By Casey Neill
A Noble Park manufacturer will create 12 new full-time jobs thanks to a $300,000 boost.
Premier Daniel Andrews visited Kez’s Kitchen on Thursday 1 December to announce the funding.
“We’re investing in the south-east to help businesses diversify into new markets, to help workers transition into new jobs and to help our local communities survive and grow,” he said.
The cash will allow the family-owned manufacturer to invest $1.5 million in new equipment.
It will help the company to increase its production of premium biscuits, cereals and snack bars, reduce waste and grow internationally.
As well as taking on 12 new full-time workers, Kez’s will up-skill its existing team.
The business started in 1991 with Kez Ludski and her mother baking biscuits in the family home and selling them to local cafes.
Today managing director and Kez’s brother Michael Carp owns and runs the business after walking away from his job as a lawyer to hop on board in 1994.
The kitchen moved to its 45,000 square foot purpose-built bakery on Princes Highway in 1999 and today employs more than 100 people.
The cash came from the State Government’s Manufacturing Program.
Companies can apply for up to $500,000 under the program to invest in new technologies and processes that will create jobs and increase productivity.
The Journal has previously spoken to Kez’s Kitchen about its Free and Naked bars which meet lofty, guilt-free standards – a four-star health rating, cold-pressed, and nude of added sugar, gluten, wheat, GMO ingredients, sulfite, artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.
Mr Carp said the company doubled its output when it started making gluten-free foods such as cereals in 2007.
He said the company completed extensive research with domestic consumers and emerging overseas trends to find points of difference.
