Synlait Milk (NZX: SML; ASX: SM1) is pleased with the progress made on the building of its advanced liquid dairy packaging facility by Tetra Pak.  The two companies have worked together for over ten years, beginning with the building of Synlait’s anhydrous milkfat (AMF) plant in 2007.

The new facility will produce fresh milk and cream for Foodstuffs South Island's private label brands from early 2019, and will be a platform for Synlait to pursue a range of dairy-based products for export markets.

Tetra Pak is a subsidiary of the Tetra Laval Group, which is a multinational food packaging and liquid food processing company focusing on milk. It is considered a world leader in sterile packaging plants that can offer a range of packaging formats.

“Synlait and Tetra Pak are working closely to ensure the new facility includes as many new technology advances as possible, and that we make the most of any new product offerings,” says Neil Betteridge, Director Operations.

“The $125 million facility will be highly automated and include milk track and trace systems, and the latest PET inline sterile bottle blowing technology. We will also have cool store automated packing and order-picking gantries,” says Mr Betteridge.

“All of these capabilities combine to create a smart, modern and efficient facility that can produce both domestic products for the South Island market and export products to the highest food safety standards,” he says.

The facility will be one of the most sophisticated fresh milk and cream processing facilities in New Zealand, and will produce up to 24,000 bottles per hour.

Construction of the facility began in February and preliminary work such as foundations and site services were completed in May. The focus has now shifted to completing exterior walls and making the facility watertight, in order to begin the internal construction of processing equipment and facilities.

Synlait’s advanced liquid dairy packaging facility is expected to be commissioned in early 2019.

“We are excited about this new chapter in our history and we will be looking to hire talented operations staff to operate the new facility in late 2018,” says Mr Betteridge.