Fonterra's Stanhope cheese facility in northern Victoria
Fonterra will invest more than AUD 165 million ($132.9 million) this financial year at its facilities in Australia in a move to increase capacity and meet growing demand for its dairy products.
The investment was first signalled by the New Zealand dairy co-operative’s CEO Theo Spierings in November last year. It is made up of spending of around AUD 130 million ($104.7 million) to put in 500 million litres of additional capacity, and a further AUD 35 million ($28.1 million) for a range of annual site improvements.
Fonterra’s flagship Stanhope cheese facility in northern Victoria will double in size following a spend of AUD 125 million ($100.7 million). Cheese production will increase by a further 35,000 metric tonnes for a range of cheeses, including cheddar and mozzarella. Stanhope can currently produce 45,000 metric tonnes of cheddar, mozzarella, gouda, parmesan, pecorino, romano and ricotta.
At Fonterra Australia’s largest site of Cobden, AUD 13.5 million ($10.9 million) is earmarked for robotic palletisers and improvements to the butter plant that produces the Western Star brand. Another AUD 8.6 million ($6.9 million) is being invested at Dennington in a new 25kg packing line for nutritional powders and efficiency improvements.
The company’s Wynyard cheese plant will receive AUD 9.7 million ($7.8 million) to support an annual increase in cheddar cheese production by around 3,900 metric tonnes and increase the daily milk volumes processed from 1.3 million litres to 1.5 million.
At its Darnum nutritional plant, AUD 7 million ($5.6 million) will be spent to support higher production of nutritional powders, whole and skim milk powders for the domestic and international export markets.
Fonterra predicts that the investments will create around new 36 jobs.
Fonterra Australia managing director René Dedoncker said: “We have a clear strategy that is delivering sustainable returns. To create value, we need to invest to stay ahead of the demand curve. These investments support our aim to secure positive returns back to our farmers on both sides of the Tasman.”
He said Fonterra Australia will play to its strengths in cheese, whey, nutritionals, and butter, increasing production capacity to meet rising domestic and global demand, but filling its expanded capacity would mean securing more supply.
“Our Australian milk pool has grown by 400 million litres this season, and with this new investment we plan to grow our milk further which we expect will come through growth from our existing farmers who wish to grow, coupled with milk from new suppliers joining Fonterra.”
Fonterra Australia’s total milk intake is now 2 billion litres in Victoria and Tasmania, with the company employing an additional 15 drivers after investing more than AUD 8 million ($6.4 million) in 14 truck and trailer units across its milk collection regions in Victoria and Tasmania.
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