Bigger, better, stronger – the future of food manufacturing

Working closely with Thomas Foods International, we're helping build a global showcase of advanced food manufacturing in Murray Bridge, South Australia.

On January 3, 2018, the Thomas Foods International (TFI) Murray Bridge processing plant was destroyed by fire. Thankfully no one was injured as part of the incident. The morning after the fire, TFI’s Managing Director Darren Thomas made a public statement that they would be back “bigger, better and stronger”.

From that moment, TFI embarked on building a new multi-species meat processing facility at Murray Bridge, South Australia. Their aspiration was to create a global showcase of advanced food manufacturing and set the industry benchmark for technology, efficiency, environmental sustainability, animal welfare and workplace safety.

Following some early concept design work, we were engaged by TFI to provide design and procurement services across all the facility’s process, warehouse, utilities and buildings work packages. Stage One will include beef processing with capacity for up to 600 head of cattle per day, with future expansions to follow.

The integrated design was undertaken via a fast-tracked process, to enable TFI to be back up and running as soon as practical. This came with the added complexity of peak design efforts occuring at the time Australia and New Zealand went into varying degrees of COVID lockdowns. Hence the 3D design and digital tools became even more paramount in keeping this project moving forward to the highest standards.

The project is currently well into construction of Stage One, with BADGE appointed the principal contract for the main building Design & Construct.

We're supporting the Thomas Foods International delivery team with specialist technical resources throughout installation and commissioning, and are proud to be delivering this advanced showcase of what a food manufacturing facility can be!