D’Orsogna receives $1 million WA Government Investment Grant

Everyone knows the D’Orsogna, third generation family small goods business in Palmyra, don’t they? At the corner of Leach Highway and Stock Road? Of course they do!

As we reported not long ago, this year D’Orsogna celebrated 75 years as a family-owned WA business supplying quality food nationwide.

Freo folk particularly became aware of the business when it popped up with a new plant in Palmyra in 1973, just after the old High Road was replaced by the new Leach Highway in 1972.

Well, the D’Orsogna plant plainly isn’t going anywhere else any time soon as it has just received a $1 million boost with the injection of a $1 million ‘WA Government Value Added Investment Grant’ to help expand and upgrade salami and fresh meat production facilities at the Palmyra headquarters.

You will be interested to learn that to be be eligible for such a grant, the application must relate to food and beverage manufacturing or other forms of value add processing to primary production in WA; and the applicant must meet ALL of the following criteria:
* Be a private sector business (including incorporated trustees), public companies, grower cooperatives, or similar organisations that have an ABN, and are registered for GST;
* The project must be located in, or looking to relocate to, regional and/or metropolitan WA;
* Be capable of entering into a legally binding agreement with the WA Government;
* Have the financial capacity to fund the minimum cash contribution;
* Have been in operation for a minimum of twelve months (Feasibility Stream) or two years (Capital Investment Stream) or a similar established track record;
* Projects must also comply with requirements subject to each stream.

MLA for Bicton Lisa O’Malley, D’Orsogna board member Eugene D’Orsogna, WA Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis and D’Orsogna board members and executive celebrate at D’Orsogna’s Palmyra, WA headquarters after the announcement by Minister Jarvis of the $1 million Value Added Investment Grant.

D’Orsogna Managing Director Jason Craig said the grant, announced recently at D’Orsogna by WA Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis, will be ‘co-invested’ in establishing automated manufacturing technologies to increase capacity and efficiencies in the production of cooked sausages, including cabanossi, tasty sticks and fermented salami products. In addition, the boning room will be upgraded with lay-out changes to increase meat volume throughput and a packing area transformed with new equipment for more efficient transfer of fresh meat into retail-ready packaging.

If you are wondering exactly what ‘co-invested’ means in this context, well, it means that D’Orsogna will match (and/or add to) the WA Government $1m funding. So, $2 million will be invested in the upgrades. But, in case you are also womdering, it doesn’t mean the Government takes equity in the business. The just a grant designed to assist healthy WA businesses further expand for the good of the WA economy.

In this case, it means at least 10 full time equivalent roles will be created in the process, adding to Palmyra’s existing workforce of 500 and complementing D’Orsogna’s Merrifield, Victoria, production plant which employs a further 300.

Eugene D’Orsogna, a D’Orsogna board member, said the third generation WA family business had always prioritised innovation and investment to lift productivity where opportunities for product improvement and market penetration had been identified.

He acknowledged the shared vision of the company’s family, all of whom had a steadfast commitment to a food business focussed on producing quality meat products, many of which still honoured and reflected the Italian heritage of D’Orsogna’s founding fathers.

“The Palmyra plant has been D’Orsogna headquarters since 1973 and the family continues its 75 year investment in WA with the assistance of this Value Added Investment Grant. We thank the WA Government and DPIRD for their continued support of food manufacturing.” Mr D’Orsogna said.

Mr Craig said the investment in WA will benefit the state’s pork industry through increased demand and provide ongoing skilled employment opportunities within the meat industry.

He added that the product development was core to D’Orsogna’s business and its dedicated product development team constantly reviewed product offerings to develop new lines to fit market niches and meet emerging consumer eating and buying patterns.

By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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