Dairy company Norco says it will rebuild its heritage-listed Lismore ice-cream factory, following support from the state and federal governments.
The plant was left devastated following the February floods and has been out of commission since.
To assist in the rebuilding of the flood-ravaged ice cream plant, funding of $34.7 million from the Federal and NSW State Government’s Anchor Business Support Program and an additional $11 million from the 2019 Regional Growth Fund (RGF) has been secured.
Norco, Australia’s oldest and largest dairy co-operative, has also invested more than $59 million to protect the factory’s future and its workforce.
Norco’s CEO, Michael Hampson, said the rebuild represents a “positive step” for the ongoing Lismore recovery efforts.
“We know how important this factory and its operations are to this region and we’ve always been committed to doing everything we can, within our means, to see a future for the facility.
“While we’re extremely grateful for the government funding we’ve been allocated, it is known that it fell short of what we needed for a complete rebuild and this is because of the scale of damage incurred and the total cost of the floods to the co-operative which is still estimated to be well over $100 million with this revised project.”
He said the co-operative will take a great level of risk in order to safeguard jobs and support small businesses in the region despite budgetary constraints in the revised plan.
