“The only thing holding us up was waiting for approval and now we have that we are working towards a purchase date. So far everything is going very smoothly.”
Gardians, which stands for Greenfields Agricultural Research Dairy Innovation and Nutritional Systems, is jointly owned by Auckland-based food packaging company Sutton Group and dairy farmer Grant Paterson of Dunedin.
The dairy factory, commissioned in spring 2012, could produce 20,000 tonnes of powder a year which in the past has been trucked to Auckland for blending, packaging, and export to China as high-grade infant milk powder. The Auckland facility is also part of the purchase agreement.
Paterson, who owns 18 dairy farms in the area, is the Clydevale plant’s sole supplier. He will retain ownership of the farms.
The affected sharemilkers were told in mid-July that French company Danone had been given approval to buy Gardians and it would match the Fonterra milk price this coming season, as Gardians had done in the past.
The spokeswoman for Danone Nutricia declined to comment on future plans for the plant until after the sale had been finalised.
“Our people who have been down there love it. Balclutha is a wonderful place and the local pub and the people are fantastic. We’re very happy.”
In April Danone Nutricia said the purchase would provide Nutricia with a large milk drying capacity along with long-term fresh milk supply access in NZ.
Nutricia ended its supply contract with Fonterra last year after the botulism scare and has since sourced product from Synlait and other NZ manufacturers.
