Month / Sep 2018

by brandsa2018

Wolf Blass life and legend comes to Hahndorf

Recognised by his trademark bow tie, legendary winemaker Wolf Blass has a new venture, one that has taken him to the Adelaide Hills town of Hahndorf.

The German-born wine industry icon’s achievements are on show at the recently opened Wolf Blass gallery and museum in the old German town’s main street.

The attraction has been open to the public for only two weeks but is already luring scores of tourists, wine lovers and locals.

“It has been an emotional thing,” says Wolf, referring to the three-year project that has seen decades of memorabilia, photographs and artefacts relocated from their home in the Barossa Valley.

“Now we have something very modern with a touch of history.”

The Wolf Blass gallery and museum in Hahndorf features a bar, cooperage display, function room, sitting areas and memorabilia scattered throughout.

The gallery and museum, owned and operated by the Wolf Blass Foundation, has been developed in the old BankSA building in Hahndorf’s main street.

Contained within the building is the town’s original schoolhouse built in 1854 and now hosting a Cooperage display.

Many of Wolf’s personal achievements and milestones are contained within a collection of 73 scrapbooks featuring newspaper clippings, photos, and items from past decades.

Among the many prized possessions is the soon-to-be displayed 1865 Melbourne Cup trophy.

Aside from wine, Wolf also has a love for sport.

The 7m long Wolfie’s Horse Bar displays a selection of trophies from his winning horses, while other parts of the building contain cabinets full of other football, cricket and skiing memorabilia.

The gallery and museum stocks a range of wines from a selection of regions, as well as grazing platters, allowing visitors to wander around the exhibits or relax in one of the many sitting areas.

Wolf Blass – full name Wolfgang Franz Otto Blass – is renowned for pioneering wine styles and introducing quality wine to the predominantly beer drinking society that existed in Australia.

Although Wolf Blass Wines’ home is in the Barossa Valley, the 84-year-old was driving through Hahndorf one day with his wife Shirley Nyberg-Blass when they spotted the BankSA building was up for lease.

A few phone calls and handshakes and later the building was sold and set to become the new home of Wolf’s collection of personal memorabilia, originally housed in the Barossa.

Wolf says Shirley was behind much of the interior design, seeking the help of local architect John Ashcroft of BeyondInk.

“I must always thank my wife, she was the instigator,” Wolf says.

“On September 5 we had our first function, a soft opening that was exclusive to Hahndorf and the Adelaide Hills.”

Born in East Germany in 1934, Wolf’s introduction to the Australian wine industry came when he migrated here in 1961 after spending more than a decade working in the European wine industry.

The Hahndorf gallery and museum took three years to complete.

He worked in the Barossa Valley for Kaiser Stuhl as a sparkling wines manager before becoming Australia’s first freelance technical advisor to wine companies across South Australia, earning $2.50 an hour.

In 1966, Wolf registered his business Bilyara, an Aboriginal word meaning ‘eaglehawk’ – a symbol that would go on to mark the winemaker’s brand for decades to come.

His first vintage was 250 dozen, a small fraction of the 50 million Wolf Blass branded bottles eventually sold by 2005.

By the late ’60s Wolf was a manager and winemaker for United Distillers, helping to convert Tolley’s image from a brandy producer into a leading wine icon.

In 1973, the Wolf Blass Wines International company was born, and the man himself was on the way to becoming a household name as he pioneered new wine varieties.

Over the years Wolf Blass has won four prestigious Jimmy Watson trophies, the most highly sought after wine award in the country.

Photo: supplied.

He was the man behind the key word ‘drinkability’ and also engaged more women in wine as alcohol consumption was usually reserved for the working class man.

“In the ‘50s we didn’t drink wine we only drank 120 litres of beer. So that has been the biggest social change – to get women involved because they were totally isolated,” Wolf says.

“Six o’clock closing times, all men at the bar, there wasn’t much fun.

“Wine, sparkling wine, pearl wine was part of that change and suddenly there was a bit of life.”

Wolf says he was met with criticism for “shaking the establishment” throughout the early foundations of his career.

“I made wines that could be easily consumed, I was at the time very much criticised because I did things differently,” he says.

“When you consider I came here with $200 in my pocket and how much I have now achieved … it’s giving me a lot of joy.”

The Wolf Blass gallery and museum in Hahndorf is open Thursday – Sunday.

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by brandsa2018

WSB’s 80-year partnership with SA agriculture

Anyone who knows farming, viticulture and even motorbikes in South Australia has most likely heard of WSB Distributors.

