DAIRY TRUST; Sites Picked

Fonterra rival Dairy Trust is boxing ahead with plans to set up a competing milk processing business and announcing it has secured four sites.

Chairman Sam Lewis said Dairy Trust, a subsidiary of meat processor and exporter Affco, has secured four locations — in Wanganui, Northland, Waikato and Southland.

The facilities would be developed in stages and the timing would depend on capital requirements and regulatory consent requirements.

Dairy Trust is buying three sites– in Northland, Wanganui and Waikato– from Affco, its main shareholder, and is also buying the rights to existing effluent and water treatment facilities with the sites.

In Southland, Talleys Fisheries is buying a site at Awarua, south- east of Invercargill, from the Invercargill City Council, and is nominating Dairy Trust as the buyer.

Talleys is the controlling shareholder in Affco. Dairy Trust would acquire the effluent discharge rights for the Awarua site.

Lewis said Dairy Trust was not revealing the cost of the purchases yet.

Affco owns 80% of Dairy Trust, and three private investors the rest.

The company hopes to list on the New Zealand Exchange within 15 months.

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