Churchill Abattoir for sale: Will Ipswich meatworks start up again?

Plans to restart an Ipswich meatworks, creating hundreds of jobs, have hit a roadblock with the 109-hectare site now up for sale. There is still hope it will come to fruition. Here’s why.

Grand plans to restart an Ipswich meatworks and create up to 600 new jobs can be resurrected with a new owner, according to the man who has run the facility for the past 20 years.

The Churchill Abattoir was one of the city’s biggest employers before it shutdown in 2017.

Managing director Barry Moule announced in September last year he had partnered with Bahrain-based Food for All in efforts to fund the conversion of the facility to export beef and lamb to the Middle East.

Churchill Abattoir managing director Barry Moule.

The announcement came off the back of Australia’s largest meat processing facility shedding 600 workers from the nearby JBS Dinmore plant.

But efforts to secure backing from the state government to the tune of about $40 million to fund the conversion to meet export accreditation have not been successful and Food for All has backed away.

Now the 109-hectare site is back on the market.

Mr Moule said the facility’s domestic licence has been extended for another three years up until August 2024.

“The 600 jobs are easily achieved, it just needs to be recapitalised and those jobs are there,” he said.

“It’s a perfect location. You’ve got the most accessible workforce in Australia. You’ve got transport links with two sets of lights to get to the port. There’s two sets of lights to bring the supply line in from the west.

“It’s got everything going for it. It needs some capital and away it goes.”

The 109-hectare site is on the market once again.

Mr Moule said Food for All was “still in the mix” but believed Covid outbreaks had cooled their interest.

He said he was willing to remain on board if a new owner was found.

“If I’m needed by the guys who are going to chip in some money, I’m quite happy (to stay),” he said.

“We’ve effectively got a white sheet of paper. So if any operator was keen for me to move some equity in there I’m open to that.

“I think I’ve had a good record of 20 years of successfully running it. There’s no reason why there can’t be another 20 years.”

The abattoir is for sale by an expressions of interest campaign which will run until October 6.

Before its closure it exclusively supplied Woolworths with beef in Queensland and New South Wales, processing 2850 bodies a week, with irrigated cropping and grazing land also part of the site.

Former Churchill Abattoir workers met on site last year to discuss the possibility of operations restarting. Picture: Andrew Korner.

The sales campaign is being handled by LAWD and Winten and Co.

LAWD director Simon Cudmore said there had been good interest so far with more than $30 million being sought for the sale.

“It’s come from within the meat industry but people are also looking at it as a change of use,” he said.

“We’ve had interest from interstate but Covid is making it difficult for them to get up here to have a look. (There has been) some international interest as well.

“There’s certainly interest from people in the meat industry to also upgrade the facility and take it to an export abattoir as well.

“There’s the capital expenditure there to do that so we’ve got interest from people to do that. If it’s an export licensed abattoir it would give it a bit more impetus and allow them to export meat directly overseas.”

Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.