CHICKEN producer Ingham’s is investing $275 million into SA, with an estimated 850 new jobs expected.
Ingham’s is expanding its facilities to double its capacity throughout the production chain including breeding, hatching, processing, feed production and product distribution at 15 sites in SA.
These include Bolivar, Edinburgh Parks and Dry Creek and at Monarto, Yumali, Murray Bridge and other sites in the Murraylands.
The expansion will create 385 direct jobs with the company, 465 jobs with contractor firms as well as up to 700 jobs in the construction phase.
Ingham’s executive chairman Mick McMahon said the company has looked to tap into the skilled workforce in northern Adelaide to provide new opportunities to those displaced by the closure of the Holden plant.
“We have already employed some people from this industry in leading positions,” he said.
“(The state’s) policies on planning, biosecurity, animal health and animal welfare and the regulations surrounding food production are also very supportive for this major expansion and our ongoing production.”
Ingham’s already supplies more than one-third of the nation’s chicken production, with SA supplying the eastern seaboard and WA.
With this project, the company will double its rate of ongoing investment in Australia to more than $300 million in the next few years and the majority of that investment will be in SA.
The company’s investment is being supported by a $3.7 million investment from the state government with $2.8m from the Regional Development Fund and $900,000 from Investment Attraction SA.
Regional Development Minister Geoff Brock said the investment would help boost the economic activity in the Murray and Mallee region.
“This funding will support two major Ingham’s projects to establish a new state-of-the-art feed mill at Murray Bridge and construction of four breeding farms at Yumali,” he said.
Investment and Trade Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith said the government has supported Ingham’s through its project due diligence, approval processes, assisting in negotiations with local government and helping to connect the company with skilled workers.
This ambitious expansion by Ingham’s has been strongly supported by Investment Attraction South Australia, our agency that identifies and assists investors to establish or expand in our State.
