Chicken processor Hazeldene’s is planning a $40 million expansion at its Lockwood manufacturing site, as part of a redevelopment that could eventually increase throughput to almost one million birds per week.
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The company has lodged a planning application with the City of Greater Bendigo to build a secondary processing plant, and has earmarked plans for a third structure to be built in the next five to 10 years, although this is not included in the current application.
Hazeldene’s managing director John Hazeldene said the company, which currently processes 650,000 birds on average per week, hoped to build its capabilities over the next 10 years to 900,000 birds.
The application, which details plans for a secondary processing building, has been submitted to gain an understanding of the most appropriate locations for the facility, Mr Hazeldene said.
“While we have no immediate plans for construction, this initial planning phase will enable us to determine our long-term master plan. Key to this is replacing and modernising our packing areas that were constructed in the early 1980s,” he said.
More than 100 indirect jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase, according to Mr Hazeldene, who said it was unclear how many jobs the additional processing facilities would support.
“It is likely our employment profile will change, with a greater demand for specialist technical roles. It is not expected that employment numbers will grow linearly with bird numbers, but there will be elements of growth throughout our supply chain,” he said.
“The planned developments are initially focused on our key energy sources such as electricity and gas and how we can utilise them more efficiently within the current process.”
Mr Hazeldene said he didn’t expect public resistance to the plan “to be an issue at this stage”, given the company achieved the highest environmental management accreditation possible – ISO14001 – more than a year ago, which he said would guide future development plans.
The company announced plans for a multi-million-dollar expansion in 2012, part of which was funded by the state government.
The expansion was said to create 115 direct new jobs at Hazeldene’s by 2014 and a further 689 indirect jobs in the region, according to the then Deputy Premier Peter Ryan.
