“We are blurring some interesting lines between food as food… food as nutrition and health and the step beyond that is into pharmaceuticals or nutriceuticals,” he said last week at the plant’s official opening.
Natural products are a billion dollar industry and overwhelmingly export orientated, he said.
“It doesn’t receive the attention of our wine industry, but there is probably a bigger future for this industry when you look at the resource based strength that underwrites this,” he says.
New Image Group’s new Penrose plant is part of a multi-million dollar strategy described by executive chairman Graeme Clegg as meaning the company is “starting to gain some serious new traction in China”.
The 28-year-old company had long-established relationships in other parts of Asia but had now developed new wholesale-retail channels in China with branded products, especially colostrum blends, nutraeuticals and infant formula.
Among new capabilities of New Image’s Penrose plant is HPP technology used to make its new health drink called Col + colostrums.
Instead of being pasteurized at a high temperature, the dairy-based beverage is produced using high pressure to preserve the activity of heat sensitive bioactives. Col + is a fruit flavoured dairy “shot” to support the body’s immune system. It goes easily in lunchboxes – or handbags.
Clegg says the halal and 99.9% fat free drink is quickly finding favour in China, Taiwan and South East Asia. It is also selling in the New Zealand market, first through selected Asian supermarkets.
“The shelf longevity of the product, combined with the fact that it does not have to be refrigerated, gives us an edge over our competitors in Asian markets.”
The new plant also includes automated can making (200 cans/minute), a form-and-fill packaging line, tableting and capsulating equipment, and sachet packing.
New Image has also built a spray dry milk powder plant at Paerata, south of Auckland. It has a packaging plant at Avondale and headquarters and warehouse at Mangere.
