Tongala’s former Nestlé factory is expected to reopen as soon as July after a New Delhi businessman announced his new company, Tongala Nutrition, would be operating from the site.
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The factory is expected to employ at least 15 people in the initial stages of operation to work in the production of nutritional product packaging.
Tongala Nutrition founder and managing director Siddharth Jani met with Tongala community leaders less than two weeks ago — fittingly at the Tongala Hotel — when he announced his plans to have the factory up and running by the middle of the year.
“We are still getting the site up and ready, hence there is not much to share,” Mr Jani said.
“We are planning an official launch in April-May when we will have more clarity on start dates.
“The lunch was great as it allowed us to meet community leaders.”
On the Tongala Nutrition website, Mr Jani and his chief commercial officer, Phillip Gomizel, explain the site was able to produce 18,000 Tetra Pak products an hour and potentially 100 million a year.
Tetra Pak is a multi-national food packaging and processing company headquartered in Switzerland. The company offers packaging, filling machines and processing for dairy, beverages, cheese, ice-cream and prepared food.
Tongala Nutrition is the latest addition to Tongala’s burgeoning industrial scene, which is expected to grow further with a multimillion-dollar hydroponic tomato complex being developed on the outskirts of the town.
That development is likely to create significantly more employment opportunities and, coupled with the already successful Greenham’s abattoir, livestock feed manufacturer Coprice and milk-transport company McColl’s, the excitement in the town is palpable.
Mr Jani has become a well-known figure in the town in a short time and even made an appearance with Tongala’s B-grade cricket team two weeks ago.
If his on-field performance on that occasion is any indicator, the business is assured of success. While he only made four runs with the bat, he took two vital wickets late in the innings to help the team to victory against Colbinabbin.
Mr Jani was chief executive of Indian-based company Health91 from April 2022 until March 2023, having spent almost a decade before that developing New Delhi company Knowell Pharma Solutions, of which he was co-founder and director.
That business, in a company profile, was described as a “young group run by dynamic entrepreneurs having the intense knowledge about the use of ingredients for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical market”.
His Health91 business was designed to collaborate with medical institutions and professionals across India to offer a wide array of medical specialities.
The 24-hectare Tongala site, which has 23,000 square metres of buildings, is expected to have between 15 and 30 employees initially.
A LinkedIn post by former senior diplomat Mark Morley was glowing in its praise of Mr Jani’s decision to partner with regional Victoria.
“Proving it takes time and patience to make a great dent in food and agriculture investment, last week, I had the great pleasure to drive north to see Siddharth Jani, incoming CEO and owner of Tongala Nutrition in northern Victoria at his new site — the former Nestlé factory in Tongala,” Dr Morley said.
“Sidd and I met in Delhi when Sidd was on a special investor program led by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) to fast-track investment into Australian food and agriculture.
“He’s now made that major investment, and spearheading a push into dairy nutritionals near my home town!
“Another mate, and dairy guru, Phillip Gomizel joins Sidd to drive the business in the new year, and I can’t wait to see what they do with the site.”
The Tongala dairy plant, which has 100 years-plus of history of delivering the highest-quality dairy products, is equipped with world-class Tetra Pak processing and packaging machineries and state-of-the-art technology.
“As new custodians of this historical plant, we endeavour to bring new and exciting products to consumers all over the world,” Mr Jani said.
In October 2012, Nestlé Australia spent $17 million expanding the factory, building a new liquid manufacturing unit.
The factory was transformed into a state-of-the-art facility for a health sciences business, becoming a manufacturing hub for Oceania, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Following 18 months of construction work, including rebuilding and refurbishing part of the existing site and installing new production lines, the factory manufactured hospital-grade ready-to-drink liquid supplements, such as Resource, Isosource and tube-feeding solutions for sick people who were unable to consume normal food.
During that development by Nestlé, 80 contractors were employed and up to 30 new positions were created.
At the time, the Nestlé regional business head for Nestlé Healthcare Nutrition, Paul Bruhn, described the site as a world-class manufacturing facility with enormous potential for growth.
The factory was manufacturing 7000 tonnes of product annually by the end of 2013, giving it the capacity to supply Australia and other countries in the region.
The factory also produced evaporated and condensed milk and products from the Maggi range, including 10-Minute Marinades and Just One Pan.
On August 28, 2019, Nestlé announced the closure of the factory, advising staff that it would delay closing the dairy section of the factory until early 2021.
It said the decision had been made out of an abundance of caution to ensure products remained on shelf for consumers.
All 106 roles at the factory were made redundant, despite Nestlé having invested to improve the viability of the factory by adding new product ranges — including the production of Maggi culinary products since 2010, Nestlé Health Science medical nutrition products from 2012 and Milo Ready to Drink since 2017.
More than 150 jobs were lost at the same factory in 2005.
At the time of the closure, Nestlé said the site would be vacated and sold. Equipment at the site was either owned by Nestlé or leased, and as it would be relocated, was not part of the sale.
Production was moved to off-shore factories, mainly in New Zealand. The factory, which the company bought in 1971, mostly produced tinned-milk products.
The closure was the biggest to hit the region since January 2018, when more than 100 jobs went at Rochester’s Murray-Goulburn factory, that town’s largest employer.
This latest news is a major boon for Tongala and the region.
The Free Press plans to speak with Mr Jani in the coming weeks as more information becomes available on the reopening of the factory.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor