Director Michael Robertson said it had been a "long journey" since the land for the manufacturing hub was bought in 2018 , with the project pushed out by at least 12 months.

"It's been a slow burn and it's taken a while to get here, but now that we're here, we've just got to get it going," he said.

"We've got our challenges, but we'll get there ... we've got the right equipment and we've got some good people involved."

Mr Robertson said before the factory was built, the company's operations were spread across five different roofs, including its MacDougall Road facility at Golden Square.

With a 24/7 operation struggling to meet demand, the small space meant the business "physically could not go on", Mr Robertson said.

Workers were building boxes, pealing vegetables and cooking food in different factories, affecting the business' efficiency and growth.

The company was established in 1913 and has been owned by Mr Robertson's family since 1995.

It sources produce from across Victoria and prepares and supplies fresh food to supermarkets, restaurants and schools across Australia.

The company won the manufacturing award at the 2023 Bendigo Business Excellence Awards.

Since 2014, the company has also created ready-made meals under the Simply Tasty brand, the third largest ready-made meals business in the country behind Youfoodz and My Muscle Chef, Mr Robertson said.

Ready-made meals was the "biggest growth market", and JL King and Co was one of few manufacturers in Australia with a "full cycle of products" including raw produce and cooked food.

"We look at MyMuscleChef and YouFoodz, they revolutionised the industry and their growth from what we've seen has been absolutely phenomenal," he said.

"We compete against them, we know we're not as big as them, but we think for every hundred meals they sell, if we can sell one we're rapt."

The new factory had been fitted out with brand new technology and cooking equipment.

Highlights of the factory floor included a 12-metre long pasta cooker capable of cooking and chilling 700 kilograms of pasta in an hour.

Other equipment meant 600 kilograms of fried rice could be cooked and chilled within 45 minutes, and 600 litres of Bolognese sauce could be cooked in an hour.

"The quicker you can a product it chilled, the better your product is, the safer the product is and the better shelf life your product will have," Mr Roberston.

"Every bit of equipment put in here has been about being able to go from raw to chilled without people actually physically getting their hands [on] and having to move that product around and touch it."

Keeping the new factory in East Bendigo, the suburb where Mr Robertson grew up, was essential he said.

The business had grown from just three staff in 1997 to about 170 full-time staff and growing to meet demand of the business.

Staff were employed from across the region, Mr Robertson said, either working in the factory, the kitchen or front office.

"To have a reasonable parcel of the land five minutes from the CBD... it just made sense," he said.

Mr Robertson said the new factory was made possible through using as many local trades as possible, including Franklin and Walsh Builders, Dobeli Electrical, GRG Engineers, Pro Services Bendigo, and Centre State Engineering.