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Coles Nurture Fund: Round 5 recipients

Two bakers from Pacdon Park in Echuca Victoria holding a tray of pork pies in a bakery

Pacdon Park, Echuca, Victoria

Pacdon Park

Echuca, Victoria

Echuca small business Pacdon Park will use a $221,577 interest-free loan from the Coles Nurture Fund to buy new machinery which will drive a massive 20-fold increase in their production of pork pies.

The new machinery from the United Kingdom will increase production from around 100 pork pies an hour to over 2000 per hour, while also removing the need for manual labour to press and pack each of the pies.

In addition to production efficiencies, the specialised machinery will also ensure Pacdon Park is able to provide customers with a higher quality and more consistent product.

Established 11 years ago by James and Jane Arrowsmith and Peter Tonge, Pacdon Park is one of the only businesses in Australia that makes pork pies using traditional British methods. Usually served cold, the traditional British pork pie consists of a filling of pork surrounded by a layer of jellied pork stock in a crust pastry.

Ceravolo Orchards

Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Fourth generation fruit growers, Ceravolo Orchards, will be able to produce more cherries for a longer period thanks to an innovative new roofing system supported by the Coles Nurture Fund.

The $500,000 Coles Nurture Fund interest-free loan will help Ceravolo Orchards to become one of the first growers in Australia to grow and harvest cherries under a retractable roof. Expected to be installed by October 2019, the roof will transform traditional growing techniques, increase yields and extend the growing season.

Endhill Pty Ltd

Dockers Plains, Victoria

Victorian beef producers, Endhill Pty Ltd, have received a $400,000 grant from the Coles Nurture Fund to introduce technology which will harvest lucerne in the paddock and convert it immediately to pellets for cattle.

Owned by the Paul family, the business will purchase the new machinery from Germany as a prototype and expects it will be the first lucerne harvester of its type in Australia.

The Nurture Fund grant will also help Endhill to purchase a new tractor to tow the harvester; a custom-built vacuum to move the pellets into storage; and five circular troughs which the cattle will feed from.

The new machinery is expected to drive efficiencies for Endhill Pty Ltd because the lucerne pellets are easier to handle and store and can be fed to cattle in winter months when they need to supplement grass with another nutrient-rich food source.

SecondBite

Heidelberg, VIC

National food charity, SecondBite, will use a $500,000 Coles Nurture Fund grant to purchase four new eight-pallet trucks to collect and redistribute large quantities of surplus food in shorter timeframes.

SecondBite is a charitable logistics organisation that collects surplus, edible food from Coles supermarkets and redistributes it free of charge to people in need across Australia.

SecondBite’s 1300 community partners are able to use the food donations to provide meals and food hampers to people experiencing hardship in their local communities.