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NAB Agribusiness and Monash are once again presenting the NAB Agribusiness Awards for Excellence 2010, demonstrating their commitment to fostering excellence, innovation and leadership within the agribusiness, food, fibre and beverage sectors. The Awards are a highlight of Australia’s agribusiness calendar and are recognised as the premier awards event for corporate and individual achievement within these industry sectors. The Award categories (and their sponsors) are as follows:
Further details of the awards and previous winners are available from www.nab.com/agribusiness. Applications closed on 31 August 2010. Winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner at the Palladium at Crown Towers on 28 October and a full report will appear in a future issue of food Australia. Compass group receives resources sector award The Compass Group has been honoured with the highest praise from the resources industry, winning the inaugural Industry Innovation Award from the Australian Mines and Metals Association. The award was accepted by Compass Group Managing Director Gerhard Poelzl at the AMMA National Conference in Perth earlier this year. The Council recognises the company’s pioneering role in the implementation of indigenous joint ventures and employment strategies. Mr Poelzl said that he was grateful to all of the Compass Group’s employees and clients for allowing it to make these big steps forward in the engagement of indigenous communities. “We’re a proud provider of indigenous employment in Western Australia, and are equally proud of being recognised for great service in the resources sector. Over the last 12 years we have worked hard to develop our dealings with indigenous small business from being an ad hoc process dealing mainly in non-core services to a highly productive relationship that benefits everybody,” said Mr Poelzl. “It is great to see highly skilled members of the indigenous community with the confidence and financial strength to move beyond providing accommodation and support services and into the mining industry, which is the engine room of our national economy. They are contributing in many areas of the industry, including catering, accommodation management, remote site businesses, facilities management and mechanical maintenance. As a consequence of our hard work over these years, a total of seven indigenous joint venture companies were operating last year with annual sales turnover of $154 million,” he added. Compass Group is a market leader in providing food and a range of selected support services to customers in the workplace, in schools and colleges, in hospitals, at leisure or in remote environments within Australia. Compass Group is the leading provider of catering and support services operating at more than 650 locations, employing 12 000 dedicated staff across eight different business sectors throughout Australia. FIA Westpac Food & Beverage Industry Awards The WA Awards ceremony took place on 25 June at the Hyatt Regency, Perth. The formal event commenced with a sampling of WA produce, followed by a gala dinner in the Grand Ballroom, along with the announcement of the 2010 Award winners. In total, close to 100 nominations were received, entering into the eight individual categories: Best Retail Product, Best Food Service Product, Innovation, Environment and Sustainability, Export, Excellence in Supply Chain, Best Marketing Campaign, Excellence in Service to the Industry and the overall Westpac Business of the Year Award. The Westpac Best Food & Beverage Business award was presented to the Chia Company for establishing a profitable new industry meeting consumer health and wellbeing trends in Australia and overseas. The company also received the Best Retail Product Award for their new Retail Health Product Range. Successful product trials to use Chia in bread, pasta, noodles, baked goods, beverages, dairy and meat products have lead to new product developments. The exclusive alliance between The Chia Company and Bakers Delight, saw a Chia Bread Range launched in 640 stores nationally in February 2010. The resulting sales lead to a 200% growth of the Chia Company in 2009/10. The industry is forecast to grow to $20m over the next five years. The other winners were Fonterra Brands Pty Ltd for their new range of Brownes Yoghurt and Grains (Innovation Award); Wescobee Ltd for their successful alliance with Iwantani in Japan growing exports of WA Jarrah and Organic Honey (Best Export Award); Jus Burgers Pty Ltd and Pic Fresh and Perth Inflight Catering for their Picky Packs and Sandwiches – the lighter options of healthy meals for foodservice (Best Food Service Product/Achievement); Woolworths Supermarkets for their Perth Distribution Centre (Excellence in Supply Chain); Dardanup Butchering Company (DBC) for their Evertender Beef (Best Marketing Campaign); Jaymak Perth – Your Peace of Mind is Our Business (Best Service to Industry); and Compass Group (Australia) Pty Ltd for their Origin of Food Innovative Catering Concept (Environment & Sustainability). New certification for Sensient Technologies Sensient Technologies Australia gained approval for FSSC 22000 certification in May 2010, upgrading from its previous HACCP certification. According