By BRONWYN SELL
LONDON - New dairy giant Fonterra introduced itself to Britain this week, but neither the co-operative nor the British dairy industry expect it to make a big impression.
Chief executive Craig Norgate said at a London press conference on Tuesday that he did not expect Fonterra to become a
household name outside New Zealand.
Despite the upheaval of the industry in New Zealand, it would be business as usual for New Zealand Milk in Britain, and there would be no change to the brands it marketed, most prominently Anchor.
"That's important, that's what our consumers know us by," said Mr Norgate.
The establishment of Fonterra as New Zealand's largest company and the world's ninth biggest dairy company has barely rated a mention outside dairy and farming industry publications in the United Kingdom.
Even when it formed an alliance late last month with Nestle, one of the world's biggest food companies, the only paper that seems to have mentioned it was a small one in Wales.
British industry journalists at the press conference wondered if the New Zealand merger - described by an Irish journalist as the "Opec for milk" - would set a trend for the British industry to follow.
Mr Norgate said Fonterra represented several generations of New Zealanders making long-term investment decisions, and British dairy farmers were not ready for such a deal. The focus for New Zealand milk products was still Asia, Australia and increasingly Latin America.
