A drop in trays packed last season, along with restructuring to reduce debt, are believed to be the reasons for Satara's $4.9 million loss for the year ending December 31, 2010.

New managing director for the kiwifruit packing business, Tom Wilson, says there is much to do to strengthen the business and his team is working through each facet of the operation.

'While a $4.9 million loss is not what any company wants to report, the underlying fundamentals of the business are strong; without the non-recurring items we would have made a small profit in a difficult year,” says Tom, 'but it is best to move these items out, take the hit now and position well for the coming year which looks to have a heavy crop.

'The forecasts for the coming season are for an increase of 1.1 million trays which will lead to full utilisation of the company's facilities.”

The sale of Satara's Totara Street property has assisted in reducing debt from $14.8 million to $7.7 million.

Based on its 2010 supply, the company's transactor shareholders received a total 20 cents made up of a 10 cent rebate and a 10 cent loyalty payment.

The post harvest division handled 8.5 million class one trays which was 23 per cent fewer than the previous year.

This reduction was due to lower yields and a net loss in the number of supplying hectares.

This led to all of the company's facilities operating below full capacity.

Tom says the company has a close eye on the Psa bacteria which remains a risk to the industry in the medium to long term.

'But we have protocols in place and we are managing that risk across harvesting, transport, packhouse operations and coolstore handling.”