A Scottish-born pet food entrepreneur has committed to retaining the vast majority of 88 workers at a Dubbo factory that has been “bleeding” money.
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Joint managing director of VIP Petfoods Tony Quinn put paid to weeks of worry for most employees of the BestCare plant in Purvis Lane yesterday during a visit to the site that he has bought with the intention of making “more efficient, and better, and then bigger”.
“Ninety-five percent of the staff will be kept on,” he told the Daily Liberal before outlining plans for the factory that faced an uncertain future when parent company Bush’s International went into receivership in late June.
VIP Petfoods, owned and operated by the Australian-based Quinn family, is the world’s largest processor of both kangaroo and chilled pet food.
Its previous entry into the dry pet food market will be bolstered by the BestCare factory where efficiency is set to be the catch cry, in part through a capital injection of “several million dollars”.
Mr Quinn said the Dubbo factory was set to become a “co-packer”, filling orders for “other brands”.
“This plant ... will make products for anybody, who pays the bills,” Mr Quinn said.
“One of the unique characteristics we want to introduce in a big way is the use of fresh meat in dry food.
“We want to make this site synonymous with putting real fresh meat into dry food. A lot of people claim that they do it, but we’re actually going to do a fair portion of it.
“A lot of the capital investment ... will go into that area, which will then set us apart from the guys who are making dry pet food.
“You have to keep making a better product, and keep marching on.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Mr Quinn confirmed he was “happy”with the price paid by VIP Petfoods for Bush’s International assets at Dubbo and Ingleburn, Sydney.
“They fit nicely into our stable of enterprises,” said the man who came out of semi-retirement to head up the family’s latest business expansion.
The transfer will take place on August 24 with Mr Quinn intent on gaining the support of “Australian retailers” to turn around the fortunes of the Dubbo factory that’s “bleeding from its arteries”.
BestCare receiver and manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers Phil Carter yesterday said he was “elated” with the result of negotiations with 70 parties including VIP Petfoods which was “very determined to buy”.
“VIP are not obliged to offer everybody a job, but we’ve struck an agreement with them where they will offer the vast majority,” Mr Carter said.
“They have quite big plans.”
