Room to grow: Why a world-leading company calls Queensland home  

It’s no secret that Queensland is quickly becoming Australia’s premier investment destination for world-class business and industry. For Neogen Australasia, a longstanding relationship with the Sunshine State has culminated in the opening of an $11 million genomics centre in Ipswich that will help local primary producers safely grow the best produce and livestock for market.

The genomic advantage

Neogen Australasia’s new $11 million facility will offer a comprehensive range of solutions to local primary producers to grow and breed the best produce and livestock for market by providing detailed genetic analysis to assist in efficient and effective decision-making.

The facility will double the company’s testing capacity, allowing them to perform up to one million tests annually. It will also supply and distribute rapid diagnostic test kits for local food production and manufacturing, and animal safety and biosecurity products for farm and veterinary settings.

Other areas of influence include protected species including Koalas and alpacas, and guardian animals amongst other animal and plant species.

While the facility will analyse samples from across Australia, New Zealand and even other parts of the APAC region, the most apparent benefits will be seen in Queensland’s agribusiness sector, in particular our prized beef industry, which remains Australia’s largest, with an export value of $6.3 billion in the past 12 months to July 2022.

Queensland – the investment destination

For Neogen Australasia Senior Regional Director Bobby Creasman, the decision to set up shop – and expand a rapidly growing business in Queensland – was an easy one.

As a state with strong existing agricultural roots, a linked ecosystem of businesses, universities and supportive government programs, Queensland added up to the logical choice.

Not long after setting up their Gatton lab, however, it soon became clear that more space and capacity was sorely needed.

“Neogen is in the very fortuitous circumstance of being both a growth-oriented company in a very growth-oriented market,” Bobby explains.

“We started with 13 staff but quickly realised we needed more, and when we hired them, we didn’t have nearly enough places to put them.”

Neogen Australasia Senior Regional Director Bobby Creasman says: “Working with the Queensland Government made it a lot easier for us to decide to stay in Queensland, to keep those jobs in Queensland and expand the business in Queensland.”

A new home

With space to accommodate their rapidly-growing business as the company's highest priority, Bobby and his team began to scout for potential locations Australia-wide.

“We looked at different options, including New South Wales and Victoria, which would have had negative impacts on the staff,” says Bobby. “Working with the Queensland Government made it a lot easier for us to decide to stay in Queensland, to keep those jobs in Queensland and expand the business in Queensland.”

Choosing the site at Bundamba, an eastern suburb of Ipswich, allowed Neogen Australasia to combine their lab and warehouse functions under a single roof, offer continuity to existing staff, and reap the benefits of a more centralised location.

“All in all, it’s been a spectacular move,” says Bobby. “It’s made communication a lot faster, our location off a main highway means we’re much more amenable to logistics supply and we're now only 30 minutes from an airport.”

“There are very few places in Australia where you can be that close to an airport and not be in the middle of terrible traffic, but still have access to a lot of urban amenities.”

“Personally, I like the Queensland lifestyle,” Bobby adds. It's nice, it’s tropical, it doesn’t feel as crowded or as stressful as some of the more urban locations in other states. It’s also been a benefit to the staff who don’t necessarily have the same traffic or congestion issues you’d see in a lot of other locations.”

Local jobs

It’s fair to say Neogen Australasia is in a significant period of growth. Since 2017, revenue has grown by a factor of 8, staff from 13 to 60 people (including from a single salesperson to a team of 20!), and the opportunities across the business show no signs of slowing down.

“Up and down the company ladder, we’ve had a lot of jobs created that we’ve needed to fill,” Bobby says. “Luckily we’ve found very amazing staff in the local area who have been a real benefit not just to us but to Neogen corporately across the region, where we’re now supporting staff in other countries and regions as well.”

Importantly for both the business and the local community, Neogen has tremendous variety of roles available.

“In terms of the jobs we’re creating and the jobs we need, it’s across the entire organisation,” says Bobby. “We have very technically skilled available jobs in the lab, along with production, logistics, warehouse, admin and sales.”

Room to grow

Neogen Australasia’s new location and increased testing capacity means faster and more accurate genomic testing for producers and food safey diagnostic and quicker access to biosecurity and food safety products for the agribusiness sector within the APAC region.

Most importantly, the lab has been designed to accommodate the astronomical forecast growth of the agricultural genomics and food safety industries, with the inclusion of three National Association of Testing Authority (NATA) approved DNA labs, a food safety lab, warehouse space, freezers and cool rooms.

“Technology continues to advance, and it’s advancing faster now than it has before,” Bobby says. “A decade ago, we would traditionally deliver a customer a hundred points of information. We now deliver over a hundred thousand. It would not surprise me if we’re soon delivering one million points of data.”

Queensland is right at the centre of this period of growth for both Neogen Australasia and the Agribusiness sectors it serves.

“We’re going to continue to come up with new technologies and new products with new jobs to support their rollout,” he says. “We look forward to continuing to grow our presence and expand here in Queensland and add more jobs to the local economy."