The new location was acquired from Glen Innes Severn Council in September. The business relocated from its former headquarters on the New England Highway, now occupied by Deepwater Rural Supplies CRT, in March and centralises production with neighbouring business Trethewey Dawson.

Trethewey Industries employs more than 30 local workers and remains very much a family business. Principal Reg Trethewey designs the automatic cardboard compressors, while brother John Trethewey and business partner Edwin Dawson proprietors of Trethewey Dawson manufacture some of the balers and another brother Mark and his wife Deanne produce some of the electronic systems used in the autobalers through their business StarLogixs.

“This very entrepreneurial family has shown that it is possible to operate successfully at global level from a small country town and provide work for many local people,” Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay, who officially opened the new Trethewey Industries site, said.

Reg Trethewey said he was proud of his workforce.

“Deepwater is an unusual place with a great bunch of people,” Mr Reg Trethewey said.

“It provides a combination of various expertise; some of the girls in the office are unbelievable. On my own I am zero, it’s a combination of everyone.”

The enterprise produces 11 different models of baling machines to compress cardboard and plastic for recycling. The autobalers are sold to major retail and supermarket chains such as Coles, Woolworths, Big W and Kmart all over Australia and New Zealand and a rate of four to seven a week.

The company is heading toward the future with the design concept of voice-activated machines, which greet the customer and give instructions.

“We want the machine to be almost like a person,” Mr Trethewey said.

Since the company’s autobalers were first showcased in 2000, it has expanded from its regional base to a global level with markets in New Zealand, Canada, Europe and in the near future the US.