Takeover bid?
OPINION: Canterbury milk processor Synlait is showing no sign of bouncing back from its financial doldrums.
Synlait milk has doubled its milk powder canning capability with the opening of a $55 million facility at Mangere, Auckland.
The blending and consumer-goods packaging plant can pack 32,000 tonnes annually.
The plant removes the single-site risk inherent in operating the Dundandel plant only.
The company expects demand for consumer packaged products to increase significantly in the near term. A tremendous amount of work has gone into this milestone, says chief executive John Penno.
“We acquired this partially completed facility in May and have done a lot of work to commission it in just over six months.
“We have employed a great team of 30 people to operate the facility and we expect that number to increase to 100 in the coming year as we add additional shifts.”
Synlait is bracing for growth in business with infant formula customers.
“Under the Chinese Food and Drug Administration infant formula rules coming into effect on January 1, 2018 this second site enables us to increase the potential number of our customer brands we can export to China.”
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
There have been leadership changes at the Hamilton-based Dairy Goat Co-operative, which has been struggling financially in recent years.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: In recent years farmers have been crying foul of unworkable and expensive regulations.
Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.