Australia’s first purpose-built, food and beverage manufacturing precinct, to be based at Sunshine Coast Airport, is set to turbocharge our home-grown industries.
The collaborative Turbine Precinct is designed to drive innovation, reduce barriers to scale, increase productivity for food and beverage manufacturers and open up new national and international export markets.
The project, led by the Food and Agribusiness Network (FAN), will position the region as an epicentre for supporting food and beverage businesses to scale up.
It has been made possible with the support of an $8.78 million Federal Government Grant from the Modern Manufacturing Initiative Translation Stream.
Federal Member for Fairfax Ted O’Brien, who made the funding announcement, said the precinct would take the local manufacturing sector sky high.
“The Turbine Precinct’s unique end-to-end, collaborative design will transform the food and beverage manufacturing sector on the Sunshine Coast and draw international attention,” he said.
“This model is an Australian-first. The Turbine Precinct will provide local food and beverage businesses with end-to-end support and it will be the envy of the world.
“This Federal funding directly supports the development of the Turbine Precinct’s common-use infrastructure, collaborative manufacturing services and research capabilities.
“This means that local start-ups will have access to the equipment and resources required to go to market and the advanced infrastructure and networks to scale globally.”
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor with your name and suburb at Sunshine Coast News via: news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au
The Sunshine Coast Airport base will give local businesses the unique ability to more easily access domestic and international markets and leverage a range of free trade agreements that the Australian Government has recently secured.
With strong support from key stakeholders, FAN and the Queensland Drinks Accelerator (QDA) led the collaborative funding submission.
FAN CEO Emma Greenhatch was excited to reveal the preliminary plans for the innovative manufacturing hub that FAN had been advocating for the past five years.
“We’re delighted by the Federal Government’s support of the Turbine project through the announcement of this funding,” she said.
“The vision of the Turbine Precinct is to create a blueprint for the future of Australian food and beverage manufacturing, where industry, research, government and education and training providers collectively unlock growth and drive innovation.
“Over the past six years, FAN has created a unique, collaborative ecosystem to support the growth of the food and agribusiness industry in the greater Sunshine Coast region. Turbine will take this to the next level, providing advanced manufacturing capability, critical services and education and training to turbocharge industry growth.”
Sunshine Coast Airport CEO Andrew Brodie welcomed the funding announcement.
Like stories about Sunshine Coast people doing great things? Help us deliver more by registering for our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article.
“The opportunity to have Australia’s first purpose-built food and manufacturing facility located at our airport will directly benefit our community through the jobs and business growth it creates,” he said.
“While we are still in the initial planning stages, we are excited by the opportunities this will create for our region and this facility is consistent with our vision for the airport as outlined in our Airport Master Plan 2040.”
QDA founder Simon Michelangeli said the Turbine Precinct would have significant impact for the region’s beverage businesses.
“Our export-ready facility will work with co-located beverage businesses and a range of contract customers – from Queensland start-ups to global beverage brands.
“Collaboration between a broad range of like-minded partners will create an end-to-end innovation ecosystem that will enable us to develop and commercialise new products and help high-growth-potential businesses to scale to achieve national distribution and open up export markets.”
Planning is under way for the Turbine Precinct to start operations later in 2023, with an initial focus on beverage manufacturing.
Local journalists supporting local people. Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article.
The precinct will evolve to include advanced food manufacturing from 2024.
The Manufacturing Translation Stream is part of the Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy and provides businesses with funding for projects that translate high-quality research into commercial outcomes and support businesses to scale up and be more competitive and resilient.
The grant provides co-funding to support businesses to adopt new technologies and improve their manufacturing processes to boost productivity and competitiveness.
The project is supported by key stakeholders including the University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Council, Regional Development Australia Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Business Council and Food Innovation Australia Ltd.
