Ballarat's 40 under 40: Leigh Edward - The Courier - December 2023

Meet Ferndale Foods chief executive Leigh Edward for The Courier's 40 under 40 series.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:08 What I mostly love about Ballarat is being born and bred in Ballarat and growing up through

00:14 school systems and universities and playing a lot of football. I know so many people in this town

00:22 and community and I think that absolutely is why I want to bring my family up here too because

00:29 I've had a very fortunate upbringing, you know, I've experienced lots of positive things and

00:35 if my kids can, you know, follow a similar path and I think there's great opportunity here like

00:42 to be able to, you know, grow a business in Ballarat as we have, have, you know, an amazing

00:48 pool of staff to pull from and to be able to give back to, you know, the local community is something

00:54 that I really love about regional towns. We help each other, we stick together and when times get

01:01 tough, you know, we band together and when times are great we celebrate and that's what I love

01:05 about Ballarat. The growth that we've seen in the last 10 years is quite unbelievable to be honest.

01:14 I remember driving to Ferndale only 10 years ago through Cherry Flat Road and Dallacombe and there

01:20 was sheep paddocks and cow paddocks and now it's, you know, it's the thriving metropolis that it is

01:25 and I think that will continue to happen and I think the, I guess, the land that's available

01:32 that continues to be developed is going to continue to grow the city and a growing city

01:39 is a great city because it gives opportunity to commercial development, it gives a good pool of

01:45 staff for manufacturers like SL, it gives the government reasons to invest in health, in schools,

01:52 in infrastructure and all be it, we're only an hour and 20 from the Melbourne airport.

01:57 So my vision for Ballarat is absolutely continued growth. I think growth is good,

02:02 many don't but I do, I think growth is good and if we can contribute as an organisation to providing

02:09 jobs and, I guess, future opportunities for people in that growth, that's our part in the whole thing.

02:15 [Music]