Ingham’s to invest over $50m in regional expansion

The poultry producer’s Western Australian expansion will involve relocating existing facilities and selling 40 hectares of land in Wanneroo.

Inghams Group will expand its farming, milling and processing volumes over the next three years, building a new feedmill outside of Perth by 2020 and a new hatchery at a site yet to be determined.

The expansion in Western Australia will require an investment of more than A$70 million ($52.2 million; €46.7 million) by Ingham’s and its contracted partners and will create around 400 permanent jobs through the supply chain, the Perth-based company said in a statement.

The expansion is part of the company’s business strategy, which aims at meeting local market demand with locally grown Ingham’s poultry products.

“To support this WA expansion strategy, Ingham’s will commence the sale of our site in Wanneroo where the existing hatchery and feedmill are located,” Ingham’s chief commercial officer, Quinton Hildebrand, said. “Leaseback arrangements will be part of the sale conditions to cover the construction period for our new facilities,” he added.

Real estate firm CBRE has been appointed to manage the sale and three-year leaseback of the Wanneroo property, which covers an area of 40.5 hectares.

“We anticipate this site will provide a huge vote of confidence for the Perth residential housing market, with its large land area, surrounding amenity and proximity to the sea and city creating strong buyer interest,” Ryan McGinnity, one of three agents handling the sale, said in a separate statement.

According to CBRE, the Wanneroo property, located 1km outside Wanneroo and 24km from Perth’s city center, is one of the city’s largest ever infill sites to be offered for sale, with the scope to accommodate approximately 800 residential lots.

Founded as a family business in 1918, Ingham’s is currently the largest poultry producer in Australia and New Zealand, with 345 facilities and farms across both countries. According to its website, the company is in the early stages of the next phase of its evolution.