Norco Ice Cream Factory Rebuild Great News for Lismore and Dairy Farmers

On 28 February 2022 the world changed for Lismore, but unfortunately in a devastatingly bad way. The biggest flood in history caused chaos for everyone including dairy farmers, businesses and residents alike. Almost everything was badly flooded and the devastation was heart breaking for all. 7 months later things are far from normal still. Most houses are inhabitable, and most businesses are not operational.

In the middle of this sits Norco, a dairy cooperative and the biggest employer in the Lismore region. Their head office and ice cream factory were flooded like everything else in Lismore. 7 months later their head office is getting closer to completion but the ice cream factory has been cleaned up and left dormant.

It was great news to hear this week that the ice cream factory will now be rebuilt thanks to $45.7m in funding from the federal government. Without this funding it would not have been commercially viable to rebuild the ice cream factory and I thank Minister Watt for ensuring this rebuild will become a reality.

The rebuild will allow many of the factory workers to remain employed and will help the rebuild in the devastated town of Lismore. The ice cream factory will also be a positive for Norco in diversifying income streams and increase profits. This should allow Norco to return extra money to its dairy farmer shareholders to drive further milk price increases to farmers and pay a sustainable price.

It is very positive to see Norco investing in the northern NSW and Queensland dairy industry. This will be a major manufacturing facility which is rare in the northern dairy industry. The factory will utilise some excess milk in spring and create additional demand for milk when there is too much to meet fresh bottled milk requirements.

Thank you to Minister Watt for securing funding to help the Norco ice cream factory to be rebuilt. I look forward to the construction going quickly and the factory being operational in the near future. This is a big win for both Lismore and dairy farmers which need positive news after the devastating year they have faced.

Eric Danzi Co-CEO eastAUSmilk