IN BUSINESS news, DE Engineers silo division has sold to Satake, Kotzur has lifted its profile in Queensland, and Murray Irrigators Ltd is looking for two replacement board members.

Satake buys DE silo division

Japanese manufacturer Satake has bought the silo division of Western Australian company DE Engineers.

Founded in 1965 by Dev Prater, DE Engineers is WA’s largest silo manufacturer and operates workshops at Grass Valley, east of Northam, and Bellevue, a suburb of Perth.

The silo division is based at Grass Valley, with a purpose-built manufacturing complex completed in 2010.

DE Engineers’ silo division will now become part of Satake Oceania, Satake’s Australian subsidiary.

The acquisition is Satake’s first entry into the WA market, after operating in eastern Australia since 1992.

The organisation first purchased Sydney’s Robinson Milling Systems, a flour-milling engineering company, followed by Denny’s Silos at Allora on Qld’s Darling Downs in 2015.

“The fusion of DE Engineers’ specialised knowledge and Satake’s global reach promises to elevate the quality of products and services available to Australian farmers, enhancing their capacity to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving agricultural landscape,” Satake said in a statement.

Satake is a global business and was founded in 1896 as the first motorised rice-milling machine manufacturer in Japan.

Kotzur opens Toowoomba facility

Grain and bulk-solid storage manufacturer Kotzur Group has officially opened its new storage and handling manufacturing facility at Charlton, west of Toowoomba this week.

Kotzur chief technical officer Ben Kotzur said Toowoomba was the ideal location to expand the business and increase manufacturing capacity for customers located in northern Australia.

“The new facility will allow us to continue growth and expansion of our handling equipment capacity and range, and now we will be able to make transportable silos here in Queensland, making them much more affordable for our customers,” Mr Kotzur said.

“We are eager to start using some of the new equipment that has been installed.”

The new facility features an under-roof production area and office spaces and will house the company’s manufacturing installation, servicing, design, engineering and sales staff.

Alongside the new site, Kotzur operates a design and manufacturing facility at Walla Walla near Albury in southern New South Wales.

Murray Irrigation board

Murray Irrigation is calling for nominations to fill at least two director vacancies on the company’s Board of Directors.

This follows the resignations of member directors Steven Fawns, Brendan Barry and Troy Mauger last week.

The directors voluntarily resigned as a result of the company’s 10 April general meeting which saw resolutions to remove non-member directors Trisha Gorman and Robert Burbury fail to pass.

The remaining directors, chair Phillip Snowden, deputy chair Lachlan Marshall, Ms Gorman and Mr Burbury, convened a formal Board meeting on April 11 and resolved to call for nominations to appoint at least two new directors.

An independent selection committee will be established to consider eligible nominations and recommend preferred candidates to the Board for approval.

Those appointments will then be ratified by shareholders at the company’s 2024 Annual General Meeting in November.

Mr Snowden said the company is seeking candidates who are the right fit for the organisation.

“All nominations will be independently assessed for the skills and experience they can bring to the Board,” Mr Snowden said.

“It is our hope that a number of women and the younger generation of irrigators put their hands up for the roles, as the diversity this will bring to the current skill set of the Board will bring great value to the future of MIL.”

Murray Irrigation’s constitution requires a minimum of six directors on the board.

 

Grain Central: Get our free news straight to your inbox – Click here