Fonterra Expands Australian Spreads Coolroom With $6.2m Investment

24 Aug 2016 --- Fonterra, the dairy co-operative, is investing $6.2m to expand the coolroom of its Cobden Spreads plant in Australia, which is home to its popular butter Western Star.

The coolroom expansion will mean that Fonterra has extra storage capacity for butters and spreads once they come off the production line.

Fonterra Australia regional operations manager west Andrew Nooy said the investment is necessary to make more room for Western Star, with sales of the butter reaching $150 million last year.

He said: “Western Star is going from strength to strength, winning a bigger slice of the butter and spreads market as consumers shift back to eating more natural foods and incorporating it into their cooking.”

“One pack of Western Star Butter is sold every minute in Australia, and the coolroom expansion will give us plenty of room to keep up with demand.”

The expansion will use technology, including Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to take the finished product off the line and stack away into flow-through pallet racking, which is geared towards increasing efficiency.

“AGVs and flow-through pallet racking are already in use in our state-of-the-art Beverages Plant, and are highly efficient, as they reduce handling of the finished product,” said Nooy.

“Importantly, introducing the same technology to the Spreads coolroom will improve the safety of the site for our people by segregating pedestrians and forklifts, reducing the risk of a collision.”

“With Cobden now Fonterra’s largest Australian site, employing over 300 people, it’s critical that we keep our people safe,” he added. 

The expansion will take approximately seven months to complete, with over 25 contractors onsite for the duration of the expansion project.