Sunshine Sugar has celebrated the opening of their new $9.8 million Logistics Warehouse and Silo Storage Facility at the Harwood Sugar Mill, on Thursday 4 June.
The Federal Government contributed $4.15 million and Sunshine Sugar contributed $5.65 million to this project.
Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan joined with Chairman of NSW Sugar Milling Co-Op Jim Sneesby in the cutting of the ribbon, to officially open the new facility.
Mr Sneesby said that the opening of the warehouse facility will make it a lot more efficient and cost effective to get their product into the marketplace – into the supermarkets and into the warehouses for industrial usages.
“We’re going to be able to take the product from the refinery to the end user. There will be no more storage in Sydney or Melbourne, it will just all go direct.
“Up until now we have had storage in Grafton, Murwillumbah, western suburbs of Sydney. We had a lot of sugar stored in the old brewery in Grafton for some time.
“So, this is our new distribution centre for all our packaged products. We still got our bulk silos over in the refinery and it will go from there to the rail in Grafton and on from there. We still use rail out of Grafton,” he said.
Mr Sneesby said that the new warehouse facility was something that they have been waiting for, for a long time.
“It been a strategic plan for probably 10 or 12 years.
“Since we built the refinery in 1989, we’ve always had this issue with storage and supply and we’ve always wanted a central point where we could supply from – and now we’ve got it.
“We started the earth works here six years ago – it’s taken a long time.
“The Governments Stronger Regions Funds program has been a good one for industries of our size. It’s a 50/50 grant.
“It gives employment security to people in the mill and to our farmers and it’s a benefit to the Lower Clarence area. It’s a good thing,” he said.
Mr Hogan encouraged locals to support Sunshine Sugar by purchasing our local brand sugar.
“CSR is a foreign owned company,” Mr Hogan said.
“If your supermarket doesn’t carry Sunshine Sugar, ask them to get it in,” he said.
