A milestone today in the history of one of the Far South Coast’s most successful businesses.
The Bega Group is set to unveil the result of a $50-million modernisation upgrade at their cheese manufacturing and processing plant in the town bearing the same name.
Executive Chairman Barry Irvin said the changes have also delivered an extra 100 ongoing local jobs.
“Setting up Ridge St to be globally competitive in terms of the products that we put through here I think has been extraordinarily important and you know quite frankly a great sign for Bega Group in terms of our willingness to invest in infrastructure in Australia,” Mr Irvin said.
“It’s also a great vote of confidence in the region and the capability of the people here and and indeed our our farmers here as well,” he said.
New production lines and robotics have been installed at the cheese making, packing and distribution centre.
Mr Irvin said the upgrade work leaves Bega Group well placed for the future.
“We’ve modernised a lot of the new plant but we’ve also automated and used technology to make both the logistics of bringing product into the plant but also how we automate the palletisation and the way in which the product leaves the plant has all had major investment around it,” he said.
“What’s behind those white walls, you know, to put it in, to put it in maybe my simple terms would blow your mind.
“The amount of robotics, the amount of automation, the fact that we can run very high speed lines that we run, high quality environment, so our product’s got the quality of the product and safety the product is guaranteed, is what’s going on behind there.
“What’s really happened is that we’ve modernised a lot of the new plant but we’ve also automated and used technology to make both the logistics of bringing product into the plant. It’s been new lines, it’s been a high end of automation at the back end of the business and a high end of automation at the logistics side of the business as well in terms of product coming off the lines and being able to be very efficiently managed out onto trucks. It’s been a total revamp of the flow of the factory if you like, as well as some new lines going in there and and lots of robotics and and automation.”
The Bega boss was also full of admiration for his staff and how they handled the disruption during the project.
“I think at different times here we were operating the factory as it existed whilst we had 70 odd contractors on site installing all of the new equipment along with our team,” Mr Irvin said.
“The the fact that they could continue to operate continue to deliver product to our customers around the world and bring it in very close to budget and and bring it in on time was a great effort,” he said.
With a lot more volume going through the plant there’s been aq need to emply a lot more people.
“That’s been that that’s been the key to those new jobs. It’s been I would say not only new jobs, but technical jobs, higher end jobs, so really good for the Valley itself in terms of the sorts of people who we are looking to attract into our business,” Mr Irvin said.
“What’s driven those jobs is the fact that we’ve increased the capacity of the plant markedly, so it’s more volume through the plant, but it is going through more efficiently which is great because we do need to be cost competitive, both in Australia and internationally, especially in times such as these where we’re very aware of issues around cost of living,” he said.
“So, those jobs have been driven by the fact that we are producing more and we’re producing it more efficiently.”
