26 January 1970
Success story for the Mudgee Abattoir
The critics have been floored and the future of the Mudgee Abattoir looks bright following a 30 per cent increase in cattle kill in 1969, over the previous year.
“No-one ever thought the Abattoir would reach this stage,” Ald. C. Croan told Thursday night’s meeting of the Abattoir County Council, during discussion of the production manager’s report.
At the beginning of the meeting, the re-elected Chairman (Cr. Wal Evans), who was re-elected unopposed, told the meeting:
“We had fun and games in the first few years.
“Some people said the abattoir was going to be a “white elephant.”
The facts and figures of the abattoir’s progress, left holders of this opinion “red-faced.”
The abattoir has flourished so well since its opening about five years ago that it is now “bursting at the seams,” in Cr. Evans words.
Future developments at the abattoirs have been planned, and the council will use $275,000 for extensive extensions.
In 1968, 10,018 cattle were killed at the abattoirs.
But in 1969, 14,953 were killed, an increase of 49 percent.
Cr. Evans told the meeting.
“The two boning rooms have been the key to the abattoir’s success.
“We could even handle another boning room.
“Certain other abattoirs have not included boning rooms, and have found themselves in financial difficulties.”
In 1968, 323,208 sheep were killed, and in 1969 the figures rose to 363,618 killed, representing an increase of 12.5 percent.
The pig kill increase was 3.2 percent, with 5,868 in 1968 and 6,060 in 1969.
Total “sheep kill units” for 1968 were 384,662 and in 1969 rose to 458,927, an overall 19 percent increase.
The total of all animals killed at the Abattoirs are calculated in “sheep kill units.”
This unit measure is mainly used for slaughtering tallies and gives the operators a common denomination and overall comparison of the kill.
A sheep is equal to one, while the cattle are equal to 5 sheep killed, and pigs equal to 1¾ sheep.
Boning production in 1969 represented 47 per cent of the total kill production last year, with Charles David Pty. Ltd. killing 151,385 sheep in 1969, compared with 125,013 in 1968.
A. W. Anderson Meat Packing Co. began boning in June, 1969, and killed 22,500 sheep and 9,154 cattle for export for the year.
Meat packed for export for all of 1969 was 1,975 tons of boneless mutton and 655 tons of boneless beef compared to 1,036 tons of boneless mutton and 12 tons of boneless beef in 1968.
For 1969, 1,021 tons of tallow, 1,434 tons of meat-meal were produced compared to 530 tons of tallow and 1,021 tons of meatmeal in 19681
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2 December 2003
Abattoir sold
Mudgee Regional Abattoir has been sold and will be re-opened, according to the team that sold it.
Andrew Smith, one of the team leaders of Prentice Parbery Barilla, said administrator and liquidator Steve Parbery accepted an offer on Friday from a recognised operator, who, Mr Smith said, was the highest complying bidder.
Mr Smith said all offers received for the sale of the Abattoir were positive for Mudgee in that the Abattoir would be re-opened and used as an ongoing meat works.
The abattoir is expected to be back in operation within one to three months.
Mr Smith said he is on the verge of announcing the purchaser, but because of last minute legal requirements - including the need to transfer funds to finalise the sale - could not publicly identify the purchaser at the time of going to press.
Mr Smith said he hoped to be able to announce the company and the price in the immediate future.
Mudgee Regional Abattoir closed on September 8 after the installation of an administrator Steve Parbery of Prentice Parbery Barilla on September 3 under the local Government Act.
Mr Parbery was later appointed Receiver by the Supreme Court, clearing the way for the facility to be leased, sold or liquidated.
In a closed meeting on Monday, September 8, Mudgee Shire Council had refused a request to provide $2 million in financial assistance to cover the abattoir for the next six weeks, because of concern the money might be lost if the abattoir closed permanently, which it did.
More than 254 people were employed directly by the abattoir, while another 200 worked for companies using the abattoir's facilities.
Plans to lease the abattoir while waiting for a successful buyer fell through in October.
A local consortium tried to lease the abattoir and keep some of the people in work, but were beaten by insurance, licensing and legal restraints, however it is believed the consortium then put its efforts into a purchase tender.
Mudgee Shire Council voted to provide $206,500 to prepare the abattoir for the sale pro-cess and the interim lease in the meantime, clearing the way for the abattoir to reopen for trade and re-employ workers.
RABO Bank contributed $270,000 and the NSW Department of State and Regional Development $52,500 to assist the preservation of jobs and sustainable business.
It was expected the abattoir would re-open by lease the next week, but it did not.
At the opening of sale tenders 22 parties had indicated interest in tendering for the works, however, not all did so by the close of tenders on November 2.
The liquidator considered six bids to purchase the abattoir, with tenders closing on November 12.
