Haigh's Chocolate Factory

Haigh’s Chocolates recently celebrated its 110th anniversary, making it Australia’s oldest family-owned chocolate maker. To mark the occasion and to meet growing industry demand, a new state-of-the-art production, warehousing and online fulfilment facility has been built in Salisbury South, Adelaide, South Australia. The $120 million project is the company’s largest-ever single investment. It features advanced chocolate-making equipment, including specialised panning, enrobing, and moulding lines, as well as 1.8 km of chocolate delivery pipes. The new facility is expected to produce over 2,000 tonnes of raw chocolate, doubling the company’s previous production capacity, and enabling the opening of more stores around the country.

The Challenges:

For this ambitious project, Haigh’s needed a facility that could:

• Maintain precise temperature control for chocolate production.

• Deliver a HACCP-approved food-safe environment.

• Support rapid construction to meet market timelines.

• Match energy efficient certifications

The Solution:

Kingspan Coldstore panels were specified for the project to provide a solution to the project challenges. The panels are engineered specifically for use within temperature-controlled environments and are supplied with hygiene-safe coatings. The 150mm thick panels offer excellent thermal performance with an R-value of 6.92 m²K/W, and the high-performance PIR insulation core ensures the temperature remains constant and ambient. A fast installation of the panels was also needed to meet market timelines and ensure the factory was up and running quickly.

Kingspan Coldstore panels are a through-fix, single-component system which allows for a quick and simpler installation compared to built-up systems. This jointing system also achieves an airtight seal once installed, resulting in a consistent blanket of insulation that assists with temperature control.

With bespoke colours available for the external face and either a flat or ribbed profile, the Coldstore panels offer an appealing aesthetic when used to form the building envelope. The coolroom white internal liner coating is designed for hygiene-safe environments and maintains a clean visual.

The project had high sustainability goals and needed to meet energy-efficiency regulations. Manufactured in Australia to ISO 9001, the Coldstore panels and receive the maximum recognition by the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star building rating tools scheme, certified with a Global GreenTag GreenRate Level A. The panels also have Environmental Product Declarations in accordance with ISO 14025 and EN 15804:2012 + A2:2019 and are FM Approved, providing an assurance to the building owner that the products chosen are the highest-quality and will perform over the building’s lifetime.

The controlled environment solutions used in the construction of the new facility were made at Kingspan Insulated Panels manufacturing facility in St Marys, Sydney. Local manufacturing further reinforces the sustainable approach to this significant development, which represents the largest investment in Haigh’s history to date. The project highlights the value of Australian-made building solutions in delivering high-performance, future-ready facilities.

Blending Heritage with Innovation:

The new Haigh’s Chocolate Factory ensures that a beloved Australian brand can continue to scale while maintaining the standards of excellence for which it is known, and remaining firmly rooted in the community it has served for over a century. This state-of-the-art development strengthens local capability by creating jobs, boosting regional investment, and reinforcing the importance of advanced manufacturing within South Australia.

Delivered in partnership with ISD Solutions, Kingspan Insulated Panels Australia is proud to have contributed to a project that supports the continued growth of one of the country’s most iconic chocolate makers.