Victorian Foodbowl icon SPC Ardmona will today open its new factory sales outlet designed to help it grow its status as the most popular factory food outlet in the nation.Regional and Rural Development Minister Jacinta Allan will unveil a commemorative plaque to mark the occasion tonight, and today said the factory sales outlet’s new Shepparton CBD location would elevate SPC Ardmona’s already heightened status among tourists.

“The SPC Ardmona factory is not a location – it’s a destination, and one that at least someone in everyone’s family has visited in their lifetime, often bringing cartons of fruit back to share with loved ones,” Ms Allan said.

“It will now be more accessible than ever before thanks to SPC Ardmona relocating it to a CBD shopfront.”

Ms Allan said the new sales outlet was located in Corio Street and would help SPC Ardmona continue to provide even better service to the hundreds of thousands of customers and tourists that visit the factory every year.

“Shepparton’s factory sales outlet for processed fruit has its roots in the 1980s when one ran from a little hut near the Ardmona Factory at Mooroopna, whose main customers were employees and shareholders,” she said.

“SPC and Ardmona merged in 2000 and by this time the factory sales outlet was attracting half a million visitors each year from all corners of the state and the nation.

“It is now one of Greater Shepparton’s major tourist attractions and has become the largest food factory outlet in Australia.”
Ms Allan said the factory outlet’s soaring popularity meant SPC Ardmona had to find a bigger space.

“People can’t get enough of the fruit which is a testament to the claim that Victoria is indeed the foodbowl of the nation,” she said.

“The factory outlet had started with 10 staff and now employs 40 staff.

“Its new location right in Shepparton CBD will increase awareness, particularly for the Melbourne and regional Victorian visitors to the area, and contribute to the region’s economic growth.”

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