Six WA businesses including IPI Packers, Blasta Brewing, Bonissimo Coffee Roasters and Veem have been offered $4.5 million in federal government grants to support manufacturing projects.
Six WA businesses including IPI Packers, Blasta Brewing, Bonissimo Coffee Roasters and VEEM have been offered $4.5 million in federal government grants to support manufacturing projects.
The government money will help to fund projects with a combined value of $18.5 million.
The largest WA recipient was Inflatable Packers International, which trades as IPI Packers.
It has been offered the maximum grant of $1 million to help fund a $4.5 million fitout of its new factory at Tonkin Industrial Park in Bayswater over the next two years.
The new facility is already under construction and will be 50 per cent larger than IPI’s existing premises in Osborne Park. It will employ more than 60 staff.
While the company was founded in Perth, and its main factory is here, its head office is now in Singapore while chief executive Clem Rowe is based at the European regional office in Bulgaria.
IPI’s products are used to support drilling and intervention in the oilfield, mining, water and geotechnical sectors.
It exports more than 80 per cent of its production, with its largest market being the US.
Another big recipient was Blasta Brewing Company, which has been awarded $900,000.
Blasta is planning to spend $3.6 million building a brewery at the Perth Airport industrial area.
It will produce up to 10 million litres of beer once fully operational.
That represents a very large jump for Blasta, which produced 1.3 million litres of beer last year.
With 45 staff, it is ranked as the fourth largest brewery in WA, according to Business News’ Data & Insights.
ASX-listed VEEM was awarded $862,000.
The Canning Vale-based company plans to spend $3.4 million on a project related to the manufacture of propellors for Hunter Class frigates.
A second ASX-listed company, First Graphene, was awarded $759,000.
It intends to spend $3 million upgrading its graphene manufacturing facility at Henderson.
First Graphene's product is used by a range of WA manufacturers, in swimming pools, work boots, boats and other applications.
Sydney-based Hudson Marketing was awarded $642,000 to help fund a $2.5 million upgrade of its attapulgite plant at Geraldton.
Attapulgite is an industrial clay that is used to produce cat litter, spill absorbents and as a carrier for crop absorbents.
The final WA recipient was Osborne Park-based Bonissimo Coffee Roasters, which is one of the state’s largest coffee roasters.
It was awarded $349,000 to help fund a $1.4 million project designed to reduce the number of plastic-lined coffee cups and coffee pods ending up in landfill.
It plans to install new equipment to manufacture cups and pods made from bio-polymers that are 100 per cent organic and fully compostable.
The upgrade will enable the company to increase its coffee pod production six-fold, allowing it to hire more staff and pursue export opportunities for its coffee products.
Managing director Blair Pedler praised the work of West Perth consulting firm Axito in helping Bonissimo secure the grant.
The six WA grants were among 87 worth $55 million nationally from the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund.
The scheme is available to companies with up to 199 employees and covers up to 25 per cent of eligible project expenditure.
