Smallgoods manufacturer Primo is to establish a $70m plant at Wacol as the area’s emergence as an industrial and employment hub gather pace, according to Invest Brisbane, the city’s official investment promotion agency and part of Brisbane Marketing.

Invest Brisbane has been working closely with Primo since 2004 to secure the investment for Brisbane – in particular to ensure infrastructure to the area is suitable for the development, including water, sewer and transport and facilitating a smooth development process in cooperation with Brisbane City Council.

Daniel Havas, Director at Invest Brisbane, said Wacol was successfully reinventing itself from an area with high unemployment to an emerging employment hub of the future.

“More than $135 million of new industrial development is already on the books for 2009 including new projects by Komatsu and Hitachi Construction Machinery,” Mr Havas said. “A recent $25 million investment by Coca-Cola Amatil, facilitated by Invest Brisbane, has also buoyed the area’s economy and the Primo deal will further fuel the momentum.”

Primo Smallgoods’ 18,000 square metre, greenfield factory will be built on Boundary Road, it is valued at $70 million and will reportedly create 425 new jobs.

“Despite the current economic climate Brisbane still has a huge number of companies in the industrial space which are outgrowing their current premises and will need to look for a new location in the next 12 months,” Graham Norris, Divisional Director – Industrial for global property agents Savills, noted.The food processing industry is currently Queensland’s largest manufacturing sector generating $15 billion in revenue annually, representing 37 per cent of the State’s total manufacturing exports and employing 37,000 people.

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