Hop Products Australia (HPA) has purchased a significant industrial site, which the company says it will use as a pellet plant, packaging line and cold storage facility.
The 22,000 square metre property, found in Myrtleford, Victoria, was previously owned by the Tobacco Cooperative of Victoria and contains four separate buildings.
The project is set to cost $20m, and will ‘effectively double’ HPA’s capacity.
HPA’s Managing Director, Tim Lord, said the purchase was the culmination of long process.
“We’ve had our eye on this property for quite sometime. Fortunately, the timing was right when it was offered for sale,” Lord explained.
Lord also took the opportunity to acknowledge local brewers, saying he was “thrilled to announce we’re continuing the expansion of our Victorian operation, which simply wouldn’t be possible without the support of our brewing customers and the local community.”
HPA’s new facility will allow for the centralisation of the company’s operations – processing and packaging hops from its Victorian and Tasmanian growing region, which HPA estimates will amount to 2,400 metric tonnes by 2024. This is the same year that HPA expects the Myrtleford location to become fully operational, handling ‘every hop bale pressed’ from 2024 onwards.
The move to more centralised operations will allow HPA to further finesse the quality of its finished product, as the company’s Head of Sales and Marketing Owen Johnston outlined.
“The quality of our finished product is critical to our brewing customers’ success. We make it our mission to provide the highest possible quality with the lowest possible variance,” Johnston said.
“Centralising pellet production and packaging in a temperature-controlled environment will help us deliver on this promise and give our brewing customers even greater confidence in Aussie hops.”
This purchase follows significant expansion by HPA over the last decade, with the company investing $50m in farm acreage over the past eight years.
The first hop pellets produced at the Myrtleford location will be available by May 2024.