SPC Ardmona to upgrade fruit processing operations in Australia

With an investment of A$90m ($89.13m), fruit processor SPC Ardmona plans to upgrade its Goulburn Valley cannery in Shepparton and transform its Mooroopna facility into an innovation centre, both in the state of Victoria, Australia.

The company will use majority of the investment to lower dependency on seasonal fruits, to consolidate tomato operations, and replace caustic peach peeling with steam peeling at the Shepparton cannery.

It will also modernise the plant and the manufacturing equipment to streamline the operations and improve efficiency.

SPC Ardmona expects the project to lower its annual fruit processing costs by about A$12.4m ($12.28m), its annual water use by 242 megalitres and annual energy consumption by almost 55,000 gigajoules at the Goulburn Valley cannery.

Another part of the funding will be used to convert the company’s facility in Mooroopna into an innovation centre, which will feature new food manufacturing technology.

The Victorian government has offered a grant of A$4.4m ($4.35m) for the entire project.

Victoria Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional and Rural Development Peter Ryan said the investment would secure the jobs of 870 employees across the Goulburn Valley and improve the company’s competitiveness by reducing its costs.

"The project will also secure the future of SPC Ardmona’s 275 contract growers and suppliers of semi-processed fruit products such as fruit juice and pulp," Ryan added.

Work on the project is scheduled to start in October 2012 and is likely to be completed by March 2015.