Commenting on the acquisition, MG managing director, Gary Helou said, “We thank Mitsubishi for partnering with MG over the past three years as we established a foundation footprint in Tasmania’s dairy industry. Mitsubishi will continue to be an important business partner for MG, following the acquisition.”
“Over the past decade, the Tasmanian dairy industry has grown strongly. With its rich dairy tradition and favourable climate for pasture-based farming, Tasmania is an important, strategic dairy region for MG to have a strong presence in,” Helou said.
Earlier this year TDP suppliers were invited to join MG and become MG supplier-shareholders. This invitation was very well received and from the start of 2015-16 season, all milk supplied to TDP has come via MG’s Tasmanian suppliers who became members of the co-operative.
“We were pleased to be able to extend the benefits of our dairy co-operative to Tasmanian dairy farmers and we look forward to continuing to grow our supply base and production in this high quality dairy region,” Helou said.
MG entered the Tasmanian dairy industry in mid-2000 with the acquisition of Classic Foods (Edith Creek) and in 2011 made a further significant investment to facilitate the construction of an $80 million state-of-the-art milk processing facility for TDP at Smithton.
TDP Smithton commenced production a year later in 2012 and has capacity to process approximately 250 million litres of milk each year. Last financial year, TDP processed more than 210 million litres of milk.
MG’s operations in Tasmania now include 100% ownership of TDP, a packaging facility at Edith Creek and two MG Trading stores located in Smithton and Deloraine.