to Sensient, the FSSC 22000 system has provided a more structured and comprehensive Quality Management System, which assists in providing a high quality of product and service to their customers. The system provides a means of continually monitoring performance to identify areas of improvement. FSSC 22000 incorporates food safety elements already known from previous standards such as ISO 22000:2005, HACCP, BRC and IFS as well as from specifications such as PAS 220:2008. This certification provides Sensient Technologies Australia a means of demonstrating that it has an internationally recognised comprehensive management system that meets the food safety requirements of both customers and regulatory agencies. National vision for Australian seafood industry Seafood industry leaders from around Australia met at Sydney Fish Market early in July during the second residential session of the 2010 National Seafood Industry Leadership Program (NSILP), seeking to develop a national strategic vision for the Australian seafood industry. Hosted by Sydney Fish Market, the three day program delivered by Rural Training Initiatives attracted 18 participants from across Australia. The attendees represented a cross section of the industry, coming from sectors as diverse as research, tourism, aquaculture, biosecurity and fisheries management. Highlights of the program included a tour of Sydney Fish Market’s wholesale auction and retail facilities, a panel discussion on efficiency in the seafood supply chain, tutorial sessions covering topics from team management to industry policy and a gala dinner at Sydney Seafood School which provided an opportunity to network and discuss the industry. Louise Shaw, Marketing Manager at Sydney Fish Market, said, “It is increasingly important that we nurture our emerging leaders to ensure a bright and informed future. The program equips participants with a variety of tools to help communicate effectively with key stakeholders and provides a well rounded perspective of the Australian seafood industry.” As part of the program Ms Shaw hosted a tutorial session on working with the media using case studies from Sydney Fish Market. “A lot of these participants are very apprehensive about engaging with the media. What I try to do in my session is provide an insight into crisis and issues management, as well as highlight the advantages and importance of building and nurturing relationships with the media,” said Ms Shaw. The Sydney residential session was one of three during the six month program. The first session of the program was held in Hobart in March with the final session scheduled for September in Canberra. Over one hundred graduates of all ages and from all sectors of the industry including processing, fishing, extension, exporters, importers, marketing, deckhands and employees have now successfully completed the program. National Foods upgrades dairy manufacture In June, National Foods announced its plan to consolidate the manufacturing operations of its Wetherill Park, Baulkham Hills (NSW), Cobden and Morwell (Victoria) sites. The plan involves a $65.5 million investment in upgrading the Morwell and Baulkham Hills sites, and a phasing out of production and closure of the sites at Wetherill Park and Cobden. There will be 280 redundancies associated with the changes, which will take effect progressively until March 2012. The decision follows an extensive review of the dairy operations following National Foods’ acquisition of the Dairy Farmers business in November 2008. The review identified that it was not sustainable to have four sites producing fresh and longer life dairy foods varieties. Production at the Cobden site, where long life flavoured milk is manufactured, will be phased out and is scheduled to close in December this year. National Foods will phase out production at its Wetherill Park site, which specialises in yoghurt manufacture, and the facility is expected to close in March 2012. To accommodate the additional volume, National Foods will spend $55 million on upgrading the Morwell yoghurt and dairy foods facility in Victoria, and $10.5 million on improvements to the NSW Baulkham Hills milk processing site. This will include upgrading existing equipment, installation of new equipment and training. Coles supports Queensland beef Coles is increasing its efforts to support Queensland’s meat
industry, announcing in June an initiative to encourage purchase of
Queensland beef. The initiative is a partnership between Coles, Australian Country Choice and the National Livestock Identification System and enables Coles to systematically trace the origins of its beef products to ensure that Queenslanders can enjoy quality beef produced within their state. Working for many years to develop a ‘hole-proof’ system, Coles, Australian Country Choice and a key group of Queensland livestock producers known as Colestock are pleased to see the initiative take shape. Coles General Manager of Meat Allister Watson said that after a long-term development period, he and his team are excited to bring to Queenslanders the opportunity to consciously support their own communities and celebrate their great produce. “From Mareeba in the North to Mt Isa in the west and south to the Brisbane Valley, Queensland