Cognis in Australia

Cognis Australia’s head office is situated in Tullamarine - Victoria, where most Supply Chain, Customer Service, Finance, General Services, HR and IT are located. It is also the location for the Care Chemicals and Functional Products business units and comprises a laboratory for technical support to these sections. Adjacent to this office is Cognis' main warehouse (outsourced to third party).

At Wetherill Park - New South Wales a state sales office for Nutrition and Health, Care Chemicals and Functional Products is situated. It is also a subsidiary location for customer service, finance and warehousing.

Manufacturing sites
Cheltenham Manufacturing Site:
This production site is where the Cognis finished Natural Betacarotene and Natural Mixed Carotenoid products are produced. This includes final purifying, refining, blending, Quality Assurance and pack off facilities. It also includes a modern well equipped laboratory where all quality analyses and the Research and Development are conducted. This site is licensed to produce under the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia (GMP) and is also accredited with ISO 22000, AS4801 (1S018000).

Whyalla Site:
At Whyalla (pop 22,000) there are some 400 hectares of hypersaline lakes which grow the salt tolerant alga (Dunaliella Salina) from which Cognis produces natural betacarotene and key dietary carotenoids. At Whyalla we harvest the algae at up to one million litres of brine  per hour and commence the process of recovering the natural betacarotene and carotenoids. A low grade concentrate is trucked to Cheltenham for further purifying and refining. This site operates seven days a week for most of the year.

Hutt Lagoon Site:
This remote location at Hutt Lagoon, near Port Gregory some 600 km north of Perth also has 400 hectares of salt lakes. Like Whyalla, it initially harvests and recovers the natural betacarotene and other carotenoids but it also purifies, refines and concentrates to a higher grade product before despatching to Cheltenham for further concentration and pack off. Nutremia™ brand Artmemia, or brine shrimp, is grown, harvested and packaged at this site. This site is also TGA-GMP licensed.

This site operates seven days a week for most of the year.

Both these production sites are thought to have the largest area of algal cultivation for carotenoids in the world and are environmentally sustainable, whilst the processes utilize no petrochemical solvents.