Grant to return manufacturing jobs to Logan

Logan plastics manufacturer Evolve Group is upgrading their equipment, creating jobs and aiming to bring work currently done offshore to Australia, thanks to an almost $1 million Palaszczuk Government grant.

Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick said Crestmead-based Evolve Group would use their $982,549 Made in Queensland grant to purchase advanced manufacturing cells, which on their own would create up to 30 new jobs at the company’s Crestmead facility.

“This equipment will reduce production times and energy consumption for Evolve Group when making their various plastic and composite products,” he said.

“This, in combination with wider business development work Evolve is undertaking, will help the company potentially win up to $400 million worth of manufacturing work currently done offshore in the next ten years.

Evolve Group Managing Director Ty Hermans said the equipment and the State Government’s support will enable the company to be cost competitive, compete internationally and win jobs commonly being delivered by offshore firms.

“This funding means we can scale our business up a lot faster than would be possible under our own steam. We are now more cost competitive and our position is strengthening which is why we are aggressively targeting the reshoring of manufacturing back to Australia,” he said.

“This has the potential to create up to an additional 400 jobs in the Logan area during the coming decade.”

Mr Dick said Evolve Group is a market leader in Australia’s product design and manufacturing sector, providing product development and manufacturing services to help produce more than 10,000 product lines, including Poolrite swimming pool equipment and TRED automotive products.

“This project is another great example of the strong appetite for innovation in Queensland’s manufacturing industry,” he said.

Mr Dick said Queensland’s almost $20 billion manufacturing sector already employs 165,000 people. The Palaszczuk Government has a 10-year plan to transition the state’s manufacturing sector to advanced manufacturing, creating high-paid, knowledge-based jobs.

“In April I announced the opening of the second round of the Palaszczuk Government’s $40 million Made in Queensland program, and we have received 115 expressions of interest,” he said.

The Made in Queensland program offers matching grants of between $50,000 and $2.5 million to manufacturers looking to adopt innovative processes and technologies to generate highly-skilled jobs and become more internationally competitive.

Manufacturers must go dollar-for-dollar with the government to fund business improvements.

The program complements the Queensland Advanced Manufacturing 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan, which sets out a vision for an innovative, sustainable and globally recognised advanced manufacturing sector in Queensland by 2026.

ENDS

Media contact: Anika Hume 0447 320 039