According to articles elsewhere, young Henry John Heinz commenced by growing, packing and selling his first product, horseradish, in his neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the USA in 1869. His product ‘lines’ soon extended to and beyond the famous ’57 varieties’, which became the company slogan in 1896.

Although Heinz products became available in Australia from around 1895, demand was such that an Australian factory had to be set up. Its Australian operations commenced in October 1935 in a converted former piano factory in Richmond, Victoria. Perhaps as a nod to H.J.’s original product, bottled horseradish was the first product off the line at Richmond. By 1939, there were 40 employees, but the move to Dandenong saw an expansion of the workforce to 350 employees.

Although still headquartered in Melbourne, Heinz closed the Dandenong factory in 2000.

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July 1947 – June 1948

July 1948 – June 1949

July 1949 – June 1950

Above: From ‘The Navy’ magazine. July 1950, Vol 14, no. 7, p.6. Click image for larger version.

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13 March 1940. p.18

2 February 1946. p.18

23 March 1946. p.19

29 June 1946. p.19

27 January 1951. p.12.
In the early 1950s, Goetz brought skilled tradesmen from the U.K. under a migration scheme sponsored by the Victorian Chamber of Manufacturers. As part of the scheme, Goetz was obliged to provide accommodation for workers and therefore purchased suitable properties at Newport and Williamstown.

In addition to the cost of the accommodation properties, extra finance was needed as Goetz had acquired an interest in a foundry in Grace Street Dandenong in 1948, and made outright purchase in 1949 whereupon they commenced construction of an ‘up to date’ facility on the site. By 1951, the new foundry was still incomplete, requiring an additional ₤8,000 to complete the work.

Therefore, in April 1951 the company made available an issue of 35,000 ₤1 5% Cumulative Preference Shares.

31 March 1951. p.30

1 March 1952. p.41

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In 1991, Goetz installed to Uncle Ben’s production line G, an 8 header closer and 99 dia 47p maxi can, used for producing pet food. By 2002 it had produced 9 billion cans.

In 2005 Ken Scott designed and built, with Masterfoods workers, a new 36 air piston rod valve UF filler. Commencing production in 2006, this machine had the same setup as the Masterfoods A and G line 47p fillers.

Source: Ken Scott.

Below: The 47p manual weighed in at about 150 pages. Click image of larger view.

Below: The Goetz Die-Shop football team 1962. Click image for larger version

Below: An undated Goetz cricket team. Click image for larger version