Councillor Murray and Tamworth Regional Council general manager Paul Bennett were guests at Everich Corporation’s annual general meeting.

Questions were raised in the lead up to the trip about whether its $5000 price tag – paid for by ratepayers – represented value for money.

However, a jetlagged Cr Murray told The Leader upon his return yesterday that he was confident council’s presence would reap dividends.

“They were very impressed that Paul and myself took the time to go over there and it obviously meant a lot to them,” he said.

Everich, which owns the new Woolworths-Dan Murphy’s development, has a desire to make Tamworth a base for its Australian operations.

The Shenzhen-based logistics company is seeking to expand into regional NSW through significant investment in the agriculture industry.

During the visit, Everich confirmed that from March it would post its international business manager in Tamworth to facilitate such deals.

Cr Murray said the move was a positive development that indicated the seriousness with which Everich was pursuing its interest.

“I’m pretty confident now that this has been a worthwhile journey for the council and a lot of our work is starting to bear fruit now,” he said.

“We are actually seeing some hard agreements in place and the fact that they’re sending a very senior person here to get the business established is good.”

Everich will itself send a delegation to Tamworth this week to conduct more talks with the council and potential business partners.