Eggcellent deal on farm

GLOOM TO LIFT Vendors seek quiet life after 35 years in business

A HISTORIC egg farm, famous for its owners playing country music to their feathered charges, is on the market with vendors hoping it will crack the elusive $7 million mark.

Ever since the for sale sign went up at the Jacob Wells Egg Farm last month, there has been a scramble for the site with developers, investors, buyers and farmers all showing interest.

The property, which is less than one hectare, is on prime farming land 4km from Canaipa Passage and Moreton Bay.

It became famous in the late 1990s when its owners Joe and Rose Grech, started playing country music in some of the chook sheds to improve laying.

Their ploy paid off and their eggs fetched premium prices across the southeast and at Willes Fine Foods, the epicurean mecca on Oxford St at Bulimba.

During this year’s coronavirus pandemic, the farm’s eggs were in huge demand as supermarket supplies at independent grocers flew off the shelves.

The Grechs bought the farm in 1985 from the Hellinga family who had owned it for more than a decade.

Since then, the Jacobs WellPimpama-Ormeau

area has taken off with thousands of houses built since the Grech family started the farm.

While the neighbours were multiplying, so were the chooks, with the Grechs growing the farm from 2300 chickens to 60,000 laying chickens plus 20,000 pullets.

There are three chicken sheds at the farm along with two machinery sheds and three houses and until recently, the Grechs and their family worked and lived in one of the houses.

The original sheds were pulled down and replaced in 2008 with state-of-the-art buildings at a cost of $2 million, which allowed the farm to expand. After running the family farm for 35 years, the couple, now in their 70s, want to crack their nest egg and retire.

Due to ill health, they started leasing out the farm three years ago.

Real estate agent Nik Seirlis, who is selling the property on behalf of the couple, said it was a rare opportunity to buy an operational and managed egg farm with fully automated services and established customers. “The other major benefit of this farm is its location on a junction and its proximity to Pimpama, Gold Coast, Brisbane and only 4km from the water,” he said.

Picture: SCOTT POWICK SUNNY skies are on the way for the Gold Coast – despite this gloomy image – as meteorologists tip temperatures will also climb in the coming week. Recent wet weather will move away from the Coast, meteorologist Rosa Hoff says. “(Those showers) will be moving off further to the east,” she said. She added temperatures – averaging a maximum 21C – will also improve later in the week, reaching the mid-20s by the weekend. Rain falls over a gloomy Gold Coast skyline yesterday on a wet, cold winter day looking from Kirra, however warmer dry weather is on the cards this week