Making a company showpiece wasn‘t a part of the original plan for Midlands Contracting, but with nothing but positive feedback, especially from clients, they‘re glad they did!

Midlands Contracting is only one part of the much larger Midlands Group, which consists of Midlands Seed, Midlands Apiaries, Midlands Nutritional Oils, Midlands Farming and Midlands Properties.

Established in 2004, Midlands Contracting was formed to deliver professional services to the seed industry. Since then the business has grown to include their own specialist highvalue crops grown in Mid Canterbury.

Midlands Contracting haul produce from one end of New Zealand to the other, whether it be taking export containers to and from the port, or picking up product from suppliers and delivering it.

This 2017 FH16 Volvo is powered by the 447kW (600hp) D16G engine and I-Shift 12-speed automated manual transmission. The unit is fitted with SI Lodec scales on both the truck and trailer and was purchased through Truck Stops in Christchurch.

The truck‘s main task is picking up raw honey from beekeepers all over New Zealand and delivering the product back to Midlands Apiaries‘ processing plant in Ashburton. The truck also delivers packed honey to various locations and general freight for Midlands Seeds around New Zealand.

The trailer, built by TMC Trailers in Christchurch, has a removable curtain and is equipped with twist locks for two 20-foot containers or one 40-foot container. Making the trailer multipurpose allows increased flexibility. Darren Leeds at Leeding Signs in Christchurch did the design work on the Volvo, and the Structurflex curtains. Midlands Contracting operations manager Duncan King says, “ The response from customers has been very positive. They like the fact that when they sell their honey to Midlands it‘s collected by Midlands themselves. With hives of their own, Midlands understands what honey means to beekeepers. The product is looked after throughout the whole process from pick up, through testing, processing and packing into pottles. The care taken with the product doesn‘t stop until it‘s delivered to the customer either here or overseas.”