Allied Grain Systems, along with other major suppliers and contractors, were contacted by Malteurop to supply and install grain storage silos, walkways, towers and mechanical conveyors at its Geelong based plant to transform it into one of Australia’s largest malting sites.
Australia loves beer. Nationally, Australians consumed around 1.7 million kilolitres of the brew in 2017, according to the most recent statistics from Kirin’s Beer University.
However, these numbers pale in comparison to Asia, which holds around 33.7 per cent of the global beer market share. For 10 years in a row, Kirin has found the region to be the world’s largest consumer of beer, with China firmly in the top position.
This multi-billion-dollar industry on Australia’s doorstep is what sparked Malteurop Australia to upgrade its Geelong malthouse facility.
Trevor Perryman, Malteurop Managing Director, said up to 85 to 90 per cent of Victoria’s malting barley was destined for export markets, so an expansion of its facility was of strategic importance to the company.
“Asia already has a deficit in its production of cereal grains and malt, so Australia as a major producer is well place to meet that demand,” Mr Perryman explains.
“With Malteruop’s Geelong facility so well placed in terms of proximity to the highest quality and most abundant malting barley sources and its bayside location on Australia’s main export gateway, we have a fantastic opportunity here.
In fact, the Geelong facility is located on a rail, road and maritime hub, that allows Asian brewers to source their malt from the Australian market. Positioned between the deep-water Port Phillip Bay and number of major barley suppliers, growers were able to deliver directly to the site for international shipping.
This ability for farmers to deliver directly to Malteurop was welcomed by Andrew Weidemann, Grain Producers Australia Chairman and grain farmer at Rupanyup.
“It provides more opportunity for Malteurop to deal directly with the farmer, which improves supply chain efficiency and reduced costs associated with storage and the freight that comes with that,” he says.
“I see the upgrade as a great benefit to Victorian grain growers and for the economy of Geelong. It’s an important investment and we can only see good things coming from it.”
Building better beer infrastructure
Part of the major infrastructure upgrade required a partner that Malteurop could trust to provide a high-quality service for the supply of the grain storage silos and associated structural element. This is why the company partnered with Allied Grain Systems, one of Australia’s leading designers and builders of grain storage and handling solutions.
With more than 25 years of experience in the design, installation and construction of grain storage systems, Allied Grain Systems was trusted with increasing the plant’s annual capacity from 80,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes. This would make the site one of the largest of its kind in Australia and Malteurop’s third largest globally.
Allied Grain Systems designed and partnered with Malteurop with the construction of the civil foundations for 17 silos, which were based on a driven pile design to a depth of more than 12 metres to overcome the site’s poor soil conditions.
Over an 18-month period, Allied Grain Systems constructed six 1000 tonne clean barley storage silos, five 1000 tonne malt barley storage silos and four 500 tonne barley analysis silos. Each silo was of a heavy-duty commercial quality and designed to comply with all relevant Australian standards, sealed to AS 2628-2010 and constructed for fumigation.
Allied Grain Systems also designed, detail drafted and fabricated all the of associated structural steelwork for the over silo walkways, support towers and access stairs, which were then shipped to Geelong for installation. It then undertook the mechanical installation of the major mechanical conveyors for the plant, including bucket elevators, drag chain conveyors, belt conveyors and associated valves and control items supplied by food infrastructure company Ag Growth Incorporated.
Oliver Parent, Malteurop Group – France CEO, says the major upgrade of its Geelong site symbolised Malteurop’s core values in acting together and working for the long term.
“Both values were shown with true professionalism by all those who worked on the project,” he adds.
One of the challenges Malteurop’s Project Team and Allied Grain Systems faced during the construction was the expansion had to be built around the existing day to day production, which operated 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
The new malting plant and equipment was built in stages over a six-month period as each new part of the plant was completed. Safety was the highest priority during construction, which helped the company complete the project without a minute of lost time from a safety incident.
Allied Grain Systems’ commitment to safety and quality throughout build saw Senior Construction Manager, Paul Wowk, awarded with a certificate of appreciation from Malteurop’s head office in France in September for his valuable safety contributions and quick thinking at the Geelong site.
The full site was completed in September 2018.