Case Studies
Felling Hazards, Raising Safety at Pan Pac Milburn
This is Pan Pac Forest Products Ltd, a subsidiary of Japanese pulp and paper experts Oji in Japan. To understand the history of Pan Pac, let’s take a step back in time. Back to an era where you’d hear John Rowles’ Cheryl Moana Marie on the radio, the classic It’s In The Bag made its TV debut, and flares and platform shoes were all the rage. The decade is the 1970s, when Pan Pac first established its site at Whirinaki, just north of Napier. Fast forward the cassette of time to 2014, and Pan Pac operations have expanded into Milburn, just south of Dunedin, where Pan Pac Forest Products (Otago) Limited was established, a lumber business operating a sawmill, boiler, continuous kiln, and dry mill. With Pan Pac products now being shipped to over 15 countries around the world, the mills are working at full capacity. This comes with a constant flow of heavy machinery, moving product, staff, delivery trucks, and associated hazards. Continuous traffic on site creates dangerous areas and increases the risk to both people and property. That’s where we come in. Our classic 910-2 Barrier was the ideal choice for maximum visibility and protection. Tested and certified, it creates clear passageways for foot traffic and protects buildings from accidental vehicle damage. Combined with our modular Hand Rail to provide safe walking spaces for pedestrians around the site. Fast forward the tape again to part two of this project, where we completed an additional sub-project to improve safety in the logging yard. This area is the most hazardous on the premises, as heavy machinery and rolling logs can seriously injure or even kill anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time. By limiting the entry of traffic and people to this part of the sawmill, hazards were identified and reduced, helping the business meet its obligations to protect staff and visitors. By modifying our standard Personnel Gates, we created heavy-duty vehicle gates fit for purpose. Some of the key features include: A new latch to secure double gates firmly in the closed position. A locking option on the latch for added security, with holes for a padlock to prevent unauthorised access, ideal for after-hours protection. A bracket option to mount gates directly onto bollards, making the gate stronger and providing extra protection if a vehicle misjudges the angle. The client is thrilled with the results in terms of security and access control, and our unmissable Safety Yellow finish makes them a strong addition to their overall safety strategy. We have helped make this site a safer place to visit and work. And we think that’s pretty groovy.
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Safer Steps at CHEP Dunedin
It will come as no surprise that a busy CHEP warehouse is home to plenty of forklifts. It is also no surprise that these can create hazards for pedestrians, and that is where we come in. Creating safer foot traffic areas along the allocated walkways to and from the dispatch office and other areas of the store was a simple yet effective way to keep workers and site visitors safer. Once again, our 910-2 Barrier System, combined with Hand Rail, came to the rescue. High visibility, built for impact, and cost effective, it was the optimal solution. If you have walkways that could benefit from a touch of Safety Yellow barrier, talk to our team today to find out more.
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Guiding the Way at Port Nelson
We all know ports are no place for wandering pedestrians. With forklifts, containers, and heavy vehicles moving constantly, there is nothing quite like a bright yellow reminder showing where to walk and where to stay alert as a pedestrian. Port Nelson identified this challenge in a specific zone. While drivers and staff are well trained, there is always added value in clearly defined pedestrian walkways across site. Our Hand Rail system provides the ideal balance of traffic management and visibility. Designed for all-weather conditions, including stormy ports and salt spray environments, it offers reliable hand support along walkways. It can also be integrated with our Barrier system for added strength where required, or combined with Personnel Gates to support safe and efficient pedestrian flow. If you have zones, stairs, mezzanines, or other areas on site that could benefit from improved pedestrian protection, get in touch with our team to find a modular Hand Rail system that suits your site.
