An Australian-owned food processing company has bought the former Golden Circle site in Mill Park and hired 35 of its former staff.
The takeover by LangTech comes a year after Heinz-owned Golden Circle announced it would close the Mill Park plant, relocate its operations to Queensland and axe 123 jobs.
State Development Minister Peter Ryan announced at the Heaths Court site last week that 35 retrenched Golden Circle staff had been re-employed and 40 new jobs created. The company also plans to move its head office and research and development arms from Sydney and is in the process of closing down a plant in Laverton and transferring its operations to Mill Park.
LangTech, a food and ingredients manufacturer, will convert the site from a conventional juice facility to a high-tech plant producing specialty juices and concentrated nutrient drinks for export.
In exchange for state government funding, the company is also required to purchase its fruit from Victorian growers.
Chief executive Bill Nikolovski said the company was already sourcing produce from Victoria. “Whatever we can buy from the Goulburn Valley we will,” he said.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union regional secretary Tom Hale said LangTech had offered only part-time contracts to the 35 former Golden Circle workers.
“They accepted redundancy from Heinz and some were offered casual work through a labour hire company,” Mr Hale said. “LangTech has recently offered them part-time contracts.”
Mr Ryan’s senior media adviser, Les White, said the government funding had come from the Business Assistance Program.
But the Labor MP for Mill Park, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the government ignored 123 workers facing job losses 12 months ago when Heinz was walking away from Mill Park.
“Now we have an election coming, the Napthine government has suddenly discovered an interest in jobs for our community,” she said
