Potential greenfield site identified as home for new Thomas Foods abattoir
For Darren Thomas, his family and the Murray Bridge community, January 3, 2018, is a date forever “etched in our memories”. It was the day the Thomas Foods abattoir came crumbling down. After vowing to rebuild, what is the plan?
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For Darren Thomas, his family and the Murray Bridge community, January 3, 2018 is a date forever “etched in our memories”.
It was the day an intense fire ripped through the Thomas Foods abattoir, sending a thick plume of black smoke into the sky from a blaze that would take a week to extinguish.
Miraculously, no workers were injured – a testament to the staff and more than 100 Metropolitan and Country Fire Services crews which attended to fight the fire.
Now, one year on from the devastating blaze, chief executive Darren Thomas revealed the company’s future in Murray Bridge.
“Our engineering and design teams have been working diligently behind the scenes and have made significant progress as we determine future opportunities,” Mr Thomas said in a statement.
“We have identified a greenfield site in Murray Bridge that may be appropriate for a rebuild and have spent the last three months working feverishly to prepare an extremely detailed feasibility plan.
“We have also engaged internationally renowned food processing infrastructure experts who are leading our design of a world-class processing facility.”
However, Mr Thomas would not elaborate on the proposed site and said further discussions with key stakeholders were needed before their vision was realised.
“These include certainty around the critical regional infrastructure required to support a development of this magnitude and the availability of a skilled workforce in the start-up phase and over the long term,” he said.
“All of these we believe we can overcome with the support of the community, regulatory authorities and various government agencies, both federal and state.”
A day after Australia’s largest family-owned abattoir went up in smoke, the Thomas family vowed to rebuild and, in April, they said it would top $300 million.
The fire had been accidentally caused by a welder working on an offal bin.
The company redeployed most of its 900-strong permanent workforce to its other abattoirs in Tamworth and Lobethal, with 500 seasonal workers let go after the fire.
“We acknowledge that there hasn’t been an easy outcome for everyone and that some people have been impacted harder than others,” Mr Thomas said.
“Despite this, the efforts of our staff to overcome obstacles and minimise disruption to our global operations has been nothing short of extraordinary.”
In 2018, Thomas Foods grew its international operations to include an office in Japan and an equity partnership with Luiten Food in the Netherlands.
Mr Thomas said a tender for the construction of the new plant would be issued in a “few months”. The cost of the fire has never been revealed.
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