Tatura

Unilever Australasia today announced that it will expand its Tatura manufacturing operation in regional Victoria to incorporate dry foods. The factory is currently a ‘wet food’ operation manufacturing products such as Continental wet sauces and Lipton Ice Tea. This move represents an investment of $58 million and the creation of 134 jobs over the next five years. 

This follows the announcement on 25 October last year of the closure of its dry foods manufacturing facility at Knoxfield, Melbourne. The decision to close the Knoxfield facility was made due to the need to remain competitive in the market, while at the same time generating sufficient funds to adequately invest in the foods business. The Knoxfield factory produces Continental brand products such as Cup-a-Soup, Pasta & Sauce and Recipe Mixes.

At the time of the closure announcement, Unilever had identified two possible production alternatives:

1)      Transferring dry food manufacturing to the Unilever dry food factory in Thailand or;

2)      Transferring dry food manufacturing to the Unilever factory at Tatura.

The company’s preference was to keep manufacturing within Australia and over the past few months Unilever has been working with the Victorian Government to make this happen.

These talks have resulted in the Government offering Unilever assistance in keeping its manufacturing operations in Victoria and as a result of this, the company has decided to move the Knoxfield volume to Tatura.

John Simpson, Vice President, Supply Chain, said, "We are delighted that our food manufacturing operation will stay within Australia, and the move to Tatura will provide a welcome boost to the local economy and the wider Goulburn Valley region."

Over the past 12 months, the company has regularly updated all 174 Knoxfield employees and their representatives on the progress of this project.  While the Tatura move does not change the outcome for Knoxfield employees, it does mean that the dry foods manufacturing will remain in Australia.

The company announced the move at both the Knoxfield and Tatura sites earlier today. Unilever expects the transfer will start in mid-2007 and be complete in early 2008.

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