Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Victorian Premier, Denis Napthine have opened the new Melbourne milk processing facility that kicks off Murray Goulburn's re-entry into the fresh milk market.
Murray Goulburn, which makes the Devondale brand of long life milk products, began building the plant in Laverton North, with a sister plant in Western Sydney to open soon, as part of a ten year agreement to supply Coles supermarkets with private label milk.
According to Murray Goulburn, the plant is up to ten times more labour efficient than its other facilities.
Murray Goulburn's MD, Gary Helou, said the plant is the first of its kind in the country and the most important dairy asset built in Australia in more than 15 years.
“The new site utilises world-leading technology and quality standards that will assist in positioning Devondale Murray Goulburn as the nation’s most efficient producer of daily pasteurised milk -- a market which currently utilises approximately 20 per cent of total Australian milk production,” Helou said.
“Our entry into daily pasteurised liquid milk is a natural strategic step for the Co-operative, supported by a ground-breaking partnership with Coles that will deliver a sustainable increase in the farmgate milk price of Australian dairy farmers.”
Murray Goulburn said a total of 50 skilled jobs have been created at the Melbourne site and a further 500 jobs were generated during construction and commissioning of the facility.
The company also said the construction of Devondale Murray Goulburn’s Laverton North facility along with the sister facility currently underway in Erskine Park Sydney, represented the largest single investment in dairy processing technology since the dairy industry was deregulated in 2000.
“The security of having a long-term contract with Coles in Victoria and New South Wales formed the strong platform for Devondale to invest in state-of-the-art facilities in the daily pasteurised milk sector,” Helou said.
Coles MD John Durkan said Murray Goulburn would supply 1.3 million litres of milk each week in Victoria for Coles brand milk.
“Never before has Coles signed a milk contract of this length and volume and we are proud to partner with Australia’s largest dairy company and a farmer-owned co-operative,” Durkan said.
Murray Goulburn said the new facility is part of a broader $500 million investment strategy over the next three to five years to rejuvenate the company's manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure in the key product areas of nutritional powders, cheese and liquid milk.
According to Murray Goulburn, the plant was designed, built and commissioned in approximately 18 months, and the major pieces of equipment were sourced primarily from Europe. Melbourne-based company Icon Equipment provided the turnkey solution for the filling and packaging lines.
Both the Victorian and New South Wales plants are located within five kilometres of Coles’ Distribution Centres for efficient distribution to the Coles supply chain.
Facility facts
The plant is capable of processing 50,000 litres of milk per hour and commercially producing 150 million litres per year, which can be expanded to increase processing capacity to 350 million litres if required or as Devondale Murray Goulburn grows its customer base. It also:
- uses nine fully integrated Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) (a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision, magnets, or lasers for navigation) for raw material handling and outbound for truck loading.
- has a pump rate for offloading milk from a B-Double of 110,000 litres per hour. An average facility has a pump rate of 80,000 to 90,000 litres.
- is designed to prevent spills. For example, all pipework under buildings is stainless steel to prevent land and groundwater contamination.
- has a filling rate of 12,000 x 2-litre bottles an hour and 8,000 x 3-litre bottles per hour.
- has automatic pallet feeding, bag loading, de-bagging, pallet removal and pallet stacking.
- uses a label vision system, which by real time, checks the right label is applied on the right product at the right time to eliminate labelling errors.
- has a large 12,000 cap capacity across four blowers (this blows the caps up to the cap sorter using filtered air without the need for any other equipment).
- uses a centre peel induction seal which provides tamper evidence, better hygiene, can maximise shelf life and reduce costs associated with leakage.
