Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
Olam purchased 85.93% of NZFSU shares in July last year. However, the shareholding fell short of the 90% stake it needed to acquire to trigger a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares.
On October 18 this year, the company made a full cash takeover offer for 75c/share for shares it did not own. The offer was accepted.
NZS was established in late 2006 with the objective of applying New Zealand's expertise in pastoral dairy farming to high quality, low cost and under-utilised farmland in Uruguay.
The company is the largest single producer of milk in Uruguay, accounting for approximately 6% of national production. The company's medium term plan projects it to be milking 48,000 cows and producing approximately 17% of the total milk currently produced in Uruguay by the 2013-14 season
It has completed the construction or upgrading of 30 dairy sheds, 62 farm workers' houses, 11 irrigation dams, 470km of roading, and reticulation of 65km of high tension wiring for electricity supply required for dairy shed and irrigation pump.
