The $40 million Project Goldrush is aimed at accessing the global consumer butter market while doubling the capacity of Westland’s consumer butter manufacturing.
The plan to increase production of the premium grass-fed consumer butter brand Westgold has been five years in the making and is backed by Westland Milk’s new owner, global dairy giant Yili.
Westland resident director Shiqing Jian says the company is transitioning from a supplier of mostly bulk commodities to play a greater role in the production of consumer goods in an expanding global butter and spread market.
He says the investment highlights the important role Westland plays in Yili’s ongoing plans to supply international industrial and consumer markets.
“New Zealand is one of the world’s major butter producers and industry and consumers widely recognise the value of dairy products of NZ origin,” Jian said.
“Chinese consumers are also continuously looking to improve and diversify the application of butter products in baking, cooking and desserts.”
“Future demand for butter production and processing of Yili and Yili subsidiary brands will be considerable and the upgraded Westland plant will play an important role.”
Annual global butter and spread sales are predicted to grow from a current estimated $US44 trillion to $US59 trillion by 2025, with the US, Russia and China regarded as the world’s largest importers of butter.
Westland will leverage the West Coast’s reputation as one of the most unique dairy catchments in the world to connect more directly with domestic and global consumers concerned about the provenance of food, Westland’s general manager of sales and marketing Hamish Yates says.
Westgold and Westland-produced butter is already sold in more than 20 countries around the world, including the US, Japan and China.
“But a large part of what we supply currently is bulk commodity butter,” Yates said.
“Given the rainfall and geographical conditions that make the West Coast catchment unique for grass-fed farming systems, and the way our farming families have farmed the area for generations, we knew we were sitting on something world-leading and incredibly valuable.”
The plan to increase global market penetration of Westgold butter began in 2017, but configuration of the old butter plant had kept retail butter production capacity capped.
“This investment now gives us the flexibility to pursue markets that will offer Westland the most value,” he said.
The butter plant upgrade, replacing the existing single churn that was commissioned in 1978 with two German-built churns, will increase Westland’s consumer butter production to a total of 42,000t a year.
“This will offer greater quality control and production efficiencies,” Westland chief operating officer Richard Hickson said.
“New packaging lines will also allow us to package different formats and at the backend, we’re upgrading palletising to give us greater efficiency, speed and stacking combinations to suit the varying requirements of international markets.”
Remote stacking and racking capability will also be built into a cool store upgrade to allow for quick recovery of palletised goods for transport.
Westland’s butter is made solely of churned cream and salt in salted varieties, with no other additives used.
The simplicity of mixing only fresh cream and salt gives Westgold butter a distinctive texture, while Westgold’s distinctive gold colour is a result of the grass-fed diet of predominantly West Coast dairy cows.
Westgold Butter has been awarded gold medals for its salted and unsalted butter three times in the annual NZ Champions of Cheese Awards, including the 2021 awards announced last week.
The site works for the plant upgrade construction and installation is expected to start before Westland’s annual winter shutdown in May.