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Walk this Way: Keeping Workers Safe at CHEP Auckland
Anyone who’s spent time in a CHEP warehouse knows they are busy places. Forklifts are constantly on the move, pallets are shifting, and staff are often navigating the floor on foot alongside machinery. It works well when everything runs smoothly, but clear separation is key to keeping people safe. That is where this project came in. To better protect staff on foot, we installed clearly defined pedestrian zones, surrounded by certified Tru-Gard safety barrier. These walkways give people a safe space to move through the warehouse, without having to second-guess what is happening around them. The solution uses our classic 910-2 Barrier System, designed to deliver strength, visibility, and peace of mind in busy warehouse environments. Personnel gates were added to provide practical access points between the pedestrian zones and the main warehouse floor, making it easy for staff to get where they need to go without crossing active traffic routes. In high-foot-traffic areas, a double-gate system was installed. One gate can be used for entering, the other for exiting, which helps keep foot traffic flowing and avoids those awkward bottlenecks during busy shifts. The end result is a safer, more organised warehouse environment where people and machinery can do what they need to do, without getting in each other’s way. All the right traffic management and health and safety boxes, ticked.
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Tru-Gard Barrier - Protecting People and Pinot
Need enough barrier to stop a truck? No problem. With our 910-3E Barrier, we can do just that. Here’s one we installed for a Matua Wines in Blenheim, NZ, who needed to protect their assets (and their wine) from potential trucking mishaps. Company management recognised the very real risks to staff, buildings, assets, and products, due in part to the sheer volume of large transport trucks calling on site daily. Should one of these trucks accidentally roll off a ramp and hit someone or damage assets on site, it would be a disaster. Enter our 910-3E Galvanised Barrier, offering three rows of certified and tested protection. With six screw bolts per post and 1100 mm centres, these features add extra strength where it’s needed most. This configuration is our strongest and is designed to stop a 23-tonne vehicle travelling at 11.5 km/h on a 25-degree impact. It doesn’t get much more robust than that. If you have people, premises, or pinot to protect, get in touch with our team today to find out more about our heavy-duty options to suit.
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Protecting Pedestrians at Pink Batts Penrose
Auckland - famously busy for both traffic and pedestrians, and this commercial area in Penrose, home to Pink Batts, is no different. Not only are staff and commercial visitors at risk in this busy industrial zone, it also provides everyday access for members of the public and the customers of neighbouring businesses. With so much traffic also using the area it was important to provide as much protection as possible to avoid dangerous accidents. By making full use of our modular Barrier and Personnel Gates, there can be no doubting the allocated pedestrian safety zone here. Tested and certified, there’s no doubt that visibility and durability are where it counts - creating a truly safe pathway for people. If traffic management is problematic at your site, have a chat to our team today about creating a custom, modular system that works for you and your hazards.
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Putting the Brakes on Shop Front Collisions
Some shop fronts can only be described as car magnets, and unfortunately for this one in Christchurch, it is one of them. It has had more than its fair share of distracted drivers putting their cars through front doors and windows. Not only is this a serious hazard for shoppers, staff, pedestrians, and drivers, but it is also an expensive disaster for businesses. Fortunately, there is an easy fix. Our Tru-Gard Bollards. Tested and certified, twenty-six of them came to the rescue, creating a safe and secure shop front. Easily fixed into the existing concrete tiles, it was a quick and effective solution to an expensive problem. Now shoppers and business owners can relax, knowing the risk of being run over by a rogue driver is mitigated by our trusty bollards. If you, or a business you know, is struggling with drivers finding drive instead of reverse, chat to our team today about a safety solution that works for you.
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Keeping the Herd Safe at Silver Fern Farms Hawke's Bay
Keeping pedestrians safe on busy work sites can feel a lot like managing a herd. At Silver Fern Farms’ Takapau in Hawke’s Bay, NZ, private roads are constantly active with both staff and vehicles moving around the site. A moment’s lapse in attention could have serious consequences, so clear safety measures are essential. This large sheepmeat processing plant has carefully identified its hazard areas and created unmistakable safety zones for the many visitors and staff who walk the factory grounds each day. To manage these high-traffic areas, we installed our Tru-Gard Hand Rail System along key pedestrian pathways, combined with Personnel Gates to clearly define safe access points. Our modular system made it easy to navigate tricky curves and complex site layouts, ensuring continuous protection where it’s needed most. These systems guide staff and visitors to check for vehicles before crossing, helping reduce the risk of accidents and keeping everyone moving safely through the site. By combining robust handrails, secure gates, and high-visibility safety zones, Silver Fern Farms Hawke’s Bay has created a safer, more organised site for staff and visitors alike. It’s safety done the Tru-Gard way—practical, reliable, and designed to protect the whole herd on site.
