Protein leader ready to roll
The man in charge of a new protein-powder manufacturing venture in Horsham will draw on an extensive agricultural and business career to help launch operations in coming months.
Australian Plant Proteins’ $20-million twostage project plan to manufacture high-grade protein powder from pulses is in full swing in Horsham Enterprise Estate.
Developers have announced they would soon start recruiting on-ground staff, with plans to start operations from June.
This follows the appointment of operations general manager Peter Lelievre who joined the project at pre-commercialisation stage.
Mr Lelievre’s career includes extensive private-sector financial, commercial and senior management roles across many areas including agriculture.
He has experience in business development at start-up and expansion stages, senior financial management and development of internal and client strategic business plans.
Mr Lelievre also holds fellow-level membership with CPA Australia, is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and spent 11 years as the chief executive of Stephen Pasture Seeds during an expansionary period of the business into South Australia and Tasmania.
His new role with private company Australian Plant Proteins, which already has customers from America, Canada and Europe seeking repeat orders of samples and considerable interest from Australian companies, will add another item to this list of experience.
It will also reconnect him with the experiences of his younger days as a former student in the region.
Mr Lelievre attended Murtoa High School and was a harvest season ‘racker’ at the Murtoa wheat bins rail receival.
He said his lifetime passion for sport, particularly in cricket as a player, coach and administrator, also started in Murtoa with the former Dunmunkle Cricket Association.
The protein-powder project, the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, was a concept initially launched through a Wimmera Development Association business case in response to a worldwide demand for high-quality plant-based protein food.
Pulses grown by Wimmera-mallee farmers, regardless of grading issues caused by drought or frost, will provide raw product for the patentprotected powder-manufacturing process.