Ridley Corporation Limited (Ridley) (ASX:RIC) yesterday announced the official opening of the new state of the art extrusion plant in Westbury, Tasmania.
The facility was officially opened by Ridley Interim CEO David Lord, Tasmanian Premier, the Hon. Will Hodgman and Minister for Primary Industries and Water, Mr. Guy Barnett. Wiley were on hand to congratulate and celebrate the event with the team.
Commenting on the opening, Mr David Lord stated “Ridley is proud to have delivered this high quality, state of the art facility for our customers and the industry. This facility allows Ridley to combine its market leading technical and nutritional expertise with world class manufacturing capability. It is a mark of our commitment to the extruded feeds industries and will enable the continued growth and development of these industries. We thank all of our partners involved in this project, including the Tasmanian Government, and our project and engineering partners, and we look forward to the continued success and growth of these industries.”
Wiley Executive Chairman, Tom Wiley, who was onsite to celebrate shared; “This new facility will allow Ridley to continue to grow with customers and facilitate a consistent and efficient supply chain for the long term sustainable production of aquaculture products. Congratulations.”
The facility has the capacity to manufacture an initial 50,000 tonnes of extruded feeds, including both aquaculture and pet food, with capacity to increase if required. Customers in Tasmania, mainland Australia and New Zealand will be serviced by this facility due to its strategic location in the North of the state, facilitating consistent and efficient supply chains.
Ridley received $2 million in grant funding from the Tasmanian Government to support the project, with construction of the facility utilising approximately 550 contractors and sub-contractors, including engineering consultants, civil, structural and electrical services. The facility has also created approximately 20 full time permanent positions.
Wiley Senior Project Manager, Logan Ashmole said; “the Wiley project delivery team enjoyed a great working relationship with all local consultants, subcontractors and suppliers over the course of this project, with over 500 inducted personnel and 14 months onsite. We are proud to share we recorded zero LTI safety incidents. I am looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone and the new challenge of opening the Wiley Launceston office.”
Special thanks to Ridley and Wiley’s project partners; Prodig Earthworks, Crisps / Haywards, Elite concreting, SERS roofing, Kolmark, Bitwise, Graintec, LGPM, Midlands plumbing, Tasbuilt homes and Andritz.
