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Our Goulburn Valley Primary Industries & Consumer Goods
The Quiet achievers When Geoffrey Thompson Snr was approached by a group of Shepparton Orchardists 73 years ago to build, cool store and market their apples and pears through Europe, North America, New Zealand and Asia he would not have known where his family would take the business and the region, nine years after his passing in 2012. Along with Richard Pratt’s father and many local identities, GTH Limited has been the quiet achiever in the fruit industry.
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n 1993 when his son Geoff relocated to Shepparton and purchased their first orchard in the region, they have expanded and now grow, pack and market 10 percent of the apples in Australia. This makes them the largest apple grower in Australia, employing 300 permanent staff and an extra 300 people during harvest. They have trained more than 100 apprentices in the last 10 years and provided stability for 100s of local families. The company complements their own production with outside growers’ fruit, which provides an extra 50 percent of total production. Since
the late 1990s the bulk of the crop has been sold to the This makes them the domestic largest apple grower in market Australia, employing 300 via the permanent staff and three large supermarkets an extra 300 people and between during harvest 5 and 10 percent sold to export. This will change with the commissioning of the of-the-art facility set to be $60M construction at the former operating in February 2022, will Ardmona Fruit Products site in reduce the cost of production Mooroopna, which coincidentally to become internationally is celebrating 100 years in 2021 competitive and will put a floor since its formation. This statein domestic fruit pricing. It will
AT THE $60M JEFTHOMSON PLANT - MOOROOPNA... JefThomson chairman, Rob Bryant and CEO Geoffrey Thompson. Photo: Kelly Lucas. provide transformational capacity for this region’s fruit industry. A great company understands the importance of preserving the core values and culture of their company while their strategy
and operating practices must adapt to a changing world. Geoff Thompson Jnr embodies the culture that his father developed, as the company embraces global challenges and opportunities.
growers caring for our
since 1960
Behind every good business there is a great team Our extensive agronomic team deliver a range of services for broadacre, horticulture, viticulture, fodder, rice and summer crop production across these regions. These include on farm advice on pest, disease and weed management, crop inspections, farm planning and recommending in-crop nutrition requirements. As well as comprehensive fee for service programs I K Caldwell also has an extensive range of services such as insect trap monitoring, orchard monitoring, farm mapping, soil moisture monitoring, nutrition advice, disease/frost warnings and a suite of analytical services.
Serving the Goulburn Valley, Northern Victoria and Southern NSW
October/November 2021 - Our Goulburn Valley Inspiring Innovation, Resilience and our community The SheppartonPh: Adviser 116Passion New in Dookie Road, -Shepparton (03)
5821 2477 www.ikcaldwell
