Halt on food transports

One of Townsville’s biggest customers of refrigerated freight and storage has pivoted to new suppliers after the collapse of the Scott’s transport group.

But other regional businesses have not been so fortunate.

The Outback Pie Co manufactures pies, sausage rolls, pasties, savoury pastries, muffins and beef patties at its Bohle factory.

It produces as many as 45,000 units a day for distribution around Australia.

The Outback Pie Co managing director Milo Gaffney said the collapse of Scott’s Refrigerated Logistics Holdings had caused massive issues for food transport and storage.

The transport business had some 1800 trucks and a network of cold storage warehouses, including in Townsville, used by businesses for the transport and storage of food.

But on February 27 it all came to a sudden halt when Scott’s were placed into administration and receivership. Earlier this month the group was placed into liquidation.

Some 1500 jobs and as much as $75m is owed to unsecured creditors, while food supplies into and out of North Queensland continue to be disrupted.

Mr Gaffney said they had been one of Scott’s largest customers but started to transition to other freight providers before the collapse.

“I could see the writing on the wall before this happened,” Mr Gaffney said.

Even so, they, like a many other businesses, were caught.

They put together a crisis team to monitor and manage their situation. “We have a national system. We had to pivot exceptionally quickly. We had to retrieve stock and have a place to put it. We pivoted and managed the process exceptionally well but having said that a lot of businesses have probably struggled to do what we did,” Mr Gaffney said.

Townsville frozen meal provider Black Rock Beef Co has reported being unable to find a freight company willing to distribute their products to southern markets and is looking to focus on markets closer to home. Curtin University supply chain expert Dr Elizabeth

Jackson said the collapse of Scott’s provided an example of Australia’s vulnerability when it came to its food transport network.

“The cost of living is uncomfortably high for many at present but if we want future access to the fresh, sustainable, ethicallyproduced food we pride ourselves on in Australia then we must offer greater support to transport service providers and encouragethe buying of local food to give regional businesses the long-term ability to stay in operation,” Dr Jackson said.