produces premium quality beef products. This initiative is all about ensuring Queenslanders can easily identify and enjoy these products, with the comfort of knowing they’re supporting locals,” said Mr Watson. Franklins supermarket chain acquisition Australia’s largest independent grocery and liquor wholesaler, Metcash Trading Limited (Metcash), announced in July that it will acquire the Franklins chain of 85 supermarkets, comprising 77 corporate stores plus supply to eight franchised stores. Metcash has entered into an agreement with Pick n Pay Retailers (Pty) Limited of South Africa to acquire the shares of Interfrank Group Holdings Pty Ltd (the company which owns the Franklins business) from Pick n Pay, for a consideration of approximately $215 million. This is to be paid on completion, expected by 30 September 2010. In keeping with its core value of championing its independent retailer customers, Metcash proposes to implement a store sale program upon completion to sell the stores to independent IGA retailers. Metcash will operate the stores in the intervening period whilst the store sale program is completed, which could take several months. Metcash Chief Executive Andrew Reitzer, said, “The IGA network will significantly improve its competitive position against the national chains in Australia’s largest grocery market, NSW, while growing the market share of Metcash supplied retailers in the state from 11% to 17%.” “Metcash expects the independent retailers who purchase the stores will lift each store’s performance through the successful combination of their own retailing expertise and through utilising the strength, services and support provided by Metcash; especially our national buying power, world class supply chain and marketing and merchandising programs. These stores will be able to take advantage of our favourable arrangements with suppliers to achieve more competitive pricing deals. Consumers and independent retailers in NSW are big winners from this deal,” he added. The acquisition is expected to add more than $500 million per annum of wholesale sales to Metcash’s business. The uplift in the first full year after selling the stores is expected to be between 1.5 cents and 2.0 cents per share. The transaction is subject to, among other things, ACCC approval and will be funded from existing Metcash bank facilities. Sustainability award to food Australia’s printer Ligare Pty Ltd, who have been printing food Australia since 2008, has received a bronze award for its ongoing commitment to reduce energy consumption in the Sustainability Advantage program. Developed by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, Sustainability Advantage is designed as a series of consultative modules to assist NSW business and corporations to develop and implement a comprehensive action plan that integrates sustainability into operational objectives. Ligare was one of only three printers honoured this year. Cliff Brigstocke, group CEO of Opus Print Group, of which Ligare is part, and who was involved in the start up of the program, believes that it is good recognition for the company. Joining the program in 2009 as part of the company’s ongoing
commitment to a better environment, Ligare is currently working through
its fourth module, Resource Efficiency, with a view to attain the Gold
recognition in 2012. Operationally, the integration of sustainable objectives in management decisions has already proved effective, with the business looking to save over 340 000 litres of water every year with the installation of a new Fuji plate maker in June, which effectively reduces prepress water usage to zero. Ligare also has chain of custody accreditation for PEFC paper (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification), which was used for food Australia March 2009–July 2010 issues and for FSC paper (Forestry Stewardship Council), being used from August 2010. Award for retail excellence Australia’s second largest pizza maker Eagle Boys Pizza has been named Joint Winner of the 2010 Australian Business Award for Retail Excellence in recognition of its recent growth, achievements and contribution to the industry. Eagle Boys was selected from 186 entries from a range of Australian private and public companies and organisations. The Australian Business Awards is a national awards program honouring organisations that demonstrate the core values of business excellence, product excellence, sustainability and commercial success in their respective industries. The award concludes a ‘winning 12 months’ for Eagle Boys, during which time it overtook Pizza Hut to become Australia’s second largest pizza maker. During the past year, Eagle Boys has also opened more than 40 additional stores and recorded more than a 15% increase in sales on the back of a menu overhaul. Eagle Boys CEO Todd Clayton said that the company was honoured to receive the recognition, which was testament to the hard work and dedication of all staff and franchisees. |
Since
the company’s establishment in 2005, the Chia Company has evolved
to become the world largest producer of Chia with bulk exports to the
US, NZ and South Korea. The Company has successfully launched a range
of health products for the retail market with a 20 fold sales increase
since early 2010.