And it is easy to know why, after 80 years in business in the Clare Valley – and now also in Saddleworth and Jamestown – it is a name that is synonymous with agricultural machinery sales and service.

These days Phil and Rob Stanway head up the business, but it was their grandfather, a then young accountant AJ ‘Johnny’ Walker who started the legacy in 1938 originally as a tax and land agency known as AJ Walker.

AJ Walker was to see many guises over the years – taxation and property, fuel and cars, and a garage for servicing cars set up in 1952 in the very same building the business’s head office operates from today in Clare’s main street.

While the head office’s insides may have been modernised since WSB’s beginning, its attention to customer service remains as strong.

WSB’s long partnership with Massey Ferguson tractors continues today.

Phil and Rob’s late father Brian arrived on the scene after moving to Clare from Millicent in 1959.

He met their mother Raelene – who was working in her father’s business – soon after arriving in town and it was the beginning of a wonderful partnership in both marriage and a business that would eventually become known as WSB Distributors.

WSB’s commitment to service has been ever-strong throughout its history, however the business has honed its focus on agricultural and viticultural machinery sales and service in more recent years and gone from strength to strength.

Brothers Robert, a co-director and WSB’s accountant and economist, and Phil, co-director and sales manager, now head up the leading machinery dealership, although Raelene remains an ever-present guide.

With three branches now operating across the Mid North the business has seen, and survived, massive industry changes, including a rationalisation of farm machinery dealerships and machinery manufacturers.

Phil, Raelene and Rob Stanway cut a birthday cake to mark the milestone 80th year of WSB Distributors.

WSB Distributors now employs 43 full-time staff, three junior and three adult apprentices, and has a fleet of 16 on-farm service vehicles servicing as far as the Eyre Peninsula due to demand for their expertise.

“I’m really proud of the company’s longevity and our staff,” Phil says.

“We have several staff who have notched up 30, 40 and 50 years of service but the effort of all the staff regardless of how long they have worked for the company is what keeps the business going and we couldn’t do it without them.

“I think also part of our success has been our ability to stay ahead of the game and quickly recognise what will work and what won’t.

Massey Ferguson has been a strong foundation for the success for more than 50 years and introducing other brands such as Manitou and Kubota has supported the business well.”

Header image: Rob and Phil Stanway in front of WSB Distributors in Clare, originally started by their grandfather, a then young accountant AJ ‘Johnny’ Walker in 1938. Photo by Gabrielle Hall.

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Pop culture adds vibrancy to Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Harry Potter, rock goddess Orianthi, music legend Prince and Star Wars – not exactly names you associate with symphonic music.

Yet all of these stars and mainstream titles form a key part of the 2019 Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) offerings.

While symphonic music remains at the centre of the recently unveiled 2019 ASO season, it’s clear that tapping into popular culture and injecting recognisable brands into each program is key to cultivating new audiences of the future.

Managing director Vincent Ciccarello says the 2019 season explores different genres and, in doing so, redefines what it means to be a symphony orchestra in the 21st century.

“A symphony orchestra in the 21st century isn’t all about symphonic music, it’s about orchestral music and presenting music of different genres be it jazz, film, hip hop with the Hilltop Hoods, in all its glory, in a way that only an orchestra can,” he says.

“Symphonic music really is the reason we exist. The repertoire of the 19th and 20th century is really why you need to have a large body of highly skilled musicians to be able to recreate that music.

“However, there is so much more to orchestral music away from the symphonic repertoire. What we mean by that is we perform music from films for example. People recognise that movie soundtracks are not only vital to the success of the movie, but also a whole movie genre in and of itself.

“So, it is possible to have music by film composers such as Ennio Morricone or John Williams performed in concert without any screens because it has such integrity as music and that is what we want to emphasise.”

In 2019 the ASO will continue its Showcase Series with another tribute concert, this time to legendary singer/songwriter Prince, who will be celebrated in Let’s Go Crazy: A Symphonic Tribute to Prince.

The show will be performed by iOTA, Brendan Maclean and Prinnie Stevens, along with the orchestra. And in a major coup for the ASO, guitar superstar Orianthi will also star in the event.

Originally from Adelaide, Orianthi achieved world-wide acclaim as Michael Jackson’s guitarist. What is less known about the performer is that she also jammed on occasion with Prince himself.

Harry Potter and Star Wars also make a comeback with the ASO, this time with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ in Concert featuring Patrick Doyle’s score, as well as the Disney production Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert featuring John Williams’ legendary score.

“Harry Potter and Star Wars continue to be big shows,” Vincent says.

