When you pick up a bag of potatoes in Canada…Or carrots in the UK…Or onions in Australia…

There’s a good chance a Kiwi machine helped get them there.

From its headquarters in Christchurch, Wyma Solutions designs and builds post-harvest processing lines that wash, grade, polish, size, and pack vegetables for customers in close to 50 markets worldwide.

They don’t grow the food. They make sure none of it is wasted.

From workshop to world leader

Wyma’s roots trace back to a small engineering workshop founded in 1962 in Canterbury.

A turning point came with the development of the Vege-Polisher™ — technology that reshaped how root vegetables were cleaned and prepared, and this established Wyma as a specialist in carrot and potato polishing.

Today, the business has evolved into a global post-harvest systems provider, with manufacturing facilities in New Zealand & Europe, and sales, support, service and partner offices in the UK, the Americas and Australia, serving growers and packhouses that demand efficiency, precision, and reliability.

What began as a machine has become an ecosystem.

Engineering yield, not just machinery

Wyma doesn’t sell standalone equipment. It designs integrated line solutions.

A grower’s product moves through:

  • infeed
  • washing
  • polishing
  • trimming
  • grading
  • conveying
  • packing

All tuned as one system.

“We build production lines for customers all around the world,” explains service technician Callum Howlett.

At Wyma, our post‑harvest lines increasingly rely on advanced vision systems and AI to optimise processing solutions

Our camera‑based technologies identify product size, shape, and orientation in real time, ensuring precision cutting and consistent presentation.

Where earlier‑generation systems in the industry were labour intensive, Wyma’s latest vision solutions can reduce this dramatically — in some cases up to 90% — delivering better returns for growers, packers, and processors while minimising unnecessary resource use.

It’s practical technology for solving practical problems. Less waste. Better yield. Higher quality produce.

That’s what “The Best From Every Harvest” means.

Built in Christchurch. Backed globally.

Wyma exports 95% of its production.

From Christchurch, they support customers across Australasia, North America, Europe, and beyond.

“We’re over 200 employees globally,” says Operations Manager Michael Anderson. “This is our main manufacturing facility here in Christchurch, and we’ve got facilities in Prague, the UK, and Australia as well.”

That global reach allows:

  • rapid deployment
  • shared R&D across continents
  • localised service
  • resilience across supply chains

But the engineering core remains deeply Kiwi.

“It’s that Kiwi ingenuity,” Michael says. “Collaboration. Problem-solving. Looking at a challenge and saying — we can do that better.”

Advanced manufacturing, real careers

Walk through the Christchurch facility, and you’ll find fabrication, folding, surface treatment, assembly, electrical panel build and testing happening under one roof.

Machines weighing tonnes are assembled, tested, and fine-tuned before being shipped around the world.

For Callum, the journey into manufacturing wasn’t linear.

“I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says. “I was just a lost little kid.”

A chance connection led to work experience, then to an apprenticeship in general engineering.

Today, he travels internationally to install and commission Wyma systems across North America, Australia, and Europe.

“Working in manufacturing here at Wyma has given me wonderful opportunities to travel,” he says. “It’s part of the job — and I really enjoy it.”

For Jenny Fretwell, Health & Safety Advisor, the pathway was even less expected.

She started with a degree in Russian language, worked across multiple industries, and eventually chose to pursue mechanical engineering.

“I wanted to weld,” she says. “I wanted to create.”

Now she mentors apprentices, leads safety transformation, and still keeps her overalls handy.

“I never felt like I was different,” she says. “I was valued as Jenny.”

Manufacturing here isn’t rigid. It’s fluid.

Apprentices become technicians. Technicians become leaders. Graduates move into automation and design.

Why it matters for New Zealand

Manufacturing at this scale doesn’t just ship machines overseas.

It builds:

  • high-skill jobs
  • export revenue
  • supply chain capability
  • local subcontractor growth
  • international reputation

“Manufacturing in New Zealand is something we should be proud of,” Michael says. “We create world-class products here in Christchurch.”

Every export line supports not only Wyma’s 200+ staff globally, but subcontractors, suppliers, transport providers, and service partners across Canterbury.

It’s NZ Inc in action.

Feeding the future

At its heart, Wyma works in food.

Food that feeds communities. Food that travels continents. Food that must be handled carefully and efficiently.

The company’s sustainability focus — water recycling, reduced handling damage, yield optimisation — reflects a simple idea:

Waste less. Use resources wisely. Build systems that last.

In a world facing food security challenges, that matters.

Make your move. Make your mark.

Your future’s calling. And it might just be holding a welding torch.