Temuka cheese plant will inject $60M into area

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 10

Temuka cheese plant will inject $60M into area

The Dairy Board decision to establish a new $l7 million specialty cheese plant at the Temuka Cooperative Dairy Company’s Clandeboye site will pump $6O million into the area each year and will create 100 jobs.

“To my knowledge it is the biggest thing round here for a long time," said the company’s general manager, Mr Volker Rademacher.

“Being a co-operative, any profit we make goes back to the farmers. It is not as if we are generating money for a shareholder. We are generating money for the area.

"At full capacity we are speaking of $6O million a year that will go straight into this area in terms of salaries, labour, outside contractors, and the farmers,” said Mr Rademacher.

The new plant will be built adjacent to the company’s Clandeboye factory, about 10km from Temuka. Work is expected to start in late February. It is being financed mainly by the Dairy Board, and by 1987 will produce 5000 tonnes of edam, gouda, and other brine-salted cheeses each year. By 1992 it should be reaching its full capacity of 15,000 tonnes.' The plant will be one of the most advanced of its kind in the world, using computers and laser control.

The company’s milk capaawill be increased to 1.7 on litres a day, coming from suppliers between the Rakaia River and Oamaru and any surplus from Canterbury. In the event of any shortfall, the Tai Tapu Dairy Company has agreed to make milk available. Mr Rademacher said it was a busy time for his company. The question of finance will be resolved by December 4 and recently he travelled overseas to inspect plant machinery and a decision is expected next week on who will be the supplier. Once these obstacles are passed design work will begin. “We will do some of the groundwork so we can start the buildings by late February and will then proceed to have the plant running by January 10, 1987.” At this stage the Port of Lyttelton will be the export outlet for the cheese but moves are afoot to have this changed in favour of the Port of Timaru.

“At present the Port of Timaru is not classified as an export outlet. The Harbour Board is having discussions with the shipping lines and the Dairy Board to try to change that and we will of course support them.” Mr Rademacher, aged 37, has lived in South Canterbury for two years, after leaving his native South Africa with his New Zea-

land-bom wife and their children. His first appointment was with the Timaru Milling Company but when this company decided to shift its head office to Wellington, Mr Rademacher chose to stay and on April 15 took up his general manager’s position with the Temuka Co-operative Dairy Company.

He welcomes the new cheese factory as a challenge.

“It is a big challenge for this area and dairying in general. At the moment we are handling surplus milk from Canterbury. “With this new plant the capacity problems for Canterbury are solved for some considerable time,” he said. “Tai Tapu was developing plans to build a new factory, and so were we. In fact, we were even speaking of doing one jointly. However, the costs to the farmers were going to be enormous.”

Japan and the Middle East are the cheese markets and others should follow once the new plant is running. Mr Rademacher can forsee only one problem — an attitude he says that still prevails in many New Zealand companies, the attitude of “she’ll be right.” “When you are competing in the world market, especially Japan, ‘she’ll be right’ isn’t good enough. It has to be top class.”