“We are over the moon about the reaction to both of those series. We present the first series on September 15 (Star Wars A New Hope in Concert) and we are approaching 5000 tickets sold and that is a really big deal.”

While this kind of innovative programming helps cultivate young orchestral music lovers, Vincent admits it remains a challenge to compete with the immediacy of modern day life for a generation that craves instant gratification.

“Society has changed and the place and value of music, not just symphonic but all music, has completely changed,” he says.

“Music is really ubiquitous now in every sphere of life, in the car, on the phone, streaming, it is so readily available and people can tap into a kaleidoscope of genres and we need to be responsive to that and change with the times.

“That is the great challenge for us so not only do we present movie music, but popular music or contemporary music such as George Michael or Prince presented in an orchestral setting is now an annual part of our season. Part of that is to be sensitive to what is happening in society, but also to encourage young people to connect to us.”

While mindful of appealing to all ages, Vincent admits the ASO needs to get better at, and funnel more resources into, what he calls the “hand-to-hand combat” of programming.

“An article recently stated that Netflix dominated the Venice Biennale,” he says.

“This is the way of the world, people have such a plethora of things available to them, so how do you switch them onto things beyond what is immediately under their nose via social media or whatever? That is the stuff we need to get better at and we have a number of schemes that we use to help us with that.”

One of those schemes is the ASO’s Learning and Families program which presents shows such as next year’s Who Needs A Conductor Anyway?

The show, which is part of the DreamBIG Children’s Festival, has been written by acclaimed pianist Simon Tedeschi and is aimed at children 8+ years of age. It provides a light-hearted, humorous way of exposing young minds to what an orchestra and conductor actually do.

Another show in the 2019 line up is Dreams of Air & Flight, inspired by the book FArTHER by English author Grahame Baker-Smith.

Keeping the ASO purists happy is also vital to the lifeblood of the organisation and the 2019 season shouldn’t disappoint.

Returning highlights include the flagship Master Series, Classics Unwrapped, Gigs at Grainger and Mozart at Elder.

“It’s a careful balance,” Vincent says. “We have to remember our mainstream flagship Master Series generates more than $1 million in box office a year, so it’s a sizeable contribution to the ASO’s bottom line and we should never take that for granted.

“Apart from the fact it does remain our core business, it’s why you have a symphony orchestra, that group of expert musicians who perform at peak levels.”

The ASO’s full family program will be released in November.

by brandsa2018

Spring home makeover with Shop South Australia

Blue skies, sunlight and blooming backyards are three signs of spring that have us preparing to store away those woollen jumpers with joy.

A spring clean of your home is one way to prepare for the sunshine season, but without knowing where (or how) to start, we decided to call in the experts.

Meet: Caroline Owler and Nadia Yelland, professional home organisers and stylists, and founders of Adelaide-based home decor styling consultancy, Edited Interiors.

We asked the duo to share their ultimate editing tips for every room in the house incorporating their favourite picks from the new Shop South Australia marketplace to spruce up your space for spring.

Caroline and Nadia from Edited Interiors.

Meeting after their children started school together, the pair quickly discovered a shared passion for creating stylish and functional interior spaces.

With seven children between them, they understand the importance of having an organised home and life.

So set aside the weekend, take a few of the following tips on board and treat yourself to a little something on Shop South Australia, where you’ll find more than 300 local products from over 65 brands.

Kitchen
• Do a stocktake of mugs, cups and saucers. Spoil yourself with new items but be sure to donate excess crockery.

• Give the pantry a good clean out. Wipe down shelves, cupboards and doors, and check expiry dates on all products, discarding any that are out of date.

• Group together key ingredients for your favourite weekday meals. Grouping products together makes cooking dinner (and writing the shopping list) quicker and easier.

Shop SA: Tea 4 Two Art teapot

Bedroom & wardrobe
• Rearrange your wardrobe so all current season’s clothing is front and centre.

• Edit your clothes as you rearrange and decide what to keep, sell, donate and ditch.

• Do an inventory of bed linen and donate extra items to charity. Give new bed linen a spritz of linen spray after washing.

Shop: Linen & Lime 2 Colour Linen Quilt 100% French Linen

Living areas
• Give your sofa an update by adding new cushions. Add a throw rug to create extra layers of cosiness.

• Edit your collection of books and magazine. Pass on, return and donate those you no longer wish to keep.

• Burn scented candles for warmth and ambience. Insider tip: Etikette’s candles are scented based on SA destinations including Seacliff, Heysen, and Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas.

