Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Victorian Premier, Denis Napthine, have opened the new Melbourne milk processing facility that marks Murray Goulburn's re-entry into the fresh milk market.
Murray Goulburn, producer of Devondale long life milk products, began building the plant in Laverton North as part of a ten year agreement to supply Coles supermarkets with private label milk. It is the first of its kind in Australia.
According to Murray Goulburn, the plant is up to ten times more labour efficient than its other facilities and the most important dairy asset built in Australia in more than 15 years. This plant and its sister facility, currently underway in Erskine Park Sydney, represent the largest single investment in dairy processing technology since the dairy industry was deregulated in 2000. Both plants are located within five kilometres of Coles’ distribution centres for efficient distribution to the Coles supply chain.
Murray Goulburn managing director, Gary Helou, stated, “The new site uses 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 uses approximately 20% of total Australian milk production.
“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 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 acknowledged.
Murray Goulburn will 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,” stated Coles managing director, John Durkan.
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 key product areas, nutritional powders, cheese and liquid milk.
The plant was designed, built and commissioned in approximately 18 months, and the major pieces of equipment were sourced primarily from Europe. Melbourne-based packaging company, Icon Equipment, provided the turnkey solution for the filling and packaging lines.
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.
- uses nine fully integrated Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) for raw material handling and outbound for truck loading. These mobile robots follow markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision, magnets, or lasers for navigation.
- 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, that provides tamper evidence and better hygiene, can maximise shelf life and reduces costs associated with leakage.
