February 19, 2014
Fonterra to invest US$32 million in cheese plant expansion
Dairy giant, Fonterra, has announced a US$32-million expansion of its slice-on-slice cheese capacity at a Collingwood Street site in Eltham, Taranaki, New Zealand.
Work will commence in early 2014 and is expected to be completed in mid-2015. When completed, the expanded plant will deliver both increased capacity and improved processes to meet rising global demand from Fonterra's foodservice customers, particularly those in Australasia, Asia and the Middle East.
Fonterra's Director of Foodservice, René Dedoncker, said that the investment demonstrated the Co-operative's drive to grow its business in the high-value foodservice industry.
"Our foodservice business has grown 9% in volume over the past three years and the profitability of foodservice has increased 11% in the same period," Dedoncker revealed. "We also achieved double digit growth in China where foodservice grew 28%."
According to Dedoncker, driving Fonterra's foodservice business is one of the company's seven strategic pathways and that the Co-operative had set ambitious growth targets over the next five years.
Slice-on-slice cheese is used extensively in quick service restaurants for products such as hamburgers and sandwiches. With international growth in cheese being driven by trends of eating out from home, there is reportedly a continual shift toward more westernised diets, especially in emerging Asian economies.
