In the early 1930's, founding member Alic Knispel started growing and packing citrus at Moorook in the Riverland of South Australia.
Thirty years later, when Alic's sons were teenagers attending Adelaide High School, the boys began collecting oranges from the family's packing facility and hand-squeezing them in their mother's Kilburn kitchen. The juice was sold to the local shops and taken to school with them in plastic flagons to sell to the other boys.
The Knispel boys and their father were nicknamed 'Nippy' by their friends and consequently, the juice that the Knispel boys sold became known as Nippy's juice.
The Knispel family now owns three juicing facilities in South Australia. One is in Moorook, alongside the family orchards, the second is in Waikerie and the largest facility is at Regency Park in Adelaide.
At the Moorook facility, the production of long-life products including juices and flavoured milks takes place, and there is a packing facility for oranges.
The oranges for Nippy’s fresh juices are transported from the Riverland to the facility at Regency Park each day to maximise freshness by minimising the time between juicing and delivering.
The Knispel family that own and manage the business are still very much hands-on. The most important Quality process, the sorting of the fruit, is conducted by the Manager himself, beginning at 2am each morning. This extra attention to the fruit sorting process is one very important part of producing the superior taste of Nippy’s fruit juice.
Nippy’s varieties of fresh and long-life beverages are now available in every Australian State with exports reaching major customers around the world.
Nippys Fruit Juices Pty Ltd is a 100% South Australian family owned company and the entire range of Nippy’s products are manufactured in Australia.
Nippy’s squeeze around 13000 tonnes of South Australian oranges every year from the Riverland and Mypolonga regions. In addition, the apples, lemons, passionfruit, mangoes and pineapples used in Nippy’s fresh fruit juices are 100% Australian.
Nippys Fruit Juices Pty Ltd also provides direct employment for over one hundred Australians.
The Nippy’s range includes a wide range of long life products including the award winning range of reduced fat flavoured dairy drinks. Nippy’s long life flavoured milks are made from reduced fat fresh milk unlike some other brands, which are made from powdered milk and water. In addition, Nippy’s milks were approved by the South Australian School Canteen Association, which means the products complied with the strict nutrient criteria set by the association for healthy canteens.
Other products in the long life Nippy’s range include: sparkling mineral waters, spring water, ginger beer, pop-top fruit drinks and fruit juices in both tetra-pack and glass bottles.
Nippy’s produce a wide range of fresh juices with no added sugar including:
- unsweetened orange
- apple
- apple & blackcurrant
- pineapple
- grapefruit
- lime
- tropical
- pure lemon
- blood orange
The newest unsweetened product in the range is the Nippy’s Tropical Juice. This perfect blend of passionfruit, mango, pineapple and orange juices is a delicious treat for the whole family, as well as the health conscious, that require and appreciate products with no added sugar. Also in the fresh juice range is sweetened:
- orange and mango
- orange and passionfruit
Nippy’s pack most of the range in 4 convenient sizes. 2 lt in both plastic bottles and cartons. 1 lt, 500ml and 300ml orange sweetened and unsweetened bottles.
When the oranges arrive at our juiving facility at Regency Park they are inspected for quality by our Fruit Receival staff. The oranges are then refrigerated because they retain more flavor and vitamins if they are cold when they are juiced.
Juice is squeezed at the factory every production morning between the hours of 1am and 6am.
- Cleaning the fruit
The first step in the production process is washing the refrigerated fruit in chlorinated water. This initial wash is designed to remove any loose dirt on the outside of the orange peel. The chlorine level in this water is tested every hour.
The oranges then pass over brush rollers,which provide a more vigorous clean of the outside of the orange peel.
- Sorting
Following the brush rollers, the oranges pass over a sorting table and are inspected by the manager. Any fruit that does not pass this quality check is removed from the sorting table. The oranges that do pass this quality check are then washed again with a brush roller and water. The water used for this is mains water and is not recirculated.
The oranges are then sorted by the remaining machine into sizes to ensure that the small oranges are not over-reamed, which can cause peel oil to be squeezed into the juice. This step is very important because peel oil has a very unpleasant taste.
- Reaming
The oranges are cut in half by the reaming machine and then juiced by the machine in a way that simulates hand squeezing.
- Juice Production
The juice is then pumped through to tanks where the preservative (potassium sorbate) is added. The amount of preservative in Nipp's fresh orange juice isz 0.002%. The sugar is also added to the juice at this stage in the sweetened orange juice tank.
The juice is then pasteurised. Pasteurisation involves rapidly heating the juice and then quickly cooling it again to below 5 degrees Celsius. The pasteurisation process sterilises the juice.
Once the juice has been pasteurised, it is then bottled and stored at a temperature below 4 degrees Celsius until it is purchased by one of our customers. The juice must continue to be stored below 4 degrees Celsius until it is consumed.
Packaging
Nippy's Fruit Juice Pty Ltd manufacture all their own 1.5l, 500ml, 300ml and 250ml plastic bottles. They are made by two blow-moulding machines. The plastic resin known as PET is purchased in bead form, which is melted and goes through the blow moulds forming a preform and then blown into the bottle size required.
Nippy's Fruit Juices Pty Ltd has Certification to the ISO9001 Quality International Standard including a certified HACCP based food safety system. External audits are conducted on a 6 monthly basis by SGS International Certification Services. The Nippy's Fruit Juices Pty Ltd certified HACCP system identifies, evaluates and controls hazards to ensure Knispel Fruit Juices maintains safety in food. The scope of HACCP Plan is from the receipt of fruit, ingredients and long life products to despatch of packaged juice, water and long life products to customers.
Most of our oranges are grown in the Riverland of South Australia, however additional supplies are also delivered by growers from the Mypolonga region. All of our orange suppliers have completed our approved supplier program and have a food safety system in place such as SQF2000. The best oranges for juicing are the summer valencies. When valencias are unavailable we have to use navels which sometimes tend to make the juice taste bitter.