Fonterra's Marc Rivers talks locomotives and tankers

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Fonterra is well known for its distinctive tankers, but next week the co-op will be shine a spotlight on a shunting locomotive.

Fonterra's Kauri distribution centre in Northland will retire one of its rail shunters from service and donate it to the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway and Kawakawa Mid-North Community.

The shunter joined the Kauri distribution centre back in 1966 and was a really important part of the site, Fonterra's chief financial officer Marc Rivers said.

"The team's been looking after it, so it's really well cared for," he told The Country Sport Breakfast's Brian Kelly.

Despite this, