The Camperdown Dairy Company (CDC) is to buy a 4.2 hectare site on the outskirts of Camperdown, Victoria, for what it expects will be a dramatic expansion in the company’s operations.
The company announced to the Australian Securities Exchange this week that it had conditionally contracted to buy the industrially zoned site on the Old Geelong Road for $260,000 from a local businessman. The site is opposite and to the east of the former Camperdown abattoirs.
CDC plans not only to build a new dairy factory on the site to export fresh milk to China and other overseas markets but also hopes it will be the site for its manufacture of other dairy products.
CDC is owned by Australian Dairy Farms Group (ADFG) and its chief executive officer Peter Skene said it hoped to enter into joint venture arrangements to also produce speciality powders, organic milk powder and organic infant formula at the new site.
He said much of the organic infant formula sold in Australia was made from organic milk from overseas but the proposal being considered by CDC was to use Australian organic milk for the product.
Mr Skene said the new site was also large enough to give CDC the opportunity to relocate its existing factory from the former Bonlac site in Manifold Street, Camperdown, if it chose to do so.
It currently has a lease on the Manifold Street site until 2020 with an option for a further five years.
The new factory processing fresh milk for export to China will be a joint venture between CDC and its business partner, Australian Lian He, a company with experience in trading in China.
Mr Skene said if negotiations over the next two months about potential joint ventures to produce other dairy products were successful, it would add significant scale to the development planned for the site, he said.
The processing of export milk to China is expected to employ another five to 10 people but the workforce would expand significantly more if other joint ventures were realised, Mr Skene said.
If planning applications were approved, construction of the new factory might start in mid-2017. CDC hoped to gain state government assistance in getting a gas line and an upgraded water supply to the site, Mr Skene said.
CDC currently produces milk, butter and yoghurt, primarily for the domestic market.
