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Nutworks Expands Operations to Cooroy
Yandina based Nutworks announced exciting news today with the move to a new processing facility in the Noosa hinterland town of Cooroy on the Sunshine Coast. The Cooroy facility is part of Nutworks’ expansion program to enable operations and processing to meet the domestic and global demand for their products.
Nutworks is a local Sunshine Coast company established in 1993 that is internationally recognised for their commitment to quality and innovation in nut in shell, raw kernel and an exciting range of macadamia products.
Approximately 80 macadamia farmers around Queensland provide product to Nutworks for processing and many of them were treated to a tour of the new facility which included the launch of a new Nutworks product.
The Cooroy facility provides a new product for Nutworks under the label of the Fresh Macadamia Company, a unique roasted-in-shell macadamia with a special cut making them easy to hand crack. The whole macadamias are dried in their shell, pre-cut and then oven roasted, or soaked in a sea salt brine and then oven roasted for a salted version. A unique key to open the shells is included in every pack. These nuts are popular overseas and there is an opportunity to expand this product further in Australia.
“We had been planning to expand our storage at Yandina by the end of the year so this purchase in Cooroy was fortuitous for us as it provides us with so much more opportunity. Our goal is to increase our processing to 5000 tonnes annually within the next 5 years. We plan to be at the forefront technologically to allow us to value add to the macadamia industry, produce high quality products and grow profitability while still retaining our personal relationships with our growers”, said Wayne Gersbach, Nutworks CEO.
“Increasing our processing capacity means we can take more product from growers which is important in an industry that is expanding with many young trees set to increase production in the coming years. That also ultimately means increases in jobs and an overall benefit to the industry whilst at the same time providing consumers with more variety and continually improving products.”
The Yandina facility will continue to run as a retail outlet as well as roasting, chocolate coating and the confectionary line of products. The new acquisition also allows for up to 1 tonne of macadamias an hour to be roasted, which is a massive increase in capability from the current 250kg per hour at Yandina.
Approximately 20 growers from around Queensland were in attendance at the tour and they were impressed by the new facility and the quality of the oven roasted-in-shell product.
“I am very impressed with the Cooroy facility, it gives the company security to go forward. I love the cut nut product, it is much tastier than the traditional roasted nut,” said Candy Johnson who owns macadamia farms at Downsfield and Tandur.
Norm and Donna Anderson have been growing macadamias as a supplement to their cane farm at Childers and their farm has been in the family for six generations over the last 110 years: “We’ve been with Nutworks since we started growing six years ago. This opportunity has come along at a good time and we like the plan for Nutworks to grow while keeping the personal touch which has always been great,” said Donna.
“It’s a spectacular purchase and gives the room for storage and processing. It will ease the pressure on the Yandina facility and give the room for expansion”, said grower Graeme Cheal from Beerwah.
More information and online purchases of the Nutworks products can be found on their website at www.nutworks.com.au with the roasted-in-nut product now available.