Shop: Etikette ‘Eyre’ Soy Wax Candle

Bathroom
• Edit bathroom towels and decide what to keep, donate or discard.

• Keep towels fluffy by washing them in warm water and don’t use too much detergent. Adding a cap of white vinegar to the rinse cycle also helps.

• Check the expiry dates of medicines and cosmetics – discard any items that are out of date and stock up on items you know you’ll need.

Shop: Yard Skincare Mandarin & Kunzea Handcream

Follow Edited Interiors on Instagram.

Sonia Bavistock is a fashion and lifestyle blogger and also has her own social media management and copywriting business. Sonia is passionate about all things South Australia and can often be seen dining out with a glass of wine in hand.

Shop South Australia is home to a unique collection of over 300 South Australian gifts and goods from more than 70 local makers & producers. Choose local and Shop South Australia.

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by brandsa2018

Ben Quilty’s first survey exhibition in a decade heads to Adelaide

The Art Gallery of South Australia will be the first to host a major exhibition by one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary artists.

Archibald Prize 2011 winner Ben Quilty will present his first major survey exhibition in a decade in Adelaide in 2019 before the collection tours to Queensland and New South Wales.

Titled Quilty, the exhibition will feature a career’s worth of works including Ben’s early reflection on the initiation rituals performed by young Australian men, his experience as an official war artist in Afghanistan and his campaign to save the lives of Bali nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were executed by firing squad in 2015.

Ben mentored and became a friend to Sukumaran during his years on death row, inspiring the prisoner’s love for art and encouraging creativity behind bars.

Also included in the survey exhibition will be works inspired by Ben’s visits with Australian author Richard Flanagan to Lebanon, Lesbos and Serbia, his revisions of the Australian landscape, and portraits of himself, his family and friends.

Ben Quilty, Australia, born 1973, ‘Self-portrait after Afghanistan’, 2012, Southern Highlands, New South Wales, oil on canvas, 130.0 x 120.0 cm, private collection, Sydney, courtesy the artist.

“My work is about working out how to live in this world, it’s about compassion and empathy but also anger and resistance,” Ben says.

“Through it I hope to push compassion to the front of national debate.”

Quilty will be presented as part of the 2019 Adelaide Festival and curated by Art Galley of SA co-acting director Lisa Slade.

“The exhibition presents a portrait of a socially engaged contemporary artist who is committed to art’s capacity to instigate change,” Lisa says.

“Quilty’s subjects are never objectified, but always rendered through the lens of personal experience.

“For most of this century Quilty has been delivering urgent visions of our time in history.

“An unlikely activist, he wields paint to draw our attention to our responsibility as critical citizens in an increasingly fraught world.”

Ben Quilty, Australia, born 1973, ‘The Last Supper no.9’, 2017, Southern Highlands, New South Wales, oil on linen, 265.0 x 202.0 cm; courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries.

In 2011, Ben’s portrait of legendary Australian artist Margaret Olley was awarded one of the country’s most prestigious accolades, the Archibald Prize.

He then travelled to Afghanistan as Australia’s official war artist and in 2013 presented the Australian War Memorial’s major touring exhibition, After Afghanistan.

Art critic John McDonald says Ben is willing to go where many people wouldn’t otherwise step foot.

“Quilty’s radical humanism has lured him outside the sedate spaces of the art gallery into war zones, refugee camps, and the Bali prison where Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed,” he says.

“Not many of us would willingly undertake such journeys, which reveal Quilty’s compassion for the victim, his determination to use his skills (and increasingly high profile) to make a difference.”

Quilty will be unveiled at the Art Gallery of SA on March 2, 2019, running until June 2.

by brandsa2018

Mark Fusco: advanced manufacturing critical to the economy

Cutting edge technology is helping to generate new advanced manufacturing potential for South Australia to grow the economy, according to business improvement specialist Mark Fusco.

“I’m really quite excited for the future in the sense that some of these changes in technology help the smaller companies compete, we don’t have to send things to Asia to be made if we use the technology available in a smart way,” says Mark, Brand South Australia’s newest I Choose SA ambassador.

He says advanced manufacturing in SA is helping level the global playing field so local companies can better compete, grow and create more jobs in the state.

“Advanced manufacturing is such a critical part of any advanced economy, it’s a creator of net wealth, it’s high tech, high value and it’s exportable,” Mark says.

He established award-winning Advanced Focus in 2005 “to help companies scale up” after spending five years working as production engineering manager for global car company Mitsubishi Motors.

He now works with more than 40 sectors in building more advanced systems – and is actually based in a former Mitsubishi building at the Tonsley innovation precinct.

