Screen-print illustration of the oversized kiwifruit sculptures at Te Puke’s entrance — Illustration generated with AI.

37.79° S, 176.32° E. Western Bay of Plenty District, Bay of Plenty (Te Moana-a-Toi)

Microsoft Copilot training in Te Puke

Te Puke’s orchard and packhouse work creates registers, handovers and supplier messages. Copilot training can follow an approved Excel file into a Word note and an Outlook draft, with each step checked.^4,5,7

Enquire Read the local brief

48.8% of Te Puke’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

	A	B	C	D
1	Role type	Te Puke	NZ	Diff (pts)
2	Desk-based	48.8%	63.6%	−14.8
3	People-facing	8.4%	9.0%	−0.6
4	Hands-on	42.7%	27.4%	+15.4
5	Employed residents	4,587	2,622,534

About 2,240 people in desk-based roles. 2023 Census, counted where people live.

Rows 2 to 4: ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4 / 3, 7, 8. Stats NZ 2023 Census, employed residents. Proxy per ILO 2025; not a forecast.

Residents: 9,1102023 Census
Business locations: 1,113Feb 2025, +13.5% since 2020
Employees (jobs here): 5,650at local businesses, Feb 2025
Self-employed or employers: 11.8%of employed residents, NZ 16.2%
Drive to Tauranga: 21 min22 km by road

What AI means for work in Te Puke

5 findings from Stats NZ data for Te Puke, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Te Puke against New Zealand

48.8% of employed residents in Te Puke work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. The difference is mostly labourers: 20.9% of employed residents here, against 9.0% nationally. Size the licences to the desk-based roles rather than headcount. A pilot with office, scheduling and management staff shows value before you pay for everyone.

Employed residents by occupation group, Te Puke and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation group	People	Te Puke	NZ
Managers	711	15.5%	18.3%
Professionals	759	16.6%	26.8%
Technicians and trades workers	630	13.7%	12.5%
Community and personal service workers	387	8.4%	9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers	417	9.1%	10.8%
Sales workers	351	7.7%	7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers	372	8.1%	5.9%
Labourers	957	20.9%	9.0%

Desk-based = ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5 and 6 (managers, professionals, clerical and administrative, sales): roles where AI assistance is most applicable. Broad proxy informed by ILO 2025; not measured adoption or an employment forecast. People-facing = major group 4. Hands-on = major groups 3, 7 and 8.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).

Farming, forestry, fishing: 29.7% of local jobs, 6.2× the national share

Top employer: farming, forestry, fishing, 1,680 jobs (29.7%). Heat cells mark industries over-represented against New Zealand. Plan Copilot use cases by department in the largest employers first.

Share of paid jobs by industry, Te Puke and New Zealand, February 2025
Industry	Jobs	Share	NZ	×
Farming, forestry, fishing	1,680	29.7%	4.8%	6.2×
Admin and support services	868	15.4%	4.6%	3.4×
Professional services	410	7.3%	8.3%	0.9×
Health and social care	390	6.9%	12.0%	0.6×
Education	380	6.7%	8.5%	0.8×
Retail	351	6.2%	9.3%	0.7×
Construction	320	5.7%	8.2%	0.7×
Hospitality	280	5.0%	7.2%	0.7×
Manufacturing	230	4.1%	9.4%	0.4×
Other services	205	3.6%	3.5%	1.1×

Share of paid employees at business locations in the area, by ANZSIC06 industry division. × is the local share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Business locations +13.5% and employees +24.4%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 4,540 (2020) to 5,650 (2025), +24.4% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 981 to 1,113. Largest job gain: admin and support services (+369). Largest loss: retail (−60).

Business locations: 9811,113 in 2025, from 2020; +13.5% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here): 4,5405,650 in 2025, from 2020; +24.4% NZ +5.0%

Change in employees by industry in Te Puke, February 2020 to February 2025
Industry	2020	2025	Change
Admin and support services	499	868	+369
Professional services	168	410	+242
Farming, forestry, fishing	1,460	1,680	+220
Retail	411	351	−60
Manufacturing	266	230	−36
Property and rental	33	21	−12

Geographic units (business locations) and paid employees, February of each year. Small counts are randomly rounded by Stats NZ, so small changes can be noise.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Remote readiness: work at home and household internet

On-site sessions, at your workplace, usually suit teams here better than remote ones. We come to you.

