Geelong Woolstores the perfect base for Otway Pork

Otway Pork takes its provenance story seriously, choosing a regional Victorian city for its headquarters to support jobs and maintain a closer link to its farms.

Otway Pork managing director Martin Newnham, right, on a leased farm near Edenhope. Archive picture.

WELL before the pandemic, Otway Pork managing director Martin Newnham knew moving the business’s headquarters out of Melbourne to a regional city just made sense.

“We are a regional business and we support the regions,” said Mr Newnham, explaining Geelong was the perfect place for a home base because it offered proximity to Melbourne customers and easy access to the operation’s farms in western Victoria.

“We’ve recruited into this office from the local area as well,” he added.

Otway Pork runs its retail and wholesale operation from a thoughtfully redeveloped office at 1 Rutland Street, in Newtown, which is part of an exciting redevelopment project called the Woolstores.

The Hamilton Group is completing work on the second stage of the Woolstores redevelopment project. Picture: Supplied.

The newest part of the development is the restored wool storage warehouse, with its Federation-era vaulted ceilings. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Newnham said sharing their provenance story with consumers was an important marketing strategy, and the approach extended to every part of the supply chain including office locations.

The Woolstores precinct is owned by the Hamilton Group and was originally a wool processing and storage operation, built in 1923. The second stage of the precinct’s development is near completion.

Group director Andrew Hamilton said the company aimed to stimulate the local economy with its revitalised old buildings.

“It is about taking the history and enabling it to continue to add to the story going forward,” he said. “We are not trying to making them what they used to be, but we ensure they can continue to have a positive impact on the area.

“What we’ve started to do with these precincts is something that entices business to regional areas. They have lots of garden places, lots of carparking.

“Not because we are trying to replicate the Melbourne CBD, but are offering something totally unique and advantageous to regional Victoria.”

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