Mark Fusco of Advanced Focus is an I Choose SA ambassador for the Advanced Manufacturing industry. Photo by James Knowler/JKTP.

The company specialises in working with high potential businesses to evaluate the way they operate and to help remodel their systems to boost efficiency and scale.

“If you’re a company that’s growing really fast there are often three things you run out of pretty quickly, you can’t get enough good people, you can’t get enough money to fund expansion and you’re outgrowing your premises, facility and processes,” Mark says.

It’s been a rewarding process, with Advanced Focus winning awards and helping create success stories, like the company’s second customer SA’s Redarc Electronics.

When Mark first worked with Redarc and its managing director Anthony Kittel there were only 15 staff but management was committed to building a global company.

“He had the ambition and we’ve worked in partnership ever since, the company now has over 200 people and is really going well based at Lonsdale,” Mark says.

“You don’t see that ambition often, it’s fantastic to work with a company that really wants to make a change.”

Since then Advanced Focus has worked with the Osborne-based builder of the nation’s Collins class submarines to dramatically slash dry docking maintenance times.

It has also worked with leading defence industry leader BAE Systems Australia and electrification, automation and digitalisation company Siemens.

Last week, Mark was meeting with senior members of the Australian Navy, introducing them to a range of smart SA companies like Tauv, a manufacturer of lightweight military-grade armour.

Tauv has applied world-first technology to additive manufacturing to develop stronger, lighter and smarter armour for defence, law enforcement and the civil industry.

Another is Resonate, a company specialising in the design of custom measurement systems, software development, complex data analytics and systems integration services.

“They’ve created a company called Ping that has created an acoustic sensor that can listen using artificial intelligence … that is being used to monitor wind turbine defects,” Mark says.

Mark is now also focused on recognising the abundance of high-potential companies in the state.

Along with two other companies, Mihell & Lycos and Adept Technology, he established the not-for-profit Impact Awards in 2014.

The aim was to draw together highly respected leaders in the SA business community to help develop and grow more global companies.

Its mission is “to deliver significant value to the SA economy for the long term by actively working with proven, high-potential companies to help them globalise”.

The awards find companies with the greatest potential to impact world markets – with winners paired with the group’s ambassadors to help them achieve their global ambitions faster and with less risk.

Ambassadors include Rheinmetall Defence Australia managing director and Sydac founder Adrian Smith and angel investor and co-founder of Australian company Humense, Amber Cordeaux.

Mark says winners like last year’s Supashock, HMPS and Ziptrak had judges “blown away that they have never heard of some of these companies and also what the have achieved and done it in SA”.

The awards website says it all.

“SA as a high cost economy, with a small and isolated population, needs global companies generating profound impact on the world,” it says.

“By uniting with proven leaders and influencers, our local business community can achieve incredible things to make SA not just one of the best places to live, but also one of the most exciting places from which to run a global enterprise.”

I Choose SA for Advanced Manufacturing stories are made possible by City of Salisbury:

Industry in focus: Advanced Manufacturing

Throughout the month of September, the state’s advanced manufacturing industry will be under the magnifying glass as part of I Choose SA.

As SA transforms away from traditional manufacturing processes, innovative and sophisticated products and services are taking their place, creating new jobs and investment opportunities for the state. Read more stories here.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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by brandsa2018

Purity provides the key to success for SA honey producers

Fake honey? Consumers familiar with South Australia’s fraternity of artisan honey producers scoff at such a notion.

The provenance of locally procured honey has provided a commercial boon for a suite of SA honey producers for many years in global markets, with careful harvesting placing the authenticity of their honey beyond question.

When news recently broke of a substitution scandal affecting imported bulk honey, Buzz Honey in the Adelaide Hills was inundated with a host of endorsements from their loyal customers.

“Many customers immediately emailed us, saying that’s why they’ve been buying our honey for such a long time, because they know it’s pure,” says Buzz Honey managing director Annette Ferris.

“Our products have a clear paddock-to-plate story. We know all of our bees, the flowers they source nectar from, and every honey sourced from different sites is kept separate. Such attention to detail is our point of difference.”

Buzz Honey beekeepers in an orange orchard.

Local producers have promoted the provenance of SA honey through rigorous education of consumers. An important asset for Buzz Honey has been its “hive door” sales facility in Hahndorf’s main street.

With the retail shop featuring a glass-walled hive containing 20,000 bees, visitors observe how honey is made, then can taste different honeys sourced from different regions and tree blossoms: Bluegum from Adelaide Hills, Orange Blossom from Riverland, and Bush Mallee from the Murray Mallee district.

