MILK TREATING PLANT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25970, 25 November 1949, Page 6

MILK TREATING PLANT

SALE NEGOTIATIONS CONCLUDED

COMPANY BUYS FOR £105,000

The milk treating plant in Barbadoes street, formerly owned by United Dairies, Ltd., will be taken over by the Christchurch Milk Treating Company on December 1. The Government has been running the plant since it was purchased from United Dairies. The. price at which negotiations for the sale of the plant to the new company, representing consumers and producers, Was concluded has not been disclosed yet. It is understood to be £105,000. The total cost of the building and new plant and boiler house to the Government was about £132.000, and the new corhpdny offered £lOO,OOO. The company has a capital of only £25.000, all of which will be used in paying for the plant, the balance of £BO,OOO being subscribed by the Government, which will take debentures for the unpaid amount. The financial details are reported to be fairly complicated.

Since being operated by the Government, the plant has been under the supervision of Mr John, Harris, former manager and one of the founders of United Dairies. The arrangement was that he was to continue in charge until the consumer-producer company took over the plant. A discussion on the future management of the treating house took place at a meeting of the directors of the company yesterday afternoon, when a milk officer from the Marketing Department’s head office in Wellington was present.

An assurance that raw milk supplies would be available to all consumers was given yesterday when an inquiry, was made by a reporter of “The