In case you missed it, last week the biggest manufacturing project in the Bundaberg region was officially opened.

The new Bundaberg Brewed Drinks brewery is a massive 22,000 square metres in size, with the ability for expansion.

With the latest technology in brewing, bottling, labelling and packing, 51,000 bottles of soft drink are produced an hour.

It’s an exciting development bringing an economic boost to the region, with more than 850 jobs created during construction alone.

In 2018 the Coalition Government announced an investment program dedicated to regional areas.

The Regional Growth Fund would pump $272.2 million into major transformational projects, which supported long term economic growth and created jobs in regions.

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks was up against more than 300 applicants during a competitive assessment process and was awarded a $19 million Federal Government grant.

This grant meant that Bundaberg Brewed Drinks would keep manufacturing ginger beer in Bundaberg.

And more importantly, it meant local jobs would stay here and there would be more jobs created.

I had the opportunity to tour the new brewery last week and caught up with people I had known at Bundy Brewed Drinks when I did some consulting work many years ago.

One of the retired workers took in the new brewery with an incredulous look on his face, and given the new brewery is triple size of the old site on Bargara Road, it’s hardly surprising. Everything on the new site is much, much bigger.

You can find a bottle of Bundaberg Ginger Beer in more than 60 countries around the world, but this is still a business run by a local Bundy family.

Congratulations to Cliff, Lee, John, Rae-Lee and the entire team at Bundaberg Brewed Drinks. I’m excited to see what the next 50 years looks like for this iconic Bundaberg business.