Rebuilding the Thomas Foods abattoir devastated in a major fire in January will cost more than $300 million and could take up to two years, chief executive Darren Thomas says.
The company hosted Premier Steven Marshall at the Murray Bridge site, east of Adelaide, on Friday to update him on the latest plans to restore its operations to full capacity.
Mr Thomas said the company continued to work with its insurers on the rebuilding process and had developed concept plans for a new plant.
He said it was working as quickly as possible but the process would take time.
"We're committed to this. Whatever we do will be bigger, better and stronger," Mr Thomas told reporters.
"We are trying to get things up and running as quickly as possible."
Mr Thomas confirmed about 900 workers at Murray Bridge had been offered positions across the company's other operations in the Adelaide Hills, and at Tamworth in NSW.
About 70 to 90 people continued to work at Murray Bridge in the surviving cold stores, while about 400 labour-hire workers lost their positions.
Mr Thomas said he expected that once the rebuild was complete the total workforce at Murray Bridge would exceed what it was before the blaze.
He said the company's biggest challenge would be finding the required skilled workers.
Mr Marshall said the fire in the abattoir was a tragedy for all involved, including the workers, the owners and shareholders and the wider Murray Bridge community.
But he said he was looking forward to hearing the plans the company had to rebuild its operations.
"About how they plan to recover and build from the tragic set of circumstances here in January," the premier said.
The blaze, which destroyed the boning and storage rooms, took more than a week to extinguish, with firefighters hampered by poor access and unstable walls in the plant's basement.