“The specific taste differences have taught a lot of people that true honey has a lot of individual character and depth of flavour that defies imitation,” says Annette.

Authenticity has long been a hallmark of Island Beehive on Kangaroo Island, one of Australia’s largest organic honey producers, selling up to 200 tonnes of honey each year to local and international buyers.

Proprietor Peter Davis built the reputation of the honey he produces around the provenance of the island’s Ligurian bees, imported from Italy by the SA Chamber of Manufactures in the early 1880s, which led to the 4500 square-kilometre island being declared a bee sanctuary.

Beekeeper and honey producer Peter Davis, left, is passionate about Kangaroo Island’s Ligurian bee species.

As a consequence, the bees that service Peter’s 1300 hives around the island are the last remaining pure bred Ligurian bees in the world – an exclusive aspect to Island Beehive production that Peter has energetically promoted.

“Our ‘Authentic Kangaroo Island’ brand has a special power to it,” he says.

“We export about 60 tonnes of honey a year, with 40 tonnes going to Japan.

Demand far exceeds supply every year, because people know that we sell true honey. We sell everything we produce, because of our honey’s reputation for purity, and there is demand for much, much more.”

Peter says Island Beehive has the ability to expand, and will do so when conditions are right to foster more queen bees and meet escalating demand.

“We can do this without compromising our quality or integrity, because what we do is built upon the strength of our relationships with farmers and landowners, to ensure we can accurately read the flora and the seasons to ensure the best possible quality honey.”

It’s a story consistent among SA honey producers. Humbugz at Kingston SE has grown steadily from a backyard hobby for David and Frances Curkpatrick into a business with national and export sales.

They tend about 400 working hives, with each hive capable of producing about 100kg of honey annually from Italian Gold bees located within a 60km radius of their production shed.

Frances believes that conscientious producers focused on such types of localised production are now in a very advantageous position.

Humbugz Honey is made in Kingston in the state’s South East.

“SA’s honey producers now have a great opportunity to promote the purity of our honey. If we work together, we can shine on a light on a great asset that we have in this state,” says Frances.

The provenance of SA honey is also taken seriously within the local hospitality industry, with the Mayfair Hotel in Adelaide’s CBD having its own hives on the rooftop.

Executive chef Bethany Finn makes an elaborate feature of the hotel’s own honey as part of the hotel’s extensive breakfast buffet, offering a variety of flavours, and even fresh honeycomb.

The Mayfair’s honey is also featured in the hotel’s signature Honey Trap cocktail at its rooftop Hennessy Lounge.

More honey innovations in SA are set to keep the local industry moving forward.

Buzz Honey received a $50,000 State Government Advanced Manufacturing Grant in March 2017, to develop freeze-dried SA raw honey crystals with SARDI.

The project will involve constructing a humidity-controlled processing room, with the results expected to enable SA’s pure honey to be used more widely in large-scale food manufacturing.

“Honey is not just honey,” says BuzzHoney’s Annette Ferris. “It’s a highly specialised ingredient that we still have so much to learn about. For us, honey is an adventure.”

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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by brandsa2018

Kangaroo Island showcases pure grain to the world

Kangaroo Island Pure Grain (KIPG) is helping to further strengthen the island’s clean and green reputation to drive export markets and support local farmers.

For more than a decade KIPG has endeavoured to provide premium returns for local growers of non-genetically modified grains, oilseeds and pulses that are fully traceable back to individual farms.

While the domestic market is an important part of KIPG’s operations, its export market makes up the majority of its sales.

Recently the company hosted a delegation of Japanese buyers who visited the island for a first-hand insight into the local grain industry and the pristine environment.

“We have high interest from Japan in our non-GM canola, so we’ve been doing business with them for nearly 11 years,” says KIPG CEO Shane Mills.

“Our canola goes to Japan as pure non-GM canola oil and they’ve really embraced the clean, green and pristine environment it comes from.

“That’s the real success story to date for KIPG.”

Delegates on their visit to KIPG in 2017. A group also visited the island this September.

Recently KIPG has branched out to help local farmers find new niche markets, particularly with well known brands in the food and beverage industries.

KIPG collaborates with iconic South Australian brewer Coopers to supply Westminster barley used for making beer.

The barley is malted at Coopers’ $65 million new malting plant in Adelaide and is also supplied to boutique breweries.

The collaboration has eventually led to the making of the island’s very first whiskey, produced by Kangaroo Island Spirits (KIS).

