Subject to there being no appeals over the next 15 working days, Westland expects work on the $102 million project to start almost immediately.
Operations general manager Bernard May said Westland is pleased conditions imposed in the consent were what it expected and several were conditions it suggested as part of its efforts to work with potential objectors to address their concerns.
“This is an excellent decision for the future growth and strategic direction of Westland Milk Products and one we fully expect will have a positive impact on shareholder incomes as well as bringing real economic benefit to our community
“Westland has a strong history of producing high quality milk powders and butter but we have made a strategic decision to shift further production toward high-end nutritional products, such as infant formula,” he said.
“Nutritionals consistently deliver higher margins than milk powders and will lead to better payouts for our shareholders as well as placing Westland on pathway to a more secure and sustainable future.”
May said the conditions meant there will be almost no additional impact on the environment because the Hokitika factory would still be able to operate under existing air and wastewater discharge permits.
The new dryer would allow Westland to produce an extra 23,000 metric tonnes of nutritional product a season.
The co-operative has named Babbage Engineers as project manager and the plant will be built by Tetra Pak.
It is expected to be commissioned in August 2015 and generate sales of $115m a year when at full capacity.
The approval for comes on top of a series of investments by Westland including another dryer last season, a new boiler at Hokitika and investigations into a possible milk processing plant at its Rolleston site.
