Swans sizzle with big BBQ from unlikely source

BALLARAT Football Netball Clubs Junior Swans needed a barbeque trailer, so they approached Andrew Holloway, co-owner of Australian Grain Systems’ to give them an idea of the costs they could expect.

When Mr Holloway later contacted the club asking would it accept a trailer if he built one for them the answer was yes and what was delivered was above expectation.

“It came far bigger, far more advanced and far better built than we expected,” said Scott Petrie, Director of the Junior Swans.

The new asset was pressed into service by the club in time for the Ballarat Football League finals with volunteers from the juniors Swans working the hotplates and cooking up a storm across the city.

How did a company known more for specialised agricultural equipment come to build what is essentially a giant kitchen on wheels for a footy club?

Australian Grain Systems makes seed cleaning and processing equipment with a speciality in mobile seed cleaning trucks. It’s the only business in Australia that designs, develops and builds at type of vehicle.

When a grain crop such as wheat, barley, oats or canola is harvested, the header it picks up a lot of trash with the grain.

Farmers are only allowed a certain percentage of rubbish in the crop when they take it to market.

“After a crop is harvested, farmers would load it onto a truck to take to a static cleaning and treating plant,” Mr Holloway said. “Now the trucks we build go direct to the farm to clean the crop, eliminating the transport costs.

“Making trailers to cook sausages and egg and bacon rolls is not something AGS does on a regular basis, but we wanted to help where we could.”

In the normal course of business AGS buys a truck, extends the wheelbase to the length required and then builds all the equipment for the chassis in their factory in Mitchell Park. The end product normally sells for over $1 million.

AGS is not well known around Ballarat with only 0.5 per cent of its clients from the area, the rest are spread Australia wide.

Mr Holloway sees the trailer as a way to lift AGS’ profile in the local community as well as support the Swans’ fund-raising activities.

With a current workforce of 15 people and future growth planned, AGS would like to be seen as a preferred employer in time to come.