Australian Dairy Nutritionals Group in organic paddock to customer infant formula play

Australian Dairy Nutritionals Group is on track to become an organic infant formula manufacturer owning every part of the supply chain.

AUSTRALIAN Dairy Nutritionals Group may soon become the only organic infant formula maker in the world owning every part of the supply chain from paddock to purchase.

The Camperdown dairy manufacturer is planning to have a small, second-hand spray dryer operating on an industrial site it owns north of the town by August next year, producing organic milk powders before branching into infant formula.

Chief executive Peter Skene told the company’s recent annual general meeting in Williamstown the first of its six farms received its organic certification last month and the other five were expected to be accredited within 22 months.

Mr Skene told The Weekly Times after the meeting the company was in the final stages of planning for construction of a factory on its 4ha site at Camperdown.

“We expect to begin digging dirt and pouring concrete in the first quarter of next calendar year,” he said.

Mr Skene said Wannon Water had approved ADNG’s trade waste disposal system, Powercor was soon to connect power to the site, a planning permit was being considered by Corangamite Shire and the building contracts were about to be awarded.

The council would soon upgrade Depot Rd, creating better access to the site for B-double trucks.

The site would eventually include a much bigger spray dryer, a canning line to pack infant formula and a yoghurt manufacturing line.

“As far as I know, we will be the only company in the world that owns the cows, the farms, the spray dryer, evaporator and mixing plant and the tinning facility,” Mr Skene said.

ADNG bought a second-hand spray dryer with cap­acity to produce 2.8 tonnes a day of milk powder as “stepping stone” to getting infant formula into the market. He said the company initially produced 400,000 cans of infant formula a year but now manufactured 16 million cans annually after moving to a larger dryer.

“This gives us an opportunity to get into the market,” he said. “But it also gives us amazing flexibility.”

Flexibility is a key to ADNG’s strategy.

Bellamy’s Organic got into strife in late 2016 because it had a build-up in stock in China and no idea of the levels.

With a pipeline of organic milk powder flowing from Europe, it was not easy to turn off the tap of feedstock.

● Peter Hemphill’s family owns shares in Australian Dairy Nutritionals Group.