KIS is preparing to distil the single malt whiskey also with the help of the island’s Drunken Drone Brewery and port barrels sourced from Bay of Shoals Wines.

KIPG CEO Shane Mills says relationships with well known companies such as Coopers and other leading businesses on the island “gives another arm to help the growers’ profitability”.

He says KIPG also supplies biscuit wheat to Adelaide’s Allied Mills which makes Arnott’s Tim Tams.

Drunken Drone Brewkery’s Greg Simons, left, Member for Mawson Leon Bignell, Kangaroo Island Pure Grain manager Dennis Jamieson and Kangaroo Island Spirits’ Jon Lark each enjoy a Lark Whiskey. They’ll have to wait two years before the island’s first whiskey is matured.

Kangaroo Island’s grain growers provide up to 20,000 tonnes a year to KIPG, with commodities including wheat, canola, broad beans and malted barley.

“Our broad beans that we grow on the island go right through South East Asia and they go into snack foods – similar to how we eat peanuts,” Shane says.

“We’re marketing that right through Indonesia and through Taiwan and we’re just breaking into the Middle East now.

“That’s another success story that’s provided our growers with another profitable crop.

“If you look at dollar terms our percentage of export is somewhere around 70% and tonnage wise it’s about 50%.

“We’re pushing to grow the export business a bit and maximise the value of our crops.”

KIPG was established in 2009 by a group of local grain growers who were looking for a more viable alternative than the local silo system to market their grain.

Shane says costs for transporting freight off the island to the mainland was a “real catalyst” for establishing KIPG.

“Our job is to market the grain at a profit that negates the freight factor, so we’re very much into niche marketing because we don’t accumulate hundreds of thousands of tonnes,” he says.

KIPG’s site near Kingscote on Kangaroo Island.

KIPG receives, classifies, stores, processes and markets the majority of the island’s premium grains, oilseeds, and pulses.

At harvest time – usually in early December – grain is sent to the KIPG receiving and storage facility just outside of the island’s main business hub of Kingscote.

KIPG partners with local trucking company Ugly Dog Transport to send the grain on the SeaLink ferry to domestic buyers.

It also has a processing facility at Osborne in Adelaide where the product is graded and packaged ready for export.

Kangaroo Island local Ben Pontifex is a fifth generation farmer, growing canola, broad beans and malted barley.

He says having a collaborative approach to grain growing on the island is “beyond integral” to the local industry’s livelihood.

“It gives us a fighting chance with the freight rate, and logistically too, all the way through from harvest to the end markets.”

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by brandsa2018

German battery giant to create 430 manufacturing jobs for SA

A German energy storage giant has chosen the former Holden car factory in Adelaide’s northern suburbs as the centre of its Australian operations.

Sonnen will assemble and manufacture 50,000 energy storage systems at the site over the next five years, creating about 430 manufacturing and installation jobs for South Australia.

The company’s plans to establish a battery production plant in Adelaide were initially announced in February 2018, when the location was still under consideration.

Sonnen will set up its Australian headquarters at the former Holden manufacturing plant and begin assembling its world-leading home battery technology.

Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ridgway says the new manufacturing centre will become sonnen’s central shipping facility for Australia and the Asia and South Pacific region.

“The State Liberal Government is delighted that sonnen has decided to make Adelaide the centre of its Australian operations and the jobs that will deliver for South Australians,” he says.

“Manufacturing has been a key foundation of SA’s economy for decades and this is set to continue on the back of leading companies like sonnen establishing an advanced manufacturing presence in our state.”

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The State Government says the rollout of the battery systems combined with rooftop solar is expected to “provide significant savings to household electricity bills”.

The sonnen news follows the State Government’s announcement of its $100m Home Battery Scheme.

The scheme is set to provide 40,000 SA households with access to grants up to $6000 to pay for the installation of home battery systems.

Sonnen CEO Christoph Ostermann says SA has a new reputation for being the centre of energy policy in Australia.

“We are very excited to begin manufacturing in SA for the Australian and export markets and anticipate Australia will become the world’s number one market for energy storage systems,” he says.

Sonnen runs a virtual power plant in Germany, where thousands of households are connected with a photovoltaic system (PV) and storage system, forming the decentralised sonnenCommunity.

“As the sonnenBatterie can charge and discharge up to three times a day, it is ideal once battery numbers reach a certain level, to form a virtual power plant capable of supplying energy to the grid on days of high demand,” Christoph says.

“50,000 storage systems will be able to draw down energy stored in the batteries to supply up to 150 megawatts of electricity to the grid, which is the equivalent of a gas-fired peaking power station.”

