BALLARAT, AUSTRALIA — With urban development squeezing its already aging North Melbourne, Australia, flour mill, Mauri, a division of George Weston Foods (GWF), seized the opportunity to relocate operations to a purpose-built facility. 

It took five years from conception to commissioning to complete the state-of-the-art 530-tpd facility within an industrial park in Ballarat. The city is in the central highlands of Victoria state and is the third-largest urban inland city in the country. 

Investment in the greenfield project, which was finished this year, exceeded A$200 million ($139.5 million). The company’s expansion was supported under the government’s A$150 million Victorian Investment Fund. 

“The mill was built to strengthen Mauri’s flour milling network, increase production capacity, improve supply chain resilience, and position the business closer to grain-growing regions and customers in southern Australia,” said David Ambrose, project manager with GWF. “The project is also part of a broader George Weston Foods (GWF) investment program in manufacturing capability.”

The new mill replaces the North Melbourne facility which the company said had reached the end of its operational life. Significant development around the facility, including construction of a major underground railway station and the development of a multibillion-dollar hospital precinct, was also a driver in the relocation. 

Within the industrial business park in Ballarat there is direct rail access, which provides a more efficient supply chain. Rail may be used to transport grain, reducing freight requirements while supporting future business growth and operational efficiency, Ambrose said. 

History of expansion 

While Mauri was founded in 2014 with the merger of Weston Milling and AB Mauri, the company’s heritage dates to the late 1800s. Its roots are traced back to businesses such as Mauri Brothers & Thomson and NB Love. 

Today, Mauri is the flour milling, bakery ingredients, yeast and animal nutrition business of GWF, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Associated British Foods. ABF is a global food and ingredients group with headquarters in London, England. 

Across its Australian and New Zealand operations, Mauri has 12 manufacturing facilities (eight in Australia and four in New Zealand) including eight flour mills, two yeast fermentation plants, and one dedicated blending plant. 

The company supplies bakers’ flour, bread mixes, yeast, grains and meals, dough improvers and conditioners, specialty bakery ingredients and animal nutrition products to commercial bakeries, food manufacturers, foodservice customers and retail channels. 

Bottom: From left, Ryan Dam, operational readiness manager; Steve Kennedy, project director; and David Ambrose, project manager. 

For its new Mauri mill, the company opted for Ballarat, which is within one of Victoria’s major grain-producing regions. This ensures efficient access to wheat supplies and reduces transportation costs from farm to mill, since the facility sources all its wheat from Victorian growers, Ambrose said.

“This supports Mauri’s strategy of working closely with Australian grain growers and sourcing grain from local growing regions where possible,” Ambrose said.  

Victoria is expected to produce 4.2 million tonnes of winter wheat in the 2026-27 crop year, accounting for nearly 16% of the country’s harvest. 

Within Ballarat, the West Employment Zone was selected because of its industrial infrastructure, available land, rail and road access as well as its strategic importance as a regional manufacturing hub, Ambrose said. The project is part of the company’s upgrade of its manufacturing network, including investments in other Mauri and Tip Top Bakeries operations. 

“With almost A$500 million invested in our operations over the last decade alone, George Weston Foods is committed to being a long-term employer in Victoria, in partnership with the Victorian government,” said Paul Foster, chief executive officer of GWF. 

Rapid construction 

Mauri wanted a state-of-the-art milling process and sought to be a market leader in technology. The company selected Bühler, based in Uzwil, Switzerland, for the milling technology and equipment. It has supplied equipment to many George Weston Foods and Mauri milling operations over several decades. 

Mauri said it now has a first-of-its-kind facility in the Southern Hemisphere, giving it a competitive advantage in producing high quality, consistent flour products. 

Design management was challenging, given the geographical distance of Australia and the different time zones, Ambrose said. 

“This phase of the project required many thousands of hours of meeting via Teams calls between Bühler, Mauri and its design consultants, working within the virtual 3-D world,” he said. 

Mauri partnered with Besix Watpac for the facility construction, ESS for machinery installation and GPS for electrical control installation work. All project partners worked as a single team from commencement to completion, Ambrose said. 

“The result was extraordinary: variations were restricted to just 0.3% of the construction contract value and the facility was delivered more than two months ahead of program,” he said. “For a highly complex industrial project involving the integration of advanced milling technology, automation systems and major civil and structural works, this represents a truly world-class achievement.”

The project broke ground in August 2024, and the first flour was sent to customers this August. 

“In two years to go from a greenfield to an operational plant is fast in Australia,” said Ambrose, noting that the last greenfield project he managed took just under three years. 

Bottom: From left, Ryan Dam, operational readiness manager; Steve Kennedy, project director; and David Ambrose, project manager.

Flour production

Overall, the complete mill site covers 84,000 square meters, including provision for future expansion. The site was designed with sufficient space and infrastructure to allow for efficient expansion as market demand and business requirements evolve, Bühler said. 

Design safety was an area of focus for the project and includes a ring road around the site that fully separates people from vehicle traffic. 

Grain storage capacity is 5,000 tonnes spread across 11 wheat silos. The mill itself is five floors with a total height of 23 meters. 

Wheat received at the site via truck or rail is transferred through pre-cleaning into grain storage silos before entering the cleaning house, where it undergoes a series of cleaning and conditioning processes. The cleaning house is seven floors and 35 meters in height.

Conditioned wheat is then conveyed to the mill, which includes the first integrated grinding system (IGS) Arrius roller mills in the Southern Hemisphere. The 530-tpd mill is equipped with 19 Arrius mills.

Finished flour is transferred to storage silos, with a capacity of 2,250 tonnes, before being dispatched either in bulk or through the packing and warehousing facility. The bulk loadout facility occupies a 290-square-meter footprint with a total height of 28 meters and provides indoor bulk truck loading. 

The packing and warehouse facility, which is 2,800 square meters, includes a Fawema paper sack filling system, and Ehcolo palletizer and pallet hooder. 

The mill incorporates several advanced features, including high levels of automation to support mostly unattended (lights-out) operation; energy efficient equipment and process design that reduces energy consumption by 40% compared to the mill it replaced; and strategic installation of in-line near infrared analyzers throughout the process to provide continuous quality monitoring and process optimization. 

A Bühler manufacturing executive system Mercury MES has been extensively integrated with enterprise systems including SAP, AgriChain and MEX, providing end-to-end visibility and control across production, logistics, quality and maintenance functions. 

The mill produces flour to meet the requirements of a diverse customer base across the baking industry. A key customer is Tip Top Bakeries, a sister company and Australia’s largest commercial baker, which relies on the mill to provide flour for its national baking operations. 

The mill also serves large independent bakeries, artisan bakeries, pastry manufacturers, biscuit and cookie producers, and specialty and craft baking businesses. 

Co-products from the milling process, including bran and other grain fractions, will be used in animal feed and other agricultural industries, ensuring efficient utilization of the entire grain.