Page 24 - Packaging News Magazine May-June 2018

24
FMCG PACKAGING
Future looking peachy
Iconic Aussie food company SPC has hit its 100-year milestone,
a significant achievement given the adversity the company has faced in recent years, coming dangerously close to closure. But under new leadership, and with $100m recently invested in new packaging and processing technology, SPC has turned a corner. Lindy Hughson reports.
www.packagingnews.com.au
May-June 2018
N THE HEART of Victoria’s beautiful Goulburn Valley lies the town of Shepparton, home to the Sheppar- ton Preserving Company (SPC) that was founded in 1918 and which, ever since, has been the chief em- ployer in the region and the back- bone of the local community.
At the company’s recent centenary celebration, SPC MD Reg Weine de- livered a ‘canned’ history:
“In September 1917, when Sheppar- ton was suffering from the rigours of a wartime economy and a scarcity of la- bour, a large meeting of growers and townspeople formed the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Co Ltd – a co-opera- tive, an unlisted private company through which shares would be taken up by the settlers and townspeople.
At the time the press described the growth of the company as “one of the greatest romances in rural develop- ment ever achieved in Australia”.
Despite this flourishing start, SPC has faced many setbacks and chal- lenges during its 100-year history.
“In more recent times that in- cludes the rising cost of key inputs
(energy, labour, packaging), cheap subsidised and inferior imports that flood our market... and the apprecia- tion of the Aussie dollar, which di- lutes our cost competitiveness in ex- port markets,” Weine says.
The challenges he describes, com- pounded by an inefficient plant op- erating outdated machinery, brought the company very close to collapse in 2014.
So, when the $100m joint invest- ment from parent company Coca-Cola Amatil [$78m] and the Victorian Gov- ernment [$22m] saved SPC from im- minent closure and, in the process, thousands of jobs in the Shepparton plant and down the supply chain, the regional community’s collective sigh of relief must have been palpable.
Just over three years on, following this healthy capital injection and an announcement of more to follow, there’s a positive air of anticipation that pervades the now partially re- furbished factory as I do the whistle stop tour, ably guided by Simon Tay- lor, SPC’s GM Manufacturing.
Taylor, who has in the last decade
ABOVE RIGHT: SPC managing director,
Reg Weine: Cautiously optimistic about SPC’s growth prospects.
BELOW: The new Gualapack pouch line, supplied by Auspouch, is installed in a purpose-built high care area.
of his career become somewhat of a makeover artist for ailing manufac- turing plants, has a spring in his step. It’s easy to see why. The trans- formation that he’s overseeing is re- shaping the company’s future, en- abling SPC to leverage technology to drive growth and focus on core strengths, while streamlining costs and efficiencies.
IN WITH THE NEW
At this phase in the reconstruction, the massive factory is a showcase of the shift from 1920s cannery to a modern day, high tech food process- ing facility. In large tracts of the plant, high speed processing and packaging lines are juxtaposed with equipment that, let’s just say, borders on the quaint and historically significant.
The largest and most complex line in the 114,000m2 factory is the new $36m tomato processing and packag- ing line, which is in full flight when I visit, coinciding with tomato har- vesting season.
The massive line, which will pro- cess 45,000 tonnes of fresh tomatoes this season, requires sophisticated or- chestration to streamline each pro- cess so that throughput is maximised.
The multi-stream line is capable of