The U.S.A is the second-largest producer of apples in the world behind China. As a state, New York is the second-largest producer of apples behind Washington. Suffice to say, New Yorkers go bananas for apples with 1.37MM tons of apples produced over 42,000 acres in 2018 alone (source).
New York’s affinity for apples along with its agricultural ancestry is one of many reasons Auckland, NZ based company Hectre has opened up an office in Binghamton’s Koffman Incubator.
Hectre was started by friends who were looking into the viability of drones in orchards. Upon discussion with orchard owners, it was discovered these growers were not overly interested in drones. However, they noted an immense need for solutions to the day-to-day issues they faced including payroll, staffing, and logistics.
With a problem to solve, Hectre was formed to provide a modern solution. Their software provides robust tools for growers with the ability to manage harvest logistics, payroll, quality control, reporting, analysis and more.
Hectre’s VP of Sales, Jason Hill, moved from the West Coast to staff Hectre’s Koffman Incubator office. Upon doing research into shared office spaces in the area, The Koffman Incubator came up and seemed a perfect fit, providing both space and resources to grow the start-up here in the States.
“The biggest thing for us as a company is being able to make strategic connections in the grower industry, to help local business do better, increase their sales and efficiency,” says Hill.
“We work with anyone who could benefit from the tool. We focus on the larger growers as they have more need for our services, they have more moving parts to control. However, there are many u-pick orchards who could also use our services,” Hill adds.
Hectre is looking to take advantage of the resources available at the Koffman Incubator and New York state at large.
“I have already been introduced to multiple connections and networks. There are many channels the incubator is poised to enable us to be a part of as we continue to establish ourselves,” says Hill.
Hectre becomes the Incubator’s second international company behind HubControlls out of Ireland.
Learn more about Hectre at their website.
