Head to Melbourne’s west and you’ll now find a world of pure imagination. Ok, so you won’t get to meet Willy Wonka, but you will find the largest Cadbury chocolate factory in the whole wide world.
The gigantic $130 million distribution centre is located in Truganina and opened in July, and it’s officially the national hub of all things chocolatey in our country.
At a whopping 47,000 square metres it spans twice the size of the MCG, and it will ship out 500,000 chocolate bars every day, or four million blocks each week. Seems like there must be quite a few of us with some pretty strong chocolate cravings.
The high-tech facility has 17 levels of automated storage, 11 robotic cranes and 500 metres of conveyor systems. It’s powered entirely by renewable energy, with solar panels, rainwater harvesting and modern recycling systems. But we haven’t got word yet on whether or not it has a chocolate river.
Cadbury is owned by a parent company called Mondelēz International, which also owns snack brands like Pascal and the Natural Confectionery Company. So this new centre is a very, very important place for the sweet tooths among us.
The centre has created 200 new jobs in Melbourne’s west, with 90 per cent of those jobs filled by local residents. We’d certainly like to get a taste of those work perks.
We’re not sure if they’ll be hiding golden tickets in Cadbury bars for a chance to visit, but watch this space and we’ll let you know if that changes.
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