EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne-based Australian Lamb Company (ALC) has today announced it will take over the ownership and management of the Colac lamb and mutton processing company (CRF Group Limited) on October 1.
Managing director John Verrall has addressed Colac employees at the plant this afternoon, with joint managing director Denis Zarpellon and sons Darren and Ben Verrall.
ALC has been a service customer of the Colac plant for the past 13 years, and this purchase gives the plant a great deal of security going into the future as it completes the final step in the company’s “paddock-to-plate” process, Mr Verrall said.
As from October 1, CRF will be rebadged Australian Lamb Company.
Mr Verrall said it was important for the Colac facility to become part of Australian Lamb Company’s supply chain, and by rebadging CRF as Australian Lamb Company it shows our total commitment to our employees and the lamb and mutton industries.
Founding partners, John Verrall now 50 years in the Meat & Livestock industry and Denis Zarpellon 38 years in the Meat Industry began the ALC business in 1994 in rented accommodation in West Footscray where on their first day of production they employed 23 staff and boned 239 lamb carcasses.
In 1997 when the company unveiled its own state-of-the-art boning room custom built in Sunshine, they had lifted weekly boning production to 5000 lamb carcasses but still heavily reliant on service plants dotted across the eastern sea-board to complete their slaughterhouse needs.
However with the inclusion of the Colac plant under their ownership and management the company’s kill and boning needs will become totally independent of other outside operators as its lifts production to 38,000 units per week.
Mr Verrall said this was a very exciting opportunity for all employees involved in both businesses, and will provide great opportunities as Australian Lamb Company strives to become the best lamb and mutton processor in Australia.
The purchase of the Colac lamb and mutton processing facility will ensure ALC remains at the forefront of the Australian lamb industry.
With the acquisition of this state-of-the-art processing plant ALC’s future is now secure with an emphasis on continuous improvements in production efficiencies, as a leader in exports and domestic lamb and mutton sales.
Mr Verrall said the purchase of the Colac site would provide a great deal of security to the business as one of the largest employers in the Colac Otway Shire for decades to come.
ALC has purchased 100 per cent of the shares in the Colac plant from majority shareholder Brisbane-based EC Agribusiness and the original developer of the site, CRF (Colac Otway).
CRF (Colac Otway) sold half share of the Colac plant to EC Agribusiness in 2011 and then further quarter-share to EC Agribusiness in July this year.
CRF chairman Garry Edwards said the purchase of the CRF Group by ALC represented a natural progression for the development of the CRF business from a service processing works to a fully integrated meat processing
business.
