California-based integrated fruit company Sun Pacific has upgraded three pack lines in its Maricopa Cuties packing facility to Compac's Spectrim platform and purchased a new grader for the Tulare facility.

The upgrade brings the company's number of lanes of Spectrim technology up to 64.

In a release, Sun Pacific Farming & Shippers president Al Bates said maintaining accurate, efficient technology had become essential as operations continued to grow.

"Sun Pacific has been working with Compac for fifteen years. The Maricopa Cuties facility installed 84 lanes of [a] 200-foot-long sorter between 2003-2005, making it the largest Compac installation in the world," Bates said.

"We have been very satisfied with the performance and service of the existing sorter, making it an easy decision to upgrade to Spectrim."

Spectrim enhances the sorting process, putting the right fruit into the right pack without human intervention, improving the accuracy of the grade, consistency of the pack and increasing the throughput and predictability of the packing process.

The increased performance demonstrated by the platform during Bates' visits to Spectrim installations in New Zealand, Washington State and California was the key factor in Sun Pacific's investment decision.

“There have been technology advances over the last 15 years that haven’t met my expectations. But over the last 18 months I’ve seen Compac’s technology and I think it’s time to make the transition," Bates said.

Sun Pacific owns 30,000 acres and six packing facilities in California, supplying Cuties mandarins, Mighties kiwifruit and Air Chief table grapes and tomatoes to top U.S. retail and international export customers.

"The move to Spectrim has been a significant investment, but the anticipated increase in efficiency and improvement in quality should more than justify the purchase allowing Sun Pacific to continue as a leader in the industry," Bates said.

Compac North American general manager Ken Moynihan said building partnerships with customers and providing an evolving service package as the company developed new technology was key to Compac’s growth.

“We supply customers across the world with innovative, intuitive sorting and packing technology," Moynihan said.

"It’s important that we remain ahead of the pack and build strong long-term relationships with our customers and work with them to realize the benefits of the continuously improving technology."

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