Goodman Fielder expands UHT production after $100m Christchurch investment
Goodman Fielder has finished a major upgrade of its Meadow Fresh manufacturing site in Upper Riccarton, Christchurch. The development took three years and cost more than $100m. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon formally opened the new High Value Dairy Centre, which is intended to increase commercial production of long-life ultra-high-temperature fluid products and high-protein dairy drinks.
The centre contains processing equipment for enriching dairy products with native proteins. Its ultra-filtration systems concentrate those proteins for use in specialised liquid formulations. Goodman Fielder has also installed a pilot plant for research and development, allowing the company to test products before commercial production.
Automation was added to the site’s storage and dispatch operations. A pallet-racking system transfers completed cartons towards regional distribution and export cold-chain routes. The equipment was introduced alongside the processing upgrades and is designed to handle finished inventory within the facility.
The Christchurch expansion supports Goodman Fielder’s export activity in China and South-East Asia. The company has a supply agreement with Yihai Kerry Arawana, an agribusiness subsidiary of Wilmar International, Goodman Fielder’s parent company. Under the arrangement, high-protein UHT products made in New Zealand are supplied for Asian retail and commercial foodservice channels.
The project increases the Christchurch manufacturing workforce to 280 people, including 25 new technical positions in processing, quality assurance and automated warehousing. Together with Meadow Fresh’s secondary-processing plant at Longburn near Palmerston North, Goodman Fielder’s New Zealand dairy operations employ more than 500 workers and process over 250m litres of raw milk each year.
The Christchurch investment forms part of a wider $300m programme by Wilmar and Goodman Fielder covering New Zealand manufacturing, technology and workforce infrastructure over the past five years. The companies’ New Zealand dairy operations are shifting additional capacity towards UHT products and ultra-filtered beverages, rather than bulk milk powder. The site draws milk from Canterbury’s dairy-producing region and adds extended-shelf-life packaging to the processing operation.
