Potato Review

46 POTATO REVIEW MAY/JUNE 2023 READER PROFILE “Things just keep getting interesting” Nick Cesare, Managing Director at PACE Mechanical Handling Ltd, which develops automated packaging and palletising solutions for potatoes, shares his story and his passion for what he considers to be an ever-evolving industry. What did you aspire to be when you were growing up? In my early years, I aspired to be a rugby player. I used to play quite a lot. I left school at 16; I applied for a wireman’s job at Eastern Electric, installing three-phase electricity all across the country. I went for the interview and got through, and then I had to decide on accepting the job or going to America to stay with my father, who had moved to California. I chose America, forgoing the wiring opportunity. I lived with my father for three to four years. My rst job at 17 was in America, working in a McDonalds as this would allow me to meet people. I worked the early shift, from 6am until 2pm and afterwards spent my free time at the beach, swimming and sur ng in the summer and skiing in the mountains at weekends during the winter. How did you embark on your career path and go about achieving your goals? As a massive football fan, I returned to England in 1978 to watch Ipswich Town FC play in the FA Cup nal. I stayed here for six or seven months and then returned to America. On my next trip home, I met my girlfriend, Ann. When I took her to meet my extended American / Italian family in the USA, we decided to settle in the US and were married in February 1980 in Las Vegas. We returned to the UK sometime later, and I applied for a job selling pneumatics. We moved into a house in Peterborough. After a year or so, I was headhunted by WJ Morray Engineering Ltd, who needed a salesperson to work in agriculture. I accepted the role, but it took me six months to sell my rst bagging machine as it’s hard getting farmers on your side! irteen years later, meeting and getting to know people in the industry, including other manufacturers, and having built up detailed knowledge within the vegetable industry, I became set on starting my own business. So, in 1996 I left WJ and created PACE. I wanted to build a machine that would move the potato industry forward. Developing new equipment at a competitive price with the machinery already out there was a hard slog to start with, to say the least. at’s what I’ve been doing ever since. In 2007 we moved to a large farm building near Spalding, and we took a leap with the latest automation and robotics systems, which we started to include in our designs and supply them to farms. I aspire to build the best machines possible, and design and development is a constantly improving and evolving process. We will never say: ‘ at’s it. It’s the end.’ You will never get there. ere is always something new, always something faster, more e cient or cost-e ective. “We will never say: ‘That’s it. It’s the end.’ You will never get there. There is always something new, always something faster, more e cient or cost-eective.”