10.3%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

86.4%

Households with internet access

New Zealand 90.5%

Main means of travel to work on census day, and access to the internet in occupied private dwellings.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Self-employed and employers: 11.8% (New Zealand 16.2%)

Most workers here are employees of organisations, the setting where Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts are planned centrally, with licences, policy and champions.

11.8%

self-employed or employers

New Zealand 16.2%

Employed residents whose status in employment is employer, or self-employed without employees.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Copilot for Te Puke’s largest employers

Fruit records can involve different owners from field to coolstore. The team should establish file access and decide who confirms intake, storage and dispatch facts before using Copilot.^4,5,7

Packing and storage

Turn a fictional Excel intake sheet into a Word exception list, then verify it against the controlled packing register.^5,7

Engineering services

Use a sample work-order file to draft an Outlook maintenance update, with the Te Puke technician checking machinery details.^9,12

About Te Puke

Te Puke is the Western Bay’s eastern service town and a horticultural hub known for kiwifruit. The local fruit chain spans orchard advice and management from Apata and Paengaroa Horticulture, then packing, cool storage and supply-chain work at Te Puke operations run by Trevelyan’s and EastPack. The town also has agricultural and light-engineering services such as Mac Engineering, plus EPIC Te Puke’s business promotions and monthly networking. Nearby Rangiuru Business Park is a 148-hectare industrial development, while Te Puke Digital and the refreshed Te Puke Online platform show locally based digital services for businesses and community groups.^{1,2,4,5,7,9,13,16,24,26}

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Te Puke

Kiwifruit growing and orchard management

Map orchard work completion by block
An orchard manager can use Copilot in Excel to summarise approved job sheets for pruning, thinning or vine training by block and completion date. Supervisors check the source sheets before using the roll-up to plan the next crew allocation.^2,4

Why here: Apata's Te Puke GROW team provides orchard management and technical support, and Paengaroa Horticulture lists these seasonal orchard tasks.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
Build a clear seasonal field induction
A grower-services lead can use Copilot in Word and PowerPoint to turn approved pruning or canopy-maintenance instructions into a short seasonal induction. A supervisor checks the instructions and adapts them for the blocks and equipment used by the team.⁴

Why here: Paengaroa Horticulture lists thinning, pruning, vine training and spraying among services offered to Te Puke-area growers.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in PowerPoint
Turn grower calls into follow-up tasks
A field-services coordinator can use Copilot in Outlook to draft follow-up messages from approved notes after a grower call, then copy agreed actions into the team's task list. Staff check crop, block and timing details before sending the update.^2,4

Why here: Apata and Paengaroa Horticulture both describe technical or management support for local kiwifruit growers.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams

Kiwifruit packing, cool storage and export supply chains

Compare fruit-flow totals between shifts
A packhouse planner can use Copilot in Excel to summarise approved arrival, pack-out and dispatch totals by line and shift. The planner compares the output with system reports before changing a cool-store or labour plan.^5,7

Why here: Trevelyan's and EastPack both identify Te Puke as a packing and cool-storage location for kiwifruit.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
Prepare a verified grower pack-out update
A grower liaison can use Copilot in Word and Outlook to turn an approved pack-out report into a concise update for a grower. Staff confirm grade, count and shipment information against the packhouse system before sending it.^5,6

Why here: Trevelyan's describes a Te Puke post-harvest operation that manages growers' fruit through packing, storage and supply-chain logistics.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook
Summarise packhouse shift actions
A line supervisor can use Copilot in Teams to draft actions from an operations meeting or shift discussion. The supervisor checks each item with the relevant lead and keeps any commercial or worker-sensitive information within approved systems.^5,8

Why here: EastPack describes more than 3,000 seasonal jobs across its operation, including Te Puke, while Trevelyan's runs a large single-site post-harvest facility there.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams

