Haigh’s to build sweet $130m new factory

Luxury chocolate maker Haigh’s has announced plans to invest $130 million in a new factory at Salisbury in Adelaide’s norther suburbs, its single biggest ever investment, doubling production to 2,000 tonnes a year including new European influenced varieties.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas let the cat out of the bag on Facebook when he said: “Australia’s oldest family-owned chocolate maker is about to get even bigger.

“Haigh’s Chocolates has just unveiled designs for its Salisbury South manufacturing facility.

“It’ll double its current production capacity and most importantly, will create more jobs for South Australians.”

Haigh’s purchased the site in 2022 and released plans for 9,000sqm of production facilities and 6,000sqm of warehousing on the greenfields site.

More than 150 will be employed making chocolates, including using a planned investment of $36 million on European-made equipment.

This is the second big expansion by the company in five years – in 2018 it spent $15 million on facilities including updating its cocoa processing pant at Mile End (pictured).

Haigh’s is a family owned business and has always been very cautious in expanding, but has been successful with a range of retail stores and, more recently, through online orders.

The company indicated it would ‘enter new markets’ once the factory was up and running.

Haigh’s has appointed CIP Constructions to oversee the development of the site, with work starting before the end of the year.

Further reading:
Haigh’s buys land to double chocolate production

Picture: Haigh’s Mile End cocoa bean processing facility