areas such as the cool rooms, fumigation chambers, unloading docks, pre-packing area and offices.
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2014 Agno harvest released!
We are excited to announce that our 2014 Harvest of Agno extra virgin olive oil has been released.
The 2014 Agno harvest is an outstanding extra virgin olive oil, full of freshness with an incredibly clean and crisp palate. This vibrant green oil is intense and pure in its complexity. The flavour persist on the palate, delivering an extremely flavoursome oil with hint of bitterness.
This uniquely Australian oil is ideal to use liberally with your favourite foods.
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Stage 2 completed at Kapiris Bros new facility!
Construction on the new 3,800 m² Kapiris Bros building is now well underway. The exterior walls, fittings and floors are now in place and the super structure is taking shape. Stage 3 has begun which will see the construction of cool room facilities along with the office area being created.
This new state of the art facility will modernise the Kapiris Bros operation and will provide huge efficiencies with a facus on quality, traceability and workflow. It has been designed with the environment in mind; exceeding all current requirements turning it into an advance facility ready to meet the needs of the future.
We look forward to the completion of our new headquarters as it will bring Kapiris Bros into the next phase of our company’s growth.
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KB Breaks Ground!
With 7.2 thousand square meter property that will contain a 3,800 square meter building, the two story facility will showcase the strength of the KB’s staff, warehouse and packing facility. The office space will have the state-of-art technology and ergonomically designed workstations for total efficient working environment.
In addition to these enhancements, the warehouse space has been designed for the excellent work flow and contains energy efficient lighting and air conditioning units.
This expansion will allow KB to focus on the high quality of product which will further the growth and vision of our business into the next century.
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KB proud to be a premium partner of the Living Without Limits Foundation
The Living Without Limits Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation committed to simply doing something positive to help children impaired in some capacity.
The Foundation works extremely hard to raise funds for very specific purposes to fund critical research, support various children’s organisations, assist in developmental practices and purchase important equipment. Living Without Limits Foundation seeks to help all children to overcome challenges and achieve their goals and maximise their potential.
The Living Without Limits Foundation Gala dinner spectacular was held on the 10th of August at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide. The gala event was a huge success not only bringing awareness to the need of children that are impaired in some capacity but also to recognise the support groups required to help these children overcome their daily challenges.
Dedicate business leaders from around Australia attended the Gala dinner which raised in the vicinity of $86,000 for the charity. We encourage you to support Living Without Limits Foundation in making a difference.
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Kapiris Bros guest speaker at the 20th Australian HACCP Conference
Quality food supply in times of individual and community crisis
Supporting partners of FOODBANK discussed the issues around maintaining food quality and safety in disaster and emergency response, such as damaged infrastructure, disrupted transportation links, agency co-ordination.
Panel: Greg Warren, General Manager, Food Bank Australia
Antonio Moroni, Quality Manager, Kapiris Bros
Debbie Hammond, Quality Assurance Manager, Fonterra Brands
Chairperson Kimberly Coffin stated “A very informative and educational session I was surprised at the level of complexity required to achieve such a task.” Kimberly introduced Antonio Moroni as the Quality Manager from Kapiris Bros an organisation that “grows the best tomatoes in Australia”.
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Food Bank Donor of the Year Award
A big thank you to all those traders at the Melbourne Markets who have kindly donated produce throughout the year to Foodbank, which not only helps Victorians in need but reduces landfill and consequently its impact on the environment. Kapiris Bros humbly received the 2013 Fresh Produce Donor of the Year awarded.
Picture: Benjamin (left), CEO FoodBank Victoria presenting award to Harry Kapiris (right) for Kapiris Bros.
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Kapiris Bros exhibits at the Australian PMA Trade Show
Kapiris Bros took the opportunity share and learn with the best in the fresh fruit and vegetable industry. PMA Fresh Connections is the leading business, education and networking event for the fresh fruit and vegetable in the Australasian region.
The conference showcased thought leadership on the key issues affecting our industry with the opportunity of showing casing KB’s farm produce from SA Pride, QLD Pride and Tassie Pride, along with displaying its innovative packaging options.
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Expansion on all fronts
Kapiris Bros is busily investing in its operations with a focus on capturing the growth opportunities in both tomato and capsicum categories. Kapiris Bros is a key player in these sectors, marketing tonnes of field and greenhouse-grown tomatoes a year and tonnes of glasshouse-grown capsicums.
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Harry Kapiris ‘40 Year Service Award’
Harry Kapiris, managing Director of Kapiris Bros is among the few receipts to receive this prestigious award.
Picture: Harry Kapiris (top right) with other receipt during the VicFresh 2013 Ball. 
