Staff increase for new milk plants

Fonterra southern operations manager Richard Gray outside the building at Edendale which will...
Fonterra southern operations manager Richard Gray outside the building at Edendale which will house three new processing plants. The towers in the background are two of the factory's four milk driers. Photo by Allison Beckham.
The addition of a further three milk-processing plants at Fonterra's Edendale site, 30km east of Invercargill, will boost staff numbers by 38 to 40, the company says.

The three plants will be housed in a 2900sq m building now being constructed and are expected to be operating in time for the start of the 2015-16 dairy season, in August next year.

Expressions of interest in employment opportunities had already opened and new staff members would be taken on progressively from early next year, Fonterra southern operations manager Richard Gray said yesterday.

The $157 million expansion comprises a milk protein concentrate plant, which will separate protein from skim milk and turn it into protein powder; a reverse osmosis plant, which will increase the capacity of an existing drier by about 300,000 litres a day; and an anhydrous milk fat plant capable of processing 550,000 litres of cream daily.

The site's wastewater treatment plant and electricity supply are also being upgraded.

The Edendale site already employs about 650 staff, including 200 tanker drivers.

When the development was announced in September, Fonterra said 25 new positions would be created but Mr Gray said that number had been recalculated upwards after a closer review of the design of the new plants and how they tied into the rest of the site.

''That's going to be pretty neat for Southland. We are just about to kick off on recruitment for some of these roles so it's a pretty exciting time.''

The jobs would range from process work to maintenance and cleaning, he said. Most would be permanent fulltime positions.

Work began in September on the building to house the new plants. It is expected to be watertight by Christmas after which the machinery will be installed.

Mr Gray said the construction project was also a boost to the Southland economy with about 200 subcontractors involved.

The lead contractor is Hamilton-based specialist dairy plant company Tetra Pak. Edendale had expanded rapidly over the past 10 to 15 years and the latest development would cement Edendale's title as the world's largest dairy processing site by volume, Mr Gray said.

He was ''very excited'' Fonterra had decided to expand Edendale, he said.

''We have three development focuses - increasing capacity in order to meet the growing milk supply in Southland and the wider South Island, diversification ... to give us a bit more flexibility on what type of products we are producing depending on need, and improving the sustainability of the site.''

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