The Winterwood Way

Winterwood announces and launches its rebranding campaign, to bring all of its businesses together under one umbrella

40ha Eureka Sunrise & Eureka Dawn planted at Kruger Berries & Bush Valley (North RSA)

10ha of Echo planted to replace older variety Bluegold (South RSA)

New plantings with varieties such as Orb

The grapes at Lushof Fruit changed from Organic to Conventional due to pest pressures and other challenges, increasing the yield by 35% in just 1 year.

Replacement of older varieties with newer varieties to meet customer demands

Winterwood Polana starts packing import blueberries & other soft fruit into final pack for Polish retail customers, working with fruit from Peru, Chile, Spain, and Morocco.

Winterwood Polana purchases a second Unitec optical grader.
Winterwood Plantacja Nad Tanwia also purchased its first Unitec Optical grader

A new packhouse named Big Blue Packers built in the Tzaneen area (North RSA), the packhouse equipment was later relocated to our Dreampack packhouse in Southern RSA in 2022.

Winterwood purchases a Unitec optical grader, the first blueberry optical grader in the UK

Bush Valley Berries, 120ha of ground was purchased, just 20 minutes from Kruger berries in the Tzaneen area.

Winterwood Polana builds state of the art, 4,500m2 facility with offices, loading bays, packhouse, blast chilling, CA storage, freezer storage and invests in first Unitec Optical Grader

Winterwood purchased a farm in the Tzaneen area and named it Kruger Berries due to its close proximity to the Kruger National Park. 492ha of land of which 100ha is intended for blueberry production

Winterwood becomes a founding member of Cape Varietal Group. CVG secures the license for Mountain Blue Orchards (MBO) varieties for the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa, now sub-licensing to almost 40 growers.

Winterwood makes its first investment in Northern South Africa with the aim of extending the season, taking a 25% share in Tzaneen Blueberries.

A farm in our grower group becomes the 1st Fair Trade source in the world

Steve Taylor becomes a founding member of the International Blueberry Organisation (IBO), an organization which has played a key role in getting the industry to where it is today

In the same year, Polana Ochoza beats the record with an organic blueberry weighing 11.28g

Melwood fruits grows world’s heaviest blueberry at 9.82g

Two new state of the art custom made soft fruit packing lines, equipped with Topsealing machines – Capable of 140 packs per minute

Dreampack is formed which cools 17,000 pallets of grapes per year for Lushof Farm and 7 other local growers

Completion of Winterwood UKs 5,000m² soft fruit packhouse — then the largest of its kind globally — featuring advanced packing lines and the soft fruit industry’s first integrated metal detection.

Winterwood starts new Polish farm project called Plantacja Nad Tanwia (PNT) with Jan Karwowskis “Daar”, with Winterwood now owning 50%. This farms fruit is marketed by producer organization Polskie Jagody.

Winterwood buys “Polana”, 2 farms (300ha) in NW Poland with 120ha of blueberries planted. Today 240ha planted, of which 50ha is under poly-tunnels.

Eurafruit Varietal Group (EVG) secures the exclusive license to import University of Georgia varieties to South Africa, such as SuziBlue and Titan

Work starts on Winterwoods new state of the art, 5,000m² packhouse based on its Winterwood Farm site in the UK.

Lushof Farm was purchased, at the time growing only organic table grapes. It went on to be the first organic blueberry farm in Africa, 50ha now planted as well as conventional table grapes.

Ochoza becomes the first farm in Poland to achieve GlobalGap certification, at the time this was called EurepGap

5,000m² packhouse permitted after public enquiry

Winterwood becomes a founding member of Eurafruit Varietal Group (EVG). EVG secures the exclusive license to import University of Florida varieties such as Emerald, Star & Jewel to South Africa.

“Terry, we bought a mountain” Steve said when Dreammaker was purchased — a site now made up of two farms at different altitudes, helping to extend the season.

Winterwood Farm becomes Winterwood Farms Ltd.

Winterwoods first farm in South Africa – Melwood Fruits, now fully owned by Winterwood, it was originally a partnership between Winterwood & Melsetter Partnership (hence the name)

First Polish farm, Ochoza, purchased with its own small packhouse, now 120ha fully organic production with 25ha under poly-tunnels. Packhouse refurbished in 2004

Winterwoods first farm outside of the UK purchased, Anjou Myrtilles in France.

Winterwood UK becomes the first to sell mixed fruit packs to the UK supermarkets, now a common sight on retailer shelves. At our peak, selling 2,3,4,5&6 cavity packs containing anything from Gooseberries to currants to Strawberries!

Winterwood wins a public enquiry, after first being refused, to pack other UK growers fruit

At the peak, Winterwood had 30 UK growers supplying them as a route to wholesale markets and retailers. Packing 15 different soft fruits, with “minor” berries being the companies USP

After the setbacks of the 1987 ‘Hurricane’, 400m2 packhouse was finally completed 4 years after it was started. Initially built just to pack fruit grown on our own farms

‘The Great Storm of 1987’ hit the South of England destroying the crops, on top of this almost all poly-tunnels at Summerwood Farm were destroyed

First 5ha soft fruit planted at Winterwood Farm, consisting of Raspberries and Strawberries increasing to 16ha of various different soft fruits. Frame of packhouse/farm building was also erected

Winterwood Farm was purchased, just 2 miles from Summerwood Farm. 22ha which was previously growing wheat and barley.

Stephen Taylor buys his first smallholding, just 1ha of land which quickly expanded to 3.5ha. He was the first to use poly-tunnels and automated irrigation systems in the UK.