Culford Agri Industry Precinct

Tim Richards is a Richgro Director and Operations Manager of Richgro Garden Products. He is currently establishing Richgro's composting plant at the Culford Agri Industry Precinct. In this article, he describes why he chose this location and the key benefits for his business.

How would you describe your operation at the Culford Industrial Precinct?
It's a composting facility for Richgro Garden Products.

When you were looking for a site, what were your criteria?
Our biggest criteria was trying to find a suitable site that had the required buffers for our industry, yet was still close to the metropolitan area. Our industry requires a two and a half kilometre buffer to the nearest neighbour, what is referred to as a sensitive receptor. We could not find anywhere down in the metropolitan area that was suitable.

Are there any other benefits that you are anticipating?
The move here has improved our positioning in the sense that we are closer to agriculture. Some feedstocks have been offered to us because of our location, so that's a benefit. Without having our composting plant at Culford Precinct, that might not have happened.

Did you have to go to the council for approval? How was that process?
Yes, we had to go to the Shire of Boddington and get approval from them. They were very receptive to us being here. It's made that side of things very easy.

How have you found the precinct management to deal with?
The management is great. We've found that dealing with them is straight forward. We are not one of these companies that bends the rules, and neither are they. If you do everything, as you say you were going to do, there's no problem with them at all.

What would you say to someone who's thinking about relocating a business that requires a large buffer zone?
This is a perfect location for what we want to do. Looking at it from a long term view, the regulators are regulating businesses like ours out of the metropolitan area.

We went from a 500-metre buffer zone requirement to two and a half kilometres, literally overnight, which makes it very hard. You are still allowed to operate with a smaller buffer, but the restrictions that are put on you are debilitating to your business.

But by the same token, moving here means that we can concentrate on growing my business and not worry about all the other complications that come with having lesser buffers. We have long term security out here as we have  signed a long term lease.

What is your overall impression of Culford Agri Industrial Precinct?
Culford Agri Precinct is professionally put together. The services provided have been extremely well done. It's very secure; there's automated gates at the front, there's a caretaker who lives on the property. It is a comfort knowing you have that level of security for your business. We are very pleased with our decision to move here.