Thomas Foods and CP Group to develop food processing centre in South Australia

Adelaide-based food company Thomas Foods has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group for the construction of an advanced food processing centre in South Australia to produce ready-made meals for export.

The new facility is expected to create a significant number of jobs for workers of car maker Holden, which is set to axe close to 1,000 workers from its assembly plant in Adelaide’s north in 2017.

Thomas Foods CEO Darren Thomas was quoted by ABC as saying: "It will be one of our company’s biggest investments so it’ll be in the millions of dollars and the jobs will be there and they’ll be significant."

As part of the agreement, Thomas Foods and CP Group will construct the advanced food processing centre to prepare packaged foods that will be exported across Asia and the world.

The MoU followed a recent South Australian trade mission to South East Asia during which the two companies were introduced to each other by the state government and Austrade.

While premier Jay Weatherill said that the location for the facility had not been decided, he wanted it to be brought up in the northern suburbs.

Weatherill was quoted by ABC as saying: "While manufacturing generally in South Australia has been in decline, food manufacturing as a category has actually been going up. So there are bright spots in the manufacturing sector and food is one of them."

Established in 1988, Thomas Foods has annual revenue of $1.3bn and exports its products to 80 countries.