Recovery and rapid growth of Longwarry’s Gippy Milk
Media Release
Longwarry Food Park and Gippy Milk, the only 100% Australian privately owned full cream milk powder processing company in Australia, is moving ahead with rapid business growth, new products and a need for more suppliers after recovering from a fire in early 2012 that closed the plant for seven weeks.
The Aggarwal family business began operating in 2005 producing and exporting milk powder. Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, an innovative engineer and the company’s managing director said after his son Sam joined the business in 2008 with a background in investment banking and a new business perspective, they embarked on a strategy to increase their production and product range. The fire however, delayed the commissioning of some of the products.
“We had to sell the milk to other dairy companies at a lower cost than we bought it from the farmers and that affected us financially,” Mr Aggarwal said, “but we have now fully recovered from the fire and completed all the projects we had to hold back.
“Before the fire, we produced full cream milk powder and UHT milk was about to come on stream. Because we had a contract with supermarkets, we continued work on the fresh milk business during the fire period and started producing the UHT a month later.
“We now manufacture full cream milk powder, fresh milk, UHT milk and cream cheese and this year each product has received a quality award from the Victorian Division and the National Division of the Dairy Association of Australia.”
The company’s production, which was 95% export, is now 75% export to 30 different countries and 25% domestic business.
“The business has been growing 30% every year since we commenced until the fire,” Mr Aggarwal said.“During the fire we went back a little bit but our business is again growing at 30% per annum and we believe it will continue at the same pace for the next three years.”
He said through in-house innovation and design work, they have now expanded the capacity of their spray dryer, which in three months will produce 5.5 tonnes an hour.
To meet the increased production, the company are now looking for 20 million more litres of milk this year and they will be looking for another 30 million litres next year.
To achieve this they are offering farmers a competitive milk price they claim is the best in the industry. They have a more leniently priced quality perimeter and a single pricing system that is simple to understand.
“We are very optimistic about the future of the business,” he said. “We will be bringing out one more product this year which is ESL bulk milk and another next year which will be sweetened condensed milk.”
Sam Aggarwal who is general manager of the company said Australia has one of the best reputations in the world for its dairy products and Longwarry Food Park has a strong space in that. He believes they are on the right path in terms of rebuilding the trust of their supply base and their ability to grow in Gippsland. “The fact that we got through the fire is testament to the support we received from the community, our suppliers and the hard work of all our staff.”
See also:
Longwarry Food Park Media Release 2
Longwarry Food Park Media Release 3
