Nestlé expansion of Smithtown factory in NSW
An $18.5 million expansion of Nestlé’s Smithtown factory on the New South Wales Mid North Coast will create around 30 full time jobs and turn the site into the company’s production hub for its Nescafé Café Menu range in Australia.
NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Stoner, welcomed Nestlé Australia’s investment.
“This is a significant boost for the local economy, both the Macleay Valley and the Mid North Coast more generally,” Mr Stoner said.
“The Smithtown operation has been going strong for around 90 years and, with today’s announcement, I am confident Nestlé will be on the Mid North Coast for many years to come.
“Nestlé is one of the biggest employers here on the Mid North Coast.
“Products manufactured here in Smithtown end up on supermarket shelves around Australia and even overseas.”
Mr Stoner said the NSW Government was committed to supporting business and industry across regional New South Wales.
“The NSW Liberals & Nationals Government has already introduced a Regional Relocation Grant of $7,000 to encourage individuals and families to move from Sydney to regional NSW communities, is targeting 40,000 new jobs for regional NSW under the Jobs Action Plan, and has earmarked 30 per cent of Restart NSW, the capital fund to fix NSW, for regional NSW,” Mr Stoner said.
Nestlé Australia said it was bringing production of Nescafé Café Menu permanently to its Smithtown factory – which also produces the iconic Milo drink – following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in South Korea last year.
Nestlé Australia’s Business Executive Manager (Beverages), Kais Marzouki, said the company’s global head office in Switzerland decided to move production to Smithtown permanently following the factory’s temporary manufacturing stint of Café Menu.
“To move the entire production to Smithtown was a huge logistical operation – we had a team from Nestlé Korea plus interpreters who came out to Australia to help us install the equipment and teach us how to operate the machinery and manufacture Café Menu,” he said.
“Our local team did such a terrific job that the decision was made to invest heavily in the factory and manufacture it full time at Smithtown.”
The $18.5 million will be used to purchase new production lines, machinery as well as packaging equipment, according to the Nationals’ media release. The boost in the factory’s production will require around an extra 30 full-time positions, adding to the 131 people currently employed at the factory.
Up to 4,000 tonnes of Café Menu will be produced for the Australian and New Zealand markets at the factory annually.
“This investment demonstrates Nestlé’s commitment to, and confidence in manufacturing an regional Australia,” said Mr Marzouki.
Dear Mr. Nestle, I read of your expansion at Smithtown with deep interest. I commenced my apprenticeship there as a Fitter and Turner in 1946 and left in 1954 to study Mechanical Engineering at what is now the UTS. I worked for several companies during my working life in the areas of Maintenance Management and Assistant General Manager of a mining company.
However I will never forget Nestles and many of their employees including the Manager Mr. Berger, Alan Francis, Jack Gray, “Bunny” Fern, Brian Hayes, Phil Clarke to mention a few. I have never recovered from the news that you had demolished the Sprat Plant. As an Engineer I would love to visit the Factory, is this possible? Are there any books /magazines or photographsabout the plant and operations. If so I would love to read then. I hope that you may be able to direct me to any further news about “the factory”. My Father, Fred, worked all his life at the factory, first tipping milk cans, then testing milk samples in the lab and finally as a Foreman in the Milo production.
Best wishes to all of you,
From John (Freddy) Hughes.
I would like to hear from anyone from Smithtown, My postal address is PO Box 48,
Bull Creek 6149 West Australia.
John.