In May this year, I was lucky enough to attend a tour of the Bayer Manufacturing site in Pinkenba, Brisbane Queensland with long time Bayer customer, Damien Bishop of Cureall Pest Control.  What we saw was amazing to say the least! Seeing just how much innovation and R&D goes into the production of Bayer products. From little touches such as a custom-built temperature-controlled  room to store and protect labels, all the way to the environmentally responsible approach of redirecting collected rainwater at a cleaner level back in to the Brisbane river.   I am proud to work for a company that invests heavily in the future of Australia and in the Pest Control Industry.

There are two formulation sites in Australia, the other being in Kwinana, Western Australia. The head office of Environmental Science is located in Hawthorn East, Victoria.

The Pinkenba facility covers 4.4 hectares backing the Brisbane River. It has been in place for over 50 years, employing over 50 Queensland staff, all passionate about their work. Damien commented that the passion from the staff was evident from the thoroughness of their work, the cleanliness of their work stations and the commitment to Quality Assurance. The site was one of the cleanest commercial facilities he had ever seen, rivalling that of high end food production plants. 

Bayer Crop Science Australia are producing on average 1 million litres of finished product a month at the moment. The facility manufactures products that cover business groups such as; Crop Protection, Environmental Science (which includes Pest Control and Turf), and Seed Treatments.

Site Manager, Amgad Hanna, is quite proud of the fact that a large percentage of product is actually exported into China, where China is traditionally a supplier of finished goods.

We were very impressed to learn on the tour that over 50% of the Professional Pest Control range is made on site with the rest being manufactured in other Bayer facilities similar to the Pinkenba site across the globe. 

Being one of the formulation facilities in the Bayer APAC region, along with many more plants globally, the Pinkenba facility gets to leverage innovative production and treatment techniques used across the world. This leads to far more effective and efficient production. 

In 2016 a total of €4.666 billion was spent by Bayer globally on research and development. This was equivalent to 9.8 percent of sales. We maintain a global network of research and development locations, where more than 15,000 scientists are employed.

As an employee of Bayer and as a Professional Pest Controller for over 17 years, I feel very proud that a global research and development giant such as Bayer invests heavily in Australian jobs and growth. Whilst also contributing with the creation of a host of active ingredients and in more recent times, formulation technology advancements that arm the Professional Pest Control Industry with class leading products.

For more information on the Pinkenba site or if you are a Bayer customer that would appreciate a tour of our Pinkenba facility, please contact your local Bayer representative.

Back to Newsletter