Tribute to a Harvey icon

As the company clocks up its 100 year anniversary it's a chance to reflect on the evolution and at times revolution of what has for many been a local institution.

Notching up 100 years in any business is a major milestone but in the case of the meat processing industry with all its fickle intricacies and prevailing uncontrollable factors such as seasonal influences, fluctuating currencies, sliding interest rates and changing consumer demands, surviving and even thriving is all the more significant.

When former clearing contractor Ernest George (EG) and his wife Mary Green founded the company in Harvey in 1919 it's inconceivable they could have envisioned the trajectory the business would take to what it is today.

They started with a staff of two slaughtering just a few head of cattle each week for their own butcher shop and supplying to local demand, mostly timber camps.

By the mid 20s they had opened two more retail outlets in Yarloop and Bunbury followed by an expansion into the metropolitan region and several towns en route in the late 30s.

When Ernest Green died in 1945, aged just 56 years, his sons Malcolm and Colin and daughter Alma took over the reins overseeing the biggest growth period in the company's history.

In the late 50s the company was granted an export license but didn't venture offshore until the 60s, initially tapping into the US market with its Harvey Meat Exports division selling product under the Harvey Meat Excels slogan.

Demand increased accordingly and by the late 80s it became more a case of where wasn't EG Green & Sons supplying beef to with the company soon exporting to markets in Canada, USA, Japan, West Indies, United Kingdom, Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and right throughout South East Asia as well as in WA and nationally.

Thanks to new processing technology and stock handling techniques the company was now employing 300 staff in a plant now capable of handling 130,000 head a year.

It had become WA's first AUSMEAT accredited abattoir in 1988 and continued to focus on grower direct purchase of livestock, while still maintaining a saleyards buying presence.

Plus it had acquired its own land to provide a buffer zone and expansion opportunities around the abattoir site and some security of cattle supply.

The property portfolio included the 180 hectare Balmoral surrounding and including the processing facility and the 100ha Midway, 445ha Lakeside and 600ha in total in the adjoining Northside and Southside, all within a handy 20 kilometres of the abattoir.

And in the far north it included more than one million hectares across five stations, Texas Downs, Lissadell, Spring Creek, Alice Downs and Mabel Downs, to supplement numbers during the southern low season between April and August.

Colin Green assumed the mantle of chairman in 1980 following Mal's retirement due to ill health and subsequent death in 1983 and remained so until his own passing in 2000.

Mal's son Peter, Alma's daughter Vicki Bakker, and Colin's sons Alan, Graeme, Ritchie and Michael held various management roles within the company and on the board throughout this period until 2003, when any family members still involved with the business moved away from its day-to-day running to become non-executive directors.

At the time the EG Green & Sons enterprise had burgeoned to employing 630 staff (500 today) and turning over $156 million annually.

Two years later it was in receivership and sold to foreign owners.

Despite the upheavals its value to the Harvey community throughout its 100 year existence as an employer, a revenue generator for other businesses and a major sponsor of local clubs and sporting groups, cannot be underestimated.

Now once again under WA family-ownership through Andrew and Nicola Forrest's Minderoo Group and their management team building and growing the historic business, there is a renewed sense of confidence and stability signalling good times ahead for the town of Harvey and the wider WA beef community.