One result of the sale will be the final disbanding of the Cudgegong (Abattoir) Councy Council, the last of the County Councils set up in the 1960s to reform the meat industry2 .
12 December 2003
Abattoir sale is on hold
The Mudgee Regional Abattoir liquidators say they are waiting at the finish line with six buyers vying to be the winning tenderer, but cannot cross the line and finish the sale of the facility.
Prentice Parbery Barilla officials say they have six buyers waiting - four of them complying with the tender - but the sale of the Abattoir cannot go forward because of legal problems.
"We are waiting to be given the power to deal with them," partner Andrew Smith said yesterday.
"We are just sitting here waiting."
Mr Smith denied reports that Dubbo's Fletcher International Exports was named the highest complying bidder, and that the Abattoir is actually sold.
"A property isn't sold until you have exchanged contracts," he said, adding that all tenderers have been issued with contracts.
"And we can't move on that until given the power to do so," Mr Smith said.
"We need the power to sell," he reiterated.
That power, Mr Smith said, needs to be given to the liquidators by the stakeholders involved - NSW Government, local government and financiers.
Mr Smith said there are a number of issues that need to be addressed and that the firm was talking to the parties responsible.
"In selling it we want to know we are protected," he said.
Mr Smith said the liquidators want to know when the contracts are sold that they have the support of the stakeholders involved.
The stakeholders have been very cooperative, according to Mr Smith, who particularly cited feedback from Mudgee Shire Council. He said the liquidators need to know those stakeholders fully support the sale outcomes.
"These are the things no one is talking about and we want to know what will occur," he said.
Mr Smith said it is the unknown things that may affect the liquidators and they want to know they are protected.
"We have dragged it all to this point and we want to know where we are going," he said. "We have got to the finishing line. We just want to cross it."
Mr Smith said because the deal involves the sale of the assets of the County Council, there are many legal issues that need to be made clear by the government before the sale can go ahead3 .
29 January 2004
Abattoir sale settlement date Monday
spokesperson for administrators, Prentice Parbery Barilla announced the settlement date and said the final outcomes should be known within the next two weeks regarding what he termed a "significant shortfall ... of quite a few million" between the purchase price and the $14 million owed to creditors by the abattoir.
Once the settlement has taken place, the Minister for Local Government, Tony Kelly, will direct the governor to make a proclamation regarding the claims of creditors including the Federal Government GEERs repayments and employee entitlements.
Spokesperson Andrew Smith said the Department of State and Regional Development provided $52,500 to fund part of the sale program. A department spokesperson said no other funding was directly provided.
Mr Smith said he is very excited that Roger Fletcher has succeeded in buying the abattoir, because he is a leading businessman in the industry and has a very successful track record.
Mr Smith said Mr Fletcher had a lot of work before him before he could re-open the abattoir, and that it would take six months or more to bring the infrastructure of the old site up to modern business standards.
"We are looking forward to the redevelopment under the purchaser's stewardship," Mr Smith said.
"Some exciting plans have been put to us for the future and we think it will be good for the community, very positive for the community.
"We are looking forward to five or ten years time to look back and see how it has improved," Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith said the purchaser, Roger Fletcher was a good operator, citing the successful outcomes for the Dubbo and Albury abattoir that created successful world standard businesses.
"They Fletchers International are industry leaders and we look forward to what they will do with Mudgee," Mr Smith said4 .
13 September 2004
Don't give up without a fight
Mid Western Regional Council should not pay the $1.4 million abattoir debt without a fight because the State Government should pay, according to Rylstone ex-councillor and abattoir board member Mitchell Clapham.
Mr Clapham also said abattoir board members have been damned for trying their utmost to save the abattoir but the community would have damned them more if they had given up and closed the abattoir when the St Merryn sale failed.
Mr Clapham said council is being "wrung out like a dirty dish cloth" by a state government that has refused to meet its rightful responsibility, leaving little money left for badly needed local projects like a full time youth worker.
Mr Clapham said most people would want to see the employees paid, but expressed disappointment that the community, through council, had to foot the bill.
Mr Clapham went on to say that the council board members were merely council representatives operating under the auspices of the state government, whose Minister for Local Government had to consent to any big expenditure - not the constituent councils.
"All financial decisions made had to be consented to by the minister, not the constituent councils," Mr Clapham said.
"It was fully the responsibility of the minister and he had to change the law to put the responsibility back to the council after the event, and that is not playing cricket in my view."
Mr Clapham said the board members would have given their right arm to keep the abattoir going and had always acted in line with the best professional advice available, but as a county council institution competing against commercial business, were working with one arm tied behind their back.
