V&V Walsh General Manager Brent Dancer and WA Minister for Agriculture Jackie Jarvis inside the new cold store.

A $50 MILLION investment in the future of Western Australia’s meat and livestock sector has been officially opened by major WA livestock processor, Craig Mostyn Group’s V&V Walsh.

The company’s new state-of-the-art cold store, which can chill or freeze up to 65,000 cartons of beef, mutton and lamb at a time, was officially opened by WA agriculture minister Jackie Jarvis at the company’s abattoir in Bunbury, in front of staff, suppliers and business partners.

The cold store building is three storeys high and covers 4000sq m. A key component is the 26,000-carton automated sortation system, which provides enhanced accuracy and efficiency for both order picking and associated documentation.

The facility has the ability to plate and blast freeze 9000 cartons of meat per day.

Craig Mostyn Group chief executive Wayne Crofts said his company’s investment in the cold store for V&V Walsh would provide significant benefits to V&V Walsh, its suppliers and its customers.

“This is a $50 million vote of confidence in the future of Western Australia’s cattle, sheep and lamb industry,” he said.

“The new facility will increase the capacity of the V&V Walsh operations; enhance its ability to meet the ‘just in time’ demands for modern global supply chains; and will help improve efficiency and product quality. That provides significant benefits to V&V Walsh, the farmers who supply us with sheep and cattle, and our customers.”

Development of the cold store received a $700,000 grant from the State Government’s Value Add Investment Grant Program.

V&V Walsh employs 650 team members at its Bunbury abattoir, which services all major supermarkets and a range of export markets.

Mr Crofts acknowledged the staff and external contractors who had contributed to bringing the cold store online.

“I want to thank all of the contractors involved with the design and construction of this impressive facility as well as V&V Walsh and CMG staff for their work integrating the cold store into our operations while also providing great quality beef, lamb and mutton to consumers in Australia and around the world.”

V&V Walsh produces 45 million kilograms of lamb, beef and mutton annually from one million sheep and 60,000 cattle.

Source: Craig Mostyn Group