Last year Eureka! MFG opened a dedicated herbicide factory in Melbourne to complement our existing non-herbicide factory at Altona. I asked Liam Flynn, our project manager, to describe the new factory.
“This is a purpose built facility that has six individual modules each with a high capacity, German designed, air filtration system to protect against cross contamination,” was his reply.
View of the individual modules within the factory
He went on to explain that, “we only make herbicides at this site but the range of products is broad and unique. At present we are using, low pressure extrusion to make sprayable granules such as WDGs and SGs, high pressure extrusion for solid granules that are applied from planes, core coated granules for a range of uses including application by helicopter and our own novel granule technology for aerial application which will be on the market in the next year.” Liam further explained that, “liquid herbicides such as SCs, ECs and SLs are also made and of course we have a similar offering for non-herbicide products from our Altona factory site”.
I next talked to John Dearugo, our factory manager. “The products being made today in our herbicide factory are a mix of ones developed by Eureka!’s product development team and licensed out to companies to distribute and others that we toll for clients,” said John. “Knowledge and versatility are two of our strengths. Eureka!’s manufacturing capability is supported by a large group of highly experienced formulation chemists. This team provides a range of expertise in agchem formulation that no other toll producer in Australia or New Zealand can hope to match,” said Mr Dearugo. He went on to say, “our ability to solve production or formulation problems is second to none.”
“With all the quality control, specialist facilities and technical support we aren’t the cheapest herbicide manufacturer in the market. Companies looking for low value, high volume production will continue to send that manufacturing business offshore. However, if you are looking for quality, reliability, versatility and professionalism, you should be talking to us”, said Mr Dearugo. He went on to say that, “we can make a wide range of granule and liquid formulation types and we can pump out better volumes than most people imagine. For one granule type we make 5 tonnes a day and that only uses two of our six factory modules!” He concluded by saying, “if you need product development, scale-up and pilot plant support before going to full production then you should definitely be speaking to us. No one does that better!”
Eureka! can now offer toll manufacture for almost every formulation type and all active ingredients. However, don’t think that we are limited to agrochemical products only as we make adjuvants, crop oils, plant nutritional and plant growth stimulating products too.
If you are interested in more information about the manufacture of granules, herbicides or other products please contact Anthony Flynn