Tongala’s former Nestlé factory may reopen as soon as July, after an Indian businessman announced his company, Tongala Nutrition, would operate from the site.
The factory is expected to employ at least 15 people in the initial stages of operation to work in the production of nutritional product packaging.
Tongala Nutrition founder and managing director Siddharth Jani met with Tongala community leaders recently when he announced his plans to have the factory up and running by the middle of the year.
“We are still getting the site up and ready, hence there is not much to share,” Mr Jani said.
“We are planning an official launch in April-May when we will have more clarity on start dates.”
The Tongala Nutrition website says the site was able to produce 18,000 Tetra Pak products an hour and potentially 100 million a year.
Tetra Pak is a multi-national food packaging and processing company headquartered in Switzerland. The company offers packaging, filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice-cream and prepared food.
Tongala Nutrition is the latest addition to Tongala’s industrial scene, which is expected to grow further with a multi-million-dollar hydroponic tomato complex being developed on the outskirts of the town and already includes Greenham’s abattoir, livestock feed manufacturer Coprice and milk-transport company McColl’s.
The 24-hectare factory site, which has 23,000 square metres of buildings, is expected to have between 15 and 30 employees initially with Tongala Nutrition.
The Tongala dairy plant, which has a 100 years-plus history of delivering dairy products, is equipped with world-class Tetra Pak processing and packaging machineries and state-of-the-art technology.
“As new custodians of this historical plant, we endeavour to bring new and exciting products to consumers all over the world,” Mr Jani said.
In October 2012, Nestlé Australia spent $17 million expanding the factory, building a new liquid manufacturing unit to produce hospital-grade ready-to-drink liquid supplements.
At the time, the Nestlé regional business head for Nestlé Healthcare Nutrition, Paul Bruhn, described the site as a world-class manufacturing facility with enormous potential for growth.
The factory was manufacturing 7000 tonnes of product annually by the end of 2013, giving it the capacity to supply Australia and other countries in the region.
The factory also produced evaporated and condensed milk and products from the Maggi range, including 10-Minute Marinades and Just One Pan.
On August 28, 2019, Nestlé announced the closure of the factory, advising staff that it would delay closing the dairy section of the factory until early 2021.
At the time of the closure, Nestlé said the site would be vacated and sold.