Cheese factory to close

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 38

Cheese factory to close

PA Nelson The Golden Bay Dairies Co-operative’s cheese factory at Rockville will close in April next year. The company’s chief executive (Mr M. C- Topliss) said that the capital cost of improving the building and equipment to comply with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Dairy Division hygiene requirements at both the Rockville and the Takaka factory would be too great for a company of that size. The ; only way to cope with. the anticipated in-, creased milk volume from Golden in the next few years was to Channel (. resources into improving one factory unit to top standard. The company therefore had undertaken a 10-year development programme for the Takaka factory and had , engaged the Fletcher Development and Construction Company for a

feasibility study and to design and plan the whole project. Mr ToplisS could not name the cost of the proposed two-stage project except to say that it would run into several million dollars. The Takaka factory would continue to concentrate on butter and casein and probably whey products, all for the export market. The company hoped that most of the present staff of about 15 at Rockville would find jobs at Takaka, particularly if whey i>ro« duction was established. During the next, year it would dismantle the Collingwood plant and seek a buyer before. the start of next year’s dairy season. This week the company advised suppliers from the Collingwood-Takaka areas at separate meetings, of the decision to-close the Rockville factory next April.