Feeding Goulburn’s strengths with more local jobs

20/03/2023

The Victorian Government is boosting Goulburn Valley’s strengths as one of Australia’s most important food bowls with support for the expansion of a food storage and distribution centre in Shepparton.

JDK Management has been supported through the Regional Jobs Fund to undertake a $5 million expansion of its Doyles Road site. The project will create 20 new jobs and double the company’s existing storage space, adding an additional 5,000 square metres of ultra-modern cool room facilities.

JDK provides cold and dry storage and container services to multinational food processing and manufacturing businesses, employing more than 40 people across three sites in Shepparton. The project will support JDK to store more food in additional cool room facilities as the companies continue to grow.

JDK is a third-generation family business and plays a crucial role in the food and beverage supply chain in the Goulburn Valley. Operating for more than 25 years, it has grown to become one of the largest storage warehouses in Shepparton.

The business has more than 35,000 pallet spaces of storage in varying temperatures and more than 50 multipurpose individual storage rooms with remote stock and temperature monitoring.

JDK is critical to the region’s agri-food supply chain and operates a specialist transport network with eight prime movers and six refrigerated vans to meet the Goulburn’s food manufacturing and logistics needs.

The multi-million-dollar expansion of the company’s Doyles Road site will reduce food miles, emissions and costs and support the region’s $1.2 billion export market - primarily driven by food manufactured goods.

A 750-kilowatt solar power system and energy efficient cooling towers power JDK’s current cool rooms, with the company continuing to invest in energy efficient systems to underpin the sustainability of the business.

The food manufacturing industry is one of the biggest industries in the Goulburn Valley. It employs three times more people than the Victorian average and accounts for more than 85 per cent of the region’s manufacturing exports valued at $640 million.

The Victorian Government has invested more than $700 million in its Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund since 2015 – supporting around 13,000 jobs and delivering 1,000 projects. The Regional Jobs Fund is part of the Government’s record investment of more than $36 billion in rural and regional Victoria since 2015.