Vineyard posts recycled for farms

• Published date: 11 April 2024
• Publication title: Katikati Advertiser

Repost, a company based in Marlborough, has been repurposing vineyard fence posts for the past four years

What started as a need to find a cost-effective way to source posts for 30km of stock fencing on Greg and Dansy Coppell’s 500ha sheep and beef breeding farm in Nelson Lakes has now turned into a thriving business.

Their first thought was to find a quantity of discarded vineyard posts which Greg’s father Allan had been using for decades on his farm.

They found a stockpile of posts at a Marlborough vineyard and, after sorting over the pile, they returned, repurposing the broken posts into usable 1.8m and 1.6m half- and quarter-round posts, and completely transformed their farm into usable paddocks, maximising pasture and accommodating their stock.

With the seed sown, the Coppells were keen to make this work on a larger scale and thus began Repost. While they drive the business development and partnership opportunities, their team now consists of Stu Dudley, who has been in the viticulture industry for over 15 years, and Liam Garlick, who streamlines freight and logistics and day-to-day site operations.

With thousands of tonnes of useful durable wood being put into landfills every year from the viticulture industry, and with the viticulture industry priding itself on being sustainable and always looking at ways to lower their environmental impact, repurposing their old posts was the way to go.

With a tick from WorkSafe and resource consent...