Analyser excites buyers in Japan

By ELLEN READ

Machinery invented by a small Auckland company could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the value of New Zealand's dairy exports.

Keam Holdem, based in Mt Eden, specialises in industrial radio frequency and microwave technology - no, not music and cooking. This involves measuring and heating.

Eight years ago, Rick Keam and John Holdem left their jobs as Crown Research Institute scientists, disillusioned with the way the organisations were being told to commercialise themselves.

"It wasn't the becoming commercial, it was the way they were told to do it," Keam said.

"We thought if we were going down that track then we may as well be doing it for ourselves.

"We wanted to see our ideas turn into something real."

With solid science and engineering backgrounds but no business experience, the pair were taking a big step.

For the next six years they worked on developing what is now known as the VE2 - a machine that uses microwave technology to measure the moisture content in butter and cheese.

Research grants from the Government's Technology New Zealand programmes and finance from large corporates, including Fonterra and Fletcher Challenge, paid for the development.

The VE2 was declared ready 18 months ago. It takes measurements during milk processing, including bulk density, moisture and salt, automating what was previously a laborious manual process.

Keam said it would revolutionise how butter and cheese were made by allowing instant measurements during production, enabling automated fine-tuning of production.

After showcasing the analyser at the Japanese manufacturing conference, Fooma 2003, the company has signed its first contract in the lucrative Japanese market.

The second-largest dairy company in Japan has bought VE2 units for trials in its natural cheese and butter products and processed cheese departments.

It appeals to Keam's sense of humour that New Zealand is selling electronics to Japan to help in food production, a situation most people would expect to be the other way around.

Keam expects the Japanese dairy market to make up about 40 per cent of the company's predicted growth in turnover in the next two years.

Keam Holdem has 16 employees and turns over $1 million to $5 million a year. Staff numbers are set to rise 50 per cent in the next six to eight months as the VE2 is commercialised.

Keam said the analyser was critical to the dairy industry because it would maximise yield and profit and at the same time ensure top product quality.

Butter for export to Europe is allowed a maximum 16 per cent water content.

Present measuring techniques mean most producers aim for 15.8 per cent, to allow them a margin for error.

Because the VE2 is instant and precise, it can lift this to 15.9 per cent, which might not sound like much but means lots more money for the producers.

"Because of the tonnages involved, it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars," Keam said.

The company believes the VE2 - costing about $50,000 - is the world's first in-line analyser for moisture in dairy processing.

Other machines require samples to be taken to labs for testing, a process that can take hours.

Keam Holdem already supplies the analyser to dairy companies in Australia and Europe as well as New Zealand.

The machine is also used to measure moisture in timber - too wet and it's prone to leaky building syndrome; too dry and it buckles.

"Opening the door for the timber work was a lot easier because we could point to our work in the dairy industry," said Keam.

The analyser had possible medical applications as well, he said.

Research was under way on the possibility of using the technology to detect breast tumours. If effective, this would be cheaper and less invasive than mammograms.

"Up until now we have been developing a product in the food technology area.

"That's a nice operating business now, so we need to look for other applications for five years' time."

The move from pure scientist to business-owner has meant Keam spends a third of his time doing technology-related matters and the rest on running the business.

Although the firm will grow significantly in the next year, it will stay small enough to allow Keam time to do the science.

Keam Holdem