Even so, he said it would have been very easy to shut the door after the sale of St Merryn fell through, but the operators came to the board and asked them to all work together to try and keep going, which they did.
"We just did our darndest to trade our way through...to the end, " Mr Clapham said.
"And we have been damned for that5 ."
5 August 2005
Two years in the waiting
The Mudgee Abattoir is to re-open after almost two years of wondering if the 400 people employed directly and 340 indirectly would ever get their jobs back.
Work will begin in the abattoir within two weeks with the facility up and going within 12 months, employing 300 people.
The abattoir formerly closed on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 when workers at the $34 million per annum industry were shocked to arrive at work to be given stand down notices after Stephen Parbery of Prentice Parbery Barilla was made administrator.
The firm specialised in business rehabilitation and reconstruction.
An administrator was appointed on September 3 via a proclamation by the governor Marie Bashir and given the job of selling the abattoir, leasing it or sending it into liquidation.
The administrator closed the abattoir when he found it had insufficient funds to continue trading.
Although the then Mudgee Shire Council tried to rush through $100,000 in emergency funding the Monday night before closure to pay abattoir employees their week's wage, but turned down a request for $2 million to allow the abattoir to continue for another six weeks, fearful of losing ratepayer funds if the abattoir then closed.
Mr Parbery applied to the NSW Supreme Court for a receiver to be appointed on Wednesday, September 10 to allow him to maximise the business assets.
Creditors were understood to be in the vicinity of $200,000 but because the abattoir was the last county council run abattoir and not a regular business, it took the action of the Supreme Court to declare the abattoir insolvent.
$2.5 million was owed to abattoir employees in entitlements when it closed, with no funding to pay.
A battle ensued to get payment for the employees under the Federal GEERS Scheme.
State and Federal governments fought a battle that ended in deadlock, each citing the other responsible to assist the employees and the abattoir.
The State government's Local Government Minister Tony Kelly rejected any State responsibility for paying the workers and directed employees to seek whatever relief they could through the Federal GEERS scheme.
However, the State government needed to change the law to make the employees eligible for GEERS assistance, as the abattoir was a county council and not a private business.
On October 13 Tony Kelly shocked the Mudgee community when he announced the State government could not change the law to accommodate payment of GEERS as the proclamation would mean the Federal Government would have to take priority ahead of other creditors to ensure the employees receive their entitlements.
In the meantime, workers picketed the then Mudgee Shire Council and camped outside council chambers day by day until they received their payments.
Local government officials met with Tony Kelly time and time again to work out the legistics of changing the law to allow $3.5 million GEERS money to flow.
The NSW government passed legislation Wednesday October 29 to allow GEERS to be paid to the workers, but a gap of a further $1.5 million was owed.
On September 18, John Anderson announced the Federal Government would pay the abattoir employees GEERS to cover their entitlements and the money flowed into bank accounts on Friday November 14.
A total of 22 companies showed an interest in buying or leasing and reopening the Mudgee abattoir, with tenders closing on November 12, 2003.
A local consortium negotiated with the administrator/liquidator to lease the abattoir and re-open it.
The same consortium was one of the six bodies bidding to buy the abattoir when it came up for sale, but was beaten by Roger Fletcher of Dubbo Fletcher International Exports who had the highest bid on Tuesday on Friday, November 28, but the sale was held up until legal issues were cleared.
Mr Fletcher was announced as the buyer on Tuesday, December 23.
Mr Fletcher said he had a lot of work to do on the abattoir to bring it up to scratch, and it was unlikely to open before July 2004.
However the drought and other pending issues have kept the plant closed until today's announcement which has been like winning the lottery for the district6 .
21 October 2005
The old is going, going, gone
An auction sale at the Mudgee Regional Abattoir held on Wednesday and Thursday this week attracted a small but serious crowd of buyers and onlookers.
Owner of the abattoir, Roger Fletcher of Fletcher International Exports in Dubbo said everything was offered for sale off the beef and sheep floors, the maintenance equipment, spare parts, bi-products and amenities areas.
Materials from the white elephant pig abattoir at the entrance of the abattoir will also be sold off, as will materials from all the auxiliary buildings.
"There is a huge amount of stuff there and then we are taking the old building down and rebuilding it," Mr Fletcher said.
Mr Fletcher said buyers from across the district attended the auction, conducted by Steers of Sydney.
However, he said buyers were limited because the market has changed and there are few domestic abattoir plants left to be interested in buying old equipment.
Mr Fletcher said anyone in the export business would not want old equipment - only the best will do.
"There is a limited market for these things.
"I didn't expect rainbows," he said.
Mr Fletcher said a lot of the equipment being sold off from the abattoir has seen better years.
"It proves what we are doing is right," he said referring to the clearing out of all the old abattoir buildings and equipment7 .