A new company which plans a $100 million milk processing plant at Glenavy is on target to apply for resource consents by the end of next month.
Christchurch-based Oceania Milk, a company formed in December with former Reserve Bank governor and National Party leader Don Brash and former Meridian Energy Ltd chief executive Keith Turner as two of its directors, will need approval from the Waimate District Council and Environment Canterbury for the plant.
Oceania wants it in operation for the 2011-12 season, producing skim and whole milk powder.
The company hopes to have resource consents approved by the end of the year.
Oceania chairman Dr Turner said from Wellington yesterday the company was on target to achieve that.
It is preparing information for an assessment of environment effects, needed to apply for resource consents.
It would be the second modern milk processing plant to be built in the Waimate area.
NZ Dairies' Studholme plant started production in September, 2007.
It is now wholly owned by Russian company Nutritek, which operates dairy plants in Russia, Estonia and the Ukraine producing milk products, infant formula and specialised nutrition for babies and infants.
Oceania Milk is not planning to target existing Fonterra or NZ Dairies' suppliers, but is looking to future developments which may include it owning its own dairy farms.
Major irrigation schemes planned in the area, including the 40,000ha Hunter Downs scheme in the Waimate district and another 25,000ha scheme in the Mackenzie Basin, are also encouraging the new company.
Dr Turner was chief executive when plans for the Hunter Downs scheme, using water from the Waitaki River, were drawn as a joint project between Meridian and the South Canterbury Irrigation Trust.
That scheme is awaiting a decision from Environment Canterbury on its water-only resource consent.
Oceania is looking to sell products into the Asian market and hopes to grow a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
It may eventually become a listed, vertically integrated company with some farmer shareholding, but not the co-operative model used by Fonterra.
According to information at the Companies' Office, Oceania Milk's 100 shares are owned by Ocean Dairy Group, which is owned by OceanPartners, a boutique merchant bank, advisory firm and private investment office founded by a team of corporate finance professionals with local and international experience.
Oceania Milk's listed directors are Dr Brash, Dr Turner and Nelson businessman and director Phillip Lough.
