Background
Key Principle Mark Pope: The Face of Rendering By-Products, Australia!
After completing my apprenticeship as a motor vehicle technician in central NSW in the late 1970's, I was young, eager and looking for adventure. I headed to the Northern Territory where I started work at Point Stuart Abattoirs on their four-wheel drive buffalo catchers. With the domestication of the territory buffalo herd and industrial action, this unique top end business folded where I found myself falling back on my trade and working out of Darwin as a technician again.
As my three-year love affair with the top end came to a close and my need to head back home for family commitments, I found my way to Fletcher International Exports facility in Dubbo NSW. Tasked with operating the new rendering facility, my engagement began with hands on experience at the Mudgee Abattoirs.
The experience I have today in the rendering industry can be best attributed to Roger Fletcher's guidance, mentoring and philosophies.
With Fletcher's expansion into Albany WA, I was thrilled to be involved in the set up of key production areas for the new abattoirs and rendering plant.
My excitement with the incorporation of PLC control to streamline the rendering process and help with operator time management, including automation of the cooking process, still drives me towards perfection in our industry today.
After a long seventeen year association with the Fletcher Group, an opportunity presented itself to team up with Keith Engineering Australia. My ten plus year role with Keith Engineering as Operations Adviser has added to my rendering by-products experience through plant audits, operator training, product sales, and plant design, which I share through, onsite training at your abattoirs facility or rendering plant site. The Keith experience has been crucial to my development in this industry and it has taken me to rendering plants in the USA, India, New Zealand and into most plants across Australia.
I’m proud to be able to relate easily to the issues around rendering by-products whether it
is the operators blaming maintenance or the maintenance blaming the operators.
At the end of the day, we all need to work hand in hand to strive for the perfect result.