Bay of Plenty Times, 12th December 2014
After completing his studies at Tauranga Boys College, Steve joined a nursery in Te Puna where he spent 18 months before heading to Queensland to surf and have fun on the Gold Coast. But he soon developed a taste for entrepreneurship, starting a company that installed small arterial bores in new housing developments so residents could water their lawns.
He returned a year later to Tauranga, rejoining the nursery then moving into the Te Puna Pack and Cool kiwifruit post-harvest operations. He eventually worked in a range of cool store and packing roles, before moving to run the company's orchard management operations. When Te Puna Pack and Cool was sold, Mr Saunders and former general manager Trevor Heard set up Gro-Link, an orchard and post-harvest management company. They were also the first in the industry to set up a kiwifruit grower pool trust entity.
