• Campaign trail: At East Coast Canning (l-r) prime minister Scott Morrison; owner Chris Kelly; company HR manager Mel, and Andrew Constance
    Campaign trail: At East Coast Canning (l-r) prime minister Scott Morrison; owner Chris Kelly; company HR manager Mel, and Andrew Constance
  • Personalised: East Coast Canning can for the prime minister
    Personalised: East Coast Canning can for the prime minister
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison opened his 2022 election campaign with a visit to East Coast Canning, a start-up mobile canning, printing, labelling and packaging business on the NSW south coast.

Morrison was spruiking the government’s message of supporting innovation and employment, and supporting would-be MP Andrew Constance, who is aiming to overturn the marginal seat of Gilmore from Labor.

Personalised: East Coast Canning can for the prime minister

East Coast Canning owner Chris Kelly, who started the business five years ago with the help of a government grant, presented the prime minster with a custom-designed can, labelled as Scomo’s Strong Economy.

Morrison accepted the can with glee, before laying into the opposition leader’s inability to say what the current unemployment rate is, and citing East Coast Canning as an example of his government supporting a business to create employment.

From its early beginnings East Coast Canning now has 35 staff, operating five Codi canning machines around Australia. Since launch it has seamed 35 million cans, and labelled 10 million.

Food & Drink Business

Reploid Group is expanding into Oceania, with the launch of a new sales company in New Zealand. Reploid builds modular plants that use insect larvae to repurpose food waste, having the potential to fill the gap left by Goterra’s collapse into voluntary administration earlier this year.

Welcome to the July edition of PLAY, your monthly wrap-up of the biggest stories shaping Australia's food and beverage manufacturing industry. This month we're looking at court action, a major take-private deal, alleged tomato provenance fraud, new leadership and investment in manufacturing capability. Let's get into it. 

Winners of the 2026 Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design (PIDA) Awards were recognised last week during foodpro 2026, a showcase of how the industry is incorporating circularity, usability, accessibility and digital functionality into packaging solutions across the board.