A Riverina silo company will increase its capacity by at least 50 per cent as it expands its operation in Queensland.
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Walla-based manufacturer Kotzur is in the process of building a new material handling plant in Toowoomba to complement its silo production in the Border region.
Kotzur currently operates out of two sites in Toowoomba, but will bring it all to one location with the development of a new factory on a 12-hectare site.
Equipment for conveying, bucket elevators and silo unloaders, cleaning and aeration will be manufactured out of this facility for all nationwide Kotzur projects.
The new production facility will include a shed with an undercover production area of 5000 square metres.
One section of the roof stands 24 metres tall to allow construction of transportable silos, a first for the Toowoomba facility.
Managing director Andrew Kotzur said Kotzur was unique, being an integrated company in Australia that produced both grain storage and handling equipment, which are Australian-made.
"If you can picture you're putting a grain storage project together, and you need silos to store the grain, but you need conveyors to take the grain in, that's where we join the dots and the two businesses come together," he said.
"I'd like to think we'll have 50 per cent more capacity with the move.
"When we were doing grain storage projects, we used to acquire conveyor equipment from this company in Toowoomba called Downfields Engineering. When the owner of that business was retiring and put the business on the market, we acquired it in 2009.
"They've continued to focus primarily on the handling equipment. They do bucket elevators, drag chain conveyors, screw conveyors, some grain cleaning equipment and also aeration.
"I believe that would make Kotzur the only integrated company in Australia that does the storage and handling equipment and essentially puts the whole package together.
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"We are proudly Australian made and Australian owned, whereas the majority of our competition would be imports. It's something we're really proud of."
Kotzur national sales manager Bevan Austin has headed up the project, which started with initial planning in 2021 before construction commenced in April 2023.
He said the Toowoomba operation currently ran from two locations and an increase in efficiency was expected as a result of the expanded site.
"Given the geographical location, it's been hard to service that market for us up here because of the physical distance we've got to take the silos," he said.
"Along with an uplift in efficiency producing all current products, the new site will make transportable silos for the market in Queensland and northern NSW more readily available."
Mr Austin said Kotzur employed about 200 people, but about 50 more staff would be required in the medium term to assist with the construction of silos at Toowoomba.
"There's anything from fitters and turners to painters, to conventional boilermakers to assembly people where they basically put it all together like a big Lego set," he said.
"A lot of our staff move within the business in different roles. Now we're building transportable silos, that's a new skill we need in this facility.
"We're taking the leap of faith and obviously investing a fair bit of time and effort and money into this facility."
Mr Austin expected the building to be finished by Christmas, with a staged transition of equipment to take place early in 2024.
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