Greenham’s $60 million expansion is on track to be completed by October, with an estimated processing capacity of 600 head of cattle per day.
The Tongala construction project is forecast to create 230 jobs during the next 12 months and Greenham’s is already investing in worker accommodation after buying land adjacent to the site.
“Greenham’s built his business here with locals and wants to continue that,” Greenham’s Group general manager operations Tom Maguire said.
“No doubt be some foreign labour that will supplement that, but the focus will be on locals.”
Even the labour on the construction site is 90 per cent local, except for the specialised jobs that had to come up from Melbourne, CAF consulting project manager Tom Lyle said.
“All the contractors to date have been local. The concreters are from Bendigo, plumbers from Bendigo, the civil earthworks guys are from Kyabram,” Mr Lyle said.
The expansion is a joint venture, with CAF providing the space and construction for Greenham’s to fit out its equipment for processing.
The problems with the supply chain, loss of contracts with suppliers, interruptions to workforces caused by the pandemic has caused the cost of building materials like concrete and steel to go through the roof.
“There’s some projects in Melbourne that may have budgeted around $40 million, that’s coming to $50 million on some projects,” Mr Lyle said.
“Timber is in major short supply, concrete is less of a problem, it’s just getting concreters.
“We can’t even get brickies any more, block workers, they’re just hard to get, so we weighed up options between pre-cast and block work because of these issue that are around construction.”
However, they’ve overcome every obstacle and have stayed within budget without having to compromise on the original plans for the new facility.
“We’re committed to getting it done,” Mr Macguire said.
“The owner (of Greenham’s) said this is the most important thing we’re doing right now.”
CAF ensured that only materials that manufacturers would be able to supply within the construction deadline would be used in the project, Mr Lyle said.
Greenham’s also anticipated supply-chain issues early on and ordered their processing equipment in advance and stored them at a factory in Kyabram.
Specialised equipment for the processing factory has been shipped in from all over the world to create a state-of-the-art facility.
The new plant will be the first new abattoir built in Southern Australia since the 80s Mr Maguire said.
“And the reason for it is this used to be a huge dairy industry that’s contracted over time and with all the money government’s putting into irrigation infrastructure, it’s a prime kettle growing area now,” Mr Maguire said.
“We want to give all the farmers around here an option to send their prime cattle ... to a local place.”
Mr Maguire said Greenham’s had a reputation for producing high-quality beef all over Victoria, and even in Tasmania, with many brands coming to Tongala to have their meat processed.
Federal Member for Nichols Damian Drum and National candidate Sam Birrell dropped in on the massive construction project to survey the progress.
Mr Birrell said Greenham’s was a progressive company building in a key part of the electorate where there was a huge demand for meat and livestock.
“This sort of development is exactly what we want to see in regional areas,” Mr Birrell said.
It’s a central hub for surrounding livestock raising areas, and has good transport and logisitcal links with NSW, north-western Victoria, north-eastern Victoria, and good transport links down to Melbourne.
“If elected and if we can continue on in government we want to make those transport links better,” Mr Birrell said.
Greenham’s has not received Federal funding for it’s development, Mr McGuire said.