What Te Puke does

Kiwifruit growing and orchard management. Te Puke is identified by the Council as the Bay of Plenty's horticultural hub. Apata has orchard-management and technical-support teams based at Te Puke, while Paengaroa Horticulture provides orchard management and contracting from Te Puke to Katikati, including bud and flower counting, thinning, pruning, vine training and spraying.^1,2,3,4 Named in public sources: Apata², Paengaroa Horticulture Limited⁴.
Kiwifruit packing, cool storage and export supply chains. Te Puke has several post-harvest operators. Trevelyan’s lists its Te Puke site as New Zealand’s largest single-site post-harvest facility for kiwifruit and avocado and describes orchard management, packing, storage and supply-chain logistics; EastPack identifies Te Puke as one of its three packing and cool-store locations.^3,5,6,7,8 Named in public sources: Trevelyan’s⁶, EastPack⁷, Apata³.
Engineering fabrication and horticultural machinery services. Mac Engineering is a Te Puke fabricator and engineering-supply business with a stated customer base across agriculture, horticulture and light engineering. A 2026 local story describes its orchard string trolley, irrigation-pipe fabrication, structural steel, mulcher repairs and on-site machinery work.^9,10,11,12 Named in public sources: Mac Engineering (2016) Limited⁹.
Town-centre retail and community business services. The Council describes Te Puke as the main service town for the eastern end of the district, with a variety of local businesses. EPIC Te Puke runs shop-local promotions, community events and EPIC Connect, a monthly networking event for local businesses and organisations; its online platform gives local groups a place to publish business listings, events and vacancies.^1,13,14,15
Professional and digital services. Te Puke has a locally based digital-service provider in Te Puke Digital, the digital and media arm of Vector Group Charitable Trust. Its listed work includes web development, search optimisation including AI search, content and marketing, hosting and AI automation; it has also built a digital presence for Paengaroa Horticulture and the Te Puke Economic Development Group.^16,26,27,28 Named in public sources: Te Puke Digital²⁶, Seed Studio¹⁶.

Organisations are named for local context only. No relationship with them is implied.

Training venues in and near Te Puke

Most training happens at your own workplace. For a public workshop day or an off-site session, these places hire out rooms.

Te Puke War Memorial Hall, Boardroom¹⁷

25 people, largest layout

The hall lists a capacity of up to 25 and says the room is ideal for business meetings; it is available to hire.

130 Jellicoe Street, Te Puke

From the venues’ own public listings. No booking or relationship is implied.

In the local business news

21 May 2026
Community celebrates launch of revitalised Te Puke Online platform Te Puke Online
EPIC Te Puke relaunched the local information-sharing platform, which lets businesses and community groups manage their own listings, post events and vacancies, and send content through EPIC newsletters. The story is a direct example of local organisations investing in digital tools for business communication.
26 May 2026
Orchard String Trolley Te Puke Online
Te Puke Online described a locally sold trolley intended to make orchard stringing faster and reduce repetitive lifting during kiwifruit canopy work; Mac Engineering stocked it at its Te Puke workshop. It links local fabrication and equipment retail with practical orchard mechanisation.
30 Jul 2026
EPIC Connect celebrates one year of bringing local businesses together Te Puke Online
EPIC Te Puke marked a year of monthly networking events, reporting an average attendance of about 23 and more than 30 people at some sessions. The story gives a current local channel for business-to-business learning and discussion.
26 Mar 2025
Key transport link opens to boost Bay of Plenty economy Grow Regions
The Rangiuru Business Park motorway interchange near Te Puke opened in February 2025, linking the industrial development to State Highway 2. The article says the park is planned for manufacturing, agriculture and logistics and had opened its first 14 hectares for sale.

Around Te Puke

Main Street, Te Puke - Photograph by Henry Winkelmann by Henry Winkelmann, Public domain.

About 15 km in a straight line to Tauranga, the nearest large centre. Dots are towns covered on this site.

Western Bay of Plenty District and Microsoft Copilot training across Bay of Plenty, or Tauranga. Distances are straight-line.

A workshop can rehearse a fruit handover and an engineering job update, naming the file owner and checker for each.^5,9

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops near Te Puke

There is no public Copilot workshop near Te Puke on the calendar yet. Register interest below and we will tell you when one is scheduled. Organisations can book private training for their own staff at any time.

Tell me when there is a workshop near Te Puke

We will email you when a public workshop is scheduled nearby. No other mailing.