By Aaron Cordy
SPC GLOBAL has unlocked $8M in annual savings as it prepares to close the Mill Park, Melbourne site by the end of August 2026. The closure was meant to bring the Original Juice Co products to Shepparton, but in a shift prompted by efficiency, a new co-manufacturer agreement with Fair Dinkum Foods will have the production based in Griffith, NSW.
Shepparton does not miss out, with the production of Juice Lab Wellness Shots and its associated equipment relocating to the SPC facility in Shepparton, creating over 20 new jobs locally.
“Shepparton remains part of the DNA of SPC global. We’re investing in the Shepparton site, spending $3M in moving our production lines that are associated with juice lab shops into Shepparton,” said SPC Global managing director Robert Iervasi.
“I’m aware that we’re the second biggest employer within the Shepparton region. I’m a big supporter of regional manufacturing. For us, it’s not about moving offshore; it’s about modernising our manufacturing to ensure that we’re able to compete, and the best way to compete is by having a factory that produces products that customers want.”
In February 2025, SPC announced plans to close its Mill Park facility and transition production, supported by a proposed $23.5M investment. Following the merger, the Company identified a lower-risk, more capital-efficient model that delivers higher savings with significantly reduced investment and greater operational flexibility across its manufacturing network.
Innovation and consumer-driven products are a key focus at SPC, with the Shepparton site at the centre.
“The pouch line has been underutilised for the last three years and is something that we’ve recently reactivated to recommission. Late last year, we actually sent some Nature One fridge puree for infants and toddlers throughout Asia, manufactured within Shepparton, which was a good test for us to see how the site can operate, reverting back to doing fruit pouches, which has given us the confidence to now launch similar products here in Australia,” said Robert.
“One of the other big changes we made at Shepparton was our big format catering offering. We have some really big cans for food services, caterers or restaurants, which create either tomato paste, purees, etc. We’ve recently converted that into a bag-in-box format. We spent about $200,000 in capital to bring that to life. Our first orders are going out in March. Again, that’s manufactured out of our Shepparton site.
“On Thursday, we announced our half one results. Pleasingly, as a total group, we were able to deliver a normalised EBITDA outcome of $13M, the same period last year was $7.5M.
“Our Australian business, which is primarily the SPC food business out Shepparton, delivered a really strong performance in half one, and made up about $10.5M of that total number, which is $3M up on the same period for the prior year. So, a testament to everyone out in Shepparton and the hard work that we’ve been doing to make sure our products are moving, not only in the local market, but also overseas.”
Despite the positive signs, SPC Global recorded a Net loss of 19.57M compared to 39.74M a year ago. For the half year, the company reported sales were 200.58M compared to 154.88M a year ago. Revenue was 171.5M compared to 131.5M a year ago.
