Fonterra Australia is concordant with buying cheese processor Dairy Country firm from retail food group in a deal worth AUD 19.3 million (US $ 14.03 million).
Fonterra furbish to hold 23% stake in AUD 2.6 billion Australian retail cheese category. Company has belief to seek good efficacy in Australian cheese market including brands Perfect Italiano,Beta and Mainland.
Deal further bunch-pass several units of Country’s processing and packing facility at Campbellfield and Tullamarine in Victoria, along with intellectual properties and trademarks.
“This acquisition is a logical choice and further supports our strategy to be customer- and consumer- led, while ensuring we keep pace with the fast-growing cheese category in Australia,” said Fonterra Australia managing director, René Dedoncker.
“Dairy Country has two well-equipped secondary processing sites with capability across grating, shredding and block, as well as an experienced workforce” Mr. Dedoncker stated.
Regarding supply chain, he spoke, “For some time we have been looking to bring more of our secondary cheese processing in-house to gain greater end-to-end control over a range of different cheese products and further strengthen our integrated supply chain”.
“Having this kind of capability in-house will enable efficiencies and allow us to make the most of opportunities for value creation and product innovation.” he concluded.
Huge chunk of employees of “Country” will be pass-on to Fonterra and keep working at the same facilities at Campbellfield and Tullamarine.
Transaction is still undergoing through regulatory processes and other updates are awaited.