Header image: sonnen, Facebook.

I Choose SA for Advanced Manufacturing stories are made possible by City of Salisbury:

Industry in focus: Advanced Manufacturing

Throughout the month of September, the state’s advanced manufacturing industry will be under the magnifying glass as part of I Choose SA.

As SA transforms away from traditional manufacturing processes, innovative and sophisticated products and services are taking their place, creating new jobs and investment opportunities for the state. Read more stories here.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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by brandsa2018

Adelaide the true star of Aussie film The Flip Side

Four lead characters sit outside North Adelaide’s The Kentish pub sipping on Coopers Sparkling Ales in Australian comedy drama The Flip Side.

The scene is a snippet of life in Adelaide, and it’s unfolding in cinemas across the country.

Co-written and directed by South Australian creative Marion Pilowsky, the charming film was shot in 35 locations across the state in just five weeks.

Australia’s oldest surviving German settlement, Hahndorf,  gets screen time, as does the famous palm tree-lined Seppeltsfield Road in the Barossa Valley.

Drama unfolds at the Brukunga Mine in the small Adelaide Hills town and waves crash on screen at a beach along Horseshoe Bay.

“It means everything to me that I was able to create this film here in SA,” says Marion, who was born in the UK before emigrating to Australia at the age of three with her family.

“It feels completely truthful, my DNA is in the work, it’s where I’ve grown up. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it anywhere else.”

Ronnie, played by SA actor Emily Taheny, at Barossa Bowland.

The Flip Side is Marion’s debut feature film, produced by her own Adelaide-based Corner Table Productions in association with the SA Film Corporation, Screen Australia and 20th Century Fox.

SA actor Emily Taheny – whose hometown is Warooka on the Yorke Peninsula – plays the lead role of Ronnie, an Adelaide chef who sparked a love affair with English actor, Henry (played by Eddie Izzard).

But Henry goes back to the UK, breaking Ronnie’s heart in the process.

Five years later Ronnie is coupled up with Jeff (Luke McKenzie), when Henry visits Australia again, but this time with French assistant girlfriend Sophie (Vanessa Guide).

Henry and Sophie stay with Ronnie and Jeff for a few days, but the time spent together leaves Ronnie wondering what could have been with the one who got away.

It took Marion about four years to write the script with co-writer and partner Lee Sellars, who Marion says brought truthfulness to the male perspective of the story.

Eddie Izzard plays Henry in film The Flip Side.

She points out The Flip Side is a comedy drama rather than a romantic comedy, and that her intention was to reflect women’s lives on screen.

“It’s a comedy drama and it’s about how women work out where they are in their lives and giving themselves permission to be happy and finding their own state of grace in the kind of complicated lives we live as modern women,” Marion says.

About 70 South Australian cast and crew were employed for the film, shot at locations including Callington, Port Adelaide, Macclesfield, Happy Valley, Croydon, Semaphore Beach, Tonsley, Adelaide Airport and Clarence Park.

“I always like location in film … I like having the environment of where the characters live front and centre and I don’t apologise for that.

“So this is an Adelaide couple who live in SA and I wanted it to be very specifically about that.”

SA’s landscapes haven’t only unfolded on the silver screen as a result of The Flip Side hitting theatres, but they’ve also been shared across social media too.

While filming in Elizabeth, Vanessa Guide, the French actor who plays Sophie, snapped an image of a garden outside a unit in the northern suburbs and shared it with her 36,000 Instagram followers.

“She posted this photo of a classic Australian native garden with beautiful flowering natives,” Marion says.

“I asked her, ‘where is that!’ and she pointed across the road.”

While The Flip Side is Marion’s first feature film, she has made six short films and built her career in the realms of film financing, film sales and consultancy.

Growing up in Adelaide, Marion moved to the UK at the age of 27, living between London and Sydney for the next 20 years of her life.

In 2012 she returned home to Adelaide with a desire to create her own work, knowing that it had to be done here at home.

“I really believe in writing what you know and being in a place that you’re really connected to,” Marion says.

“The greatest benefit of working here is that it’s so easy logistically and physically … everything is within an hour, the actual making of the film and moving large groups of people around is a lot easier than Sydney or Melbourne.”

Marion admits the film industry is a tough gig to crack and that “any film that gets made now is literally a miracle”.

But she says the energy of SA’s creative industries is promising for the local film sector.

“I think we’re in a moment of great productivity and great positivity,” she says.

“It feels like a very good time to be a filmmaker in SA.”

Read more stories about South Australia’s creative industries here.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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