General News
10 July, 2024
Plant proteins group put in administration
Horsham-based Australian Plant Proteins (APP) is pinning its hopes on the emergence of either a standalone buyer or an investor with deep pockets as it sits in administration.
The company was placed into voluntary administration late last week by its directors, Brendan McKeegan, Phil McFarlane, Michael Scalzo and Christine Gilbertson, and is now under the management of Melbourne firm Romanis Cant.
PPA was founded in 2016 by Mr McKeegan and Mr McFarlane and, once the commissioning phase was complete, made its first shipment from Horsham in September 2020.
In addition to operating the commercial fractionation facility at Carine St, Horsham, it has a research and development site at Werribee.
It employs more than 30 people in total "creating sustainable proteins from plants that taste great and are good for you and the environment".
The Horsham processing facility has been producing a reported 1200 tonnes of shelf-stable plant-protein powder per year - exclusively from locally grown pulses.
It works primarily with faba beans but is able to also process yellow peas, mungbeans, and yellow and red lentils to order.
The end-product - known as isolate - is then used in a wide range of foodstuffs including protein and nutritional powders, protein bars, meal-replacement products, baked goods, protein shakes, snack foods, non-dairy drinks, dairy and meat alternatives, and even egg-white replacement.
While no official statement has been made to explain APP's financial predicament, it has been speculated within the industry that delays in its planned expansion into South Australia could be a factor.
APP is to date the only plant-protein isolate manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere.
An affiliate of the company, Water Sustainability Farming, applied unsuccessfully to Horsham Rural City Council last year for permission to develop and use a waste treatment facility at Quantong to handle an average of 57,000 litres of brine per day trucked in from the facility in Horsham.
The rise of APP, coupled with the region's excellence in pulse production as a rotation in cereal paddocks, has earned for the Wimmera the nickname "western Victoria’s plant-protein powerhouse".
In May 2022 the Victorian government pledged $12 million from the state budget to the Grains Innovation Precinct at Horsham SmartFarm to support grain growers to diversify into the plant-protein market.
Voluntary administration is not necessarily an irreversible death-knell for a business.
It is possible that APP will be able to continue trading in the longer term if the external administrator can analyse the operation "with fresh eyes" and subsequently devise for it a financial survival strategy.