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A Heaping of Safety at Chelsea Sugar
Is there really anything sweeter than knowing your staff and assets are well protected and risks minimised? Well, if anything could be, it’s all of this combined with being on site at Chelsea Sugar (NZ Sugar Company) in Auckland, NZ. Wanting to take great care of their staff, they came to us for a solution that would stick. We suggested our certified and tested Barrier System, in a variety of configurations to suit height hazards and offering pedestrians protection against trucks and forklifts on site. Combined with our Personnel Gates, this provides safe access to the main floor so no one wanders in front of moving traffic. It’s a carefully crafted recipe for safety: a heaping of robust barriers, a dash of high-visibility yellow for maximum awareness, and a generous sprinkling of secure access points to keep staff and assets protected.
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Raising the Bar on Fall Safety at Pacific Steel
A steel plant sounds like exactly the kind of place where you would expect to find workplace hazards, although not always the ones you might think. In this case, management identified a fall risk created by a raised concrete platform. That’s where our Tru-Gard Hand Rail comes in. This inconspicuous-looking concrete platform at Pacific Steel, is frequently used by workers to inspect and maintain production machinery. The risk was that those working on the platform were often looking up, not down, which increased the likelihood of misstepping and falling from the platform. The solution was our Tru-Gard Hand Rail, customised with triple railing and fixed to side-mounted support posts. This was designed to create a clear physical barrier and set at a height to prevent accidental falls. To finish it off, we also added toe-kick boards, not only to prevent feet from sliding underneath, but to catch items such as tools that might accidentally be kicked off the edge during work. The solutions to these hazards do not have to be complicated, they just have to be effective. That is exactly where our modular systems are designed to quickly and easily solve these issues. If you have a hazard on site, big or small, let us help you find a Tru-Gard solution to suit. After all, there is nothing better than knowing workers are safe and injuries can be prevented.
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Silver Fern Farms Finegand: A Safety Legacy
Exported to and enjoyed by meat lovers in over 60 countries worldwide, travel with us to rural South Island, NZ, to Silver Fern Farms Finegand. A part of the local Clutha landscape and employer since 1912, the facility has changed hands a few times over the years, but most recently was purchased by Silver Fern Farms. A huge asset in their portfolio, this plant processed its millionth sheep in one season, just nine years after the takeover. Needless to say, this is a busy and hazardous site. Uniquely offering both beef (approximately 100,000 per year) and sheep (over 1 million per year), this site surges during the peak season with staff, stock, vehicles, and deliveries. When it came time to bring its safety standards up to date and comply with new legislation, they turned to our team for help. With hundreds of metres of Tru-Gard Safety Barrier, personnel gates for clearly defined access, protective bollards in key areas, and a range of handrails to create better pedestrian zones, this job is no mutton dressed as lamb; this is safety as it should be. A huge thank you to the team at Silver Fern Farms for trusting us to bring this iconic NZ meat processing facility up to current safety standards.
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Staying Udderly Safe at Blue River Dairy
Deep in the South Island of New Zealand, you’ll find a busy dairy plant making world-class dairy products, safely. Welcome to Blue River Dairy. This busy factory is home to a large team, constant product movement, storage areas, heavy transport, forklifts, and more. From product-laden trolleys to delivery trucks, and staff on foot to exposed office areas, there was no shortage of hazards on site. That’s where we came in. Our first recommendation was to install a full pedestrian safety zone, allowing office staff to move around the space while being protected from vehicle movement with our certified 910-2 Barrier. We also added personnel gates for access into high-traffic zones, ensuring pedestrians slowed and checked their surroundings. For the exposed office space, we recommended a similar zone using the same barrier style, keeping anyone working there well protected from passing forklifts and other vehicles. Needless to say, the team are thrilled that they can now navigate the space safely, supported by a well-engineered traffic plan that will keep them safe for years to come.
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