The Studholme plant, bought from NZ Dairies Ltd, operated around the clock during the record week last month.
Site manager Alan Maitland says the record is an outstanding achievement and testament to the hard work of the 45 staff.
“Our drier was only designed to produce 5 t per hour and we’ve managed to run it at 5.5 t per hour. This comes down to team work, skill and the meticulous planning.... People are really engaged on site. We’ve invested a lot of time to ensure the new team has a thorough understanding of the ‘Fonterra way’ – using our collective wisdom to make continuous improvements.”
At peak Studholme’s drier usually processes 900,000 L/day, converting 625 L of milk into about 260kg milk powder per minute. Managing director NZ milk products Gary Romano says Studholme is a good example of the co-op’s strategy refresh in action.
“Growing milk volumes and optimising our manufacturing assets is a key part of our strategy to drive better returns to our farmers.”
Operator Sarah Cunningham, who has been at Studholme since its beginning, says “a lot of effort was made to ensure we were prepared for the new season, with a proactive approach to problem solving.”
Since its integration into Fonterra’s supply chain in August, the site has been Halal-certified and meets all the co-op’s quality standards. “We passed all customer audits first time and our quality grading has been 100% since day one.”
Studhome produces standard whole milk powder for sale on the GlobalDairyTrade platform. The relatively small size of the drier means it also suits short and specialised manufacturing runs. The five-year-old plant sits on 55ha; it can make 30,000 t per season.
