Pics from the Past | SPC: from humble beginnings to empire

The company began operations in February 1918, canning pears, peaches and nectarines under the brand name of SPC.

In 2002, the company merged with Ardmona.

It was acquired by Coca-Cola Amatil in 2005 and in 2019 sold to a private equity group known as Shepparton Partners Collective and in 2024 rebranded to become SPC Global (SPC, Nature One Dairy and The Original Juice Co).

The story begins on January 31, 1918 when the manager of the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company announced that canning would begin on the following Tuesday and that the operation would require 150 girls or women and 30 men.

In the wake of World War I, it was hoped that ‘the launch of this new industry must revive drooping energies’ and improve the economic circumstances of the region.

SPC was begun with an injection of government funds.

Because of a late start to the 1918 season the canning line only ran for seven weeks and handled a total of 350 tons of fruit.

The company had mixed fortunes over the next few years, struggling to make a profit.

More government money was committed and in 1925 a record quantity of fruit was exported to London.

By 1929 all government loans and interest had been repaid.

The company began to pay annual bonuses to grower-shareholders, and the plant was updated and expanded.

The success of SPC was inextricably linked with the progress of the town and the wider Goulburn Valley region. In 1936 the company packed 12 million cans and was the largest fruit cannery in the British Empire.”

(Australian Food Timeline website)

The Shepparton Advertiser featured an article about the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company and this photo, which shows the ‘cutters and stoners’ at work in 1934.

The headline was ‘The British Empire’s Largest Cannery — A Vast Australian Enterprise’.

It also went on to explain:

“NO INDUSTRY in Australia has weathered the storms of the worldwide depression as the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company Limited has done — and that in the face of fierce competition in the overseas markets, to which the Australian industry must look for its future expansion.

The cannery at work

It is easy to understand that a tour of the cannery itself is nothing less than an education, for here one can put one's finger right on the pulse of a truly great industry, and at the close of the inspection one realises something of the value to Australia of the extraordinary development that has taken place in this centre.

One’s first impression on entering the extensive buildings which constitute the cannery is cleanliness.

As the eye takes in the operations in progress, there forms an impression of organisation, for under no other conditions could the obvious orderly working of each department be achieved.

Then, as one collects the confusion of first impressions, and adapts anticipations to those impressions, there follows a realisation of the vastness of the enterprise.

One begins to understand the extent of the interests which are wrapped up in the enterprise and one is enabled to appreciate just how the establishment of this industry at the gateway of the Goulburn Valley has contributed to the escape of its citizens from some of the economic rigours that were undergone by others less fortunately situated.

Building features

Practically the entire floor space of seven acres is paved with a granolithic surfacing which is germ-proof.

The ‘saw-tooth’ roofs, illustrated in the accompanying aerial photograph, were specially designed to enable the maximum of natural lighting to enter the building, thus providing an ideal condition.

In this setting 400 girls, all neatly uniformed in blue, are at work preparing and canning the fruit, and they present an attractive sight.

When the season is at its height, about 680 men and girls are employed, and the average for the season is approximately 580 hands.

At the imposing entrance, where the crop is received into the cannery, the thoroughness of the organisation is at once made apparent. Here the ripe fruit is weighed and rigorously inspected.

Only the highest quality fruit is allowed to pass into the works. In this respect, the Shepparton Cannery sets a standard which is not equalled by any other processing plant in Australia.

Whatever the standard maintained by other canneries, the SPC is not influenced in enforcing rigid maintenance of the high level of excellence established.

The result of this is demonstrated by the company’s sales.

Fruit that survives inspection is stacked ready for the cutters, who rapidly halve and stone the fruit, which is then conveyed to the washing and peeling machinery.

Thoroughly cleansed, it is then conveyed to the grading machine, an ingenious, yet simple, apparatus, which accurately and automatically grades and drafts the fruit into various sizes.

Automatic cutting

From the grader the fruit is carried down again to floor level, where it passes into glossy enamel basins.

Here it is again graded for colour and passes into cutting machines, the design of which ensures uniformity of size of slices.

The sliced fruit passes on automatically, and the cans are filled, all engaged in this work possessing high qualifications.

The tins then are carried on to the syruping machines, which automatically fill them with syrup. This is manufactured from pure cane sugar and filtered water.

Indicative of the speed at which this processing is carried on at peak periods is the fact that the manufacture of the syrup, which is prepared in glass enamelled vats, absorbs a bag of sugar a minute.

From the syruping machines the cans pass on — all the transportation being automatic — through the exhaust, in which they undergo a process of sterilisation.

Thence they are taken by the conveyor to the closer, where the lid is stamped and sealed on.”

(Shepparton Advertiser, 1934)

Geoff Allemand is an amateur photographer and Lost Shepparton Facebook page admin. Please share your Pics from the Past at pastpics@mmg.com.au