Tru-Cape and Pink Lady® apples 100th Cape Epic stage wins
Theresa Richards of Top Fruit with Marc Erasmus of The Absa Cape Epic.
Tru-Cape, the largest marketer of South African apples and pears and responsible for the livelihoods of over 15,200 people in the Western Cape economy and Pink Lady® apples, have been recognised as the winner in The Cape Epic’s flyover competition.
Marc Erasmus, Stage Location Manager for The Absa Cape Epic and responsible for the flyover competition, explains their involvement: “We wanted to create local excitement around the various stages of the Cape Epic Challenge and so invited landowners and interested parties to take part in a flyover activity that could be seen from the helicopters filming the Epic. Six companies participated but Tru-Cape and Pink Lady’s use of the children from local Ceres school Die Eike and clever placement of a Tru-Cape Pink Lady® branded truck from Van der Vyfer Transport to create a “one” while the kids created two vast circles to spell out 100 at the 100th Stage was what won the R5000 prize.”
Ralmond Cupido, Principal of Die Eike School described the day, held on Tru-Cape chairman Pieter Graaff’s Die Eike farm, as memorable. “It was truly an enjoyable day for the school to be part of and we appreciated the fruit and other goodies we received on the day. Not only was it an eye opener to see the progress from orchard to the end packaged product that is enjoyed here, and in over 100 countries overseas, but also the highlight was surely the low overflight of the helicopter which we were all talking about for the following days,” he says.
Tru-Cape’s Marketing Director Conrad Fick said that the fact that Hannes and Sakkie Hanekom were competing in the Cape Epic and that the 100th Stage passed through their farm was what made Tru-Cape’s sponsorship, together with Pink Lady®, so special. “The R5000 prize money from the flyover competition was equally shared between Die Eike school and the Tygerberg Breast Cancer Transport Fund for which Hannes and Sakkie were raising money,” he ends.
Theresa Richards from TopFruit representing Pink Lady® says: “2016 saw the Absa Cape Epic host their 100th stage in the Witzenberg Valley on some of Pink Lady® and Tru-Cape’s apple farms. The route took the Epic riders onto our team’s farm, Welgemeen, using the trails that Hannes and Sakkie had developed and built themselves over the years. This made the 100th stage a very special occasion for our team and using the race as an opportunity to raise funds for the Tygerberg Hospital’s Breast Clinic Transport Fund made our success so much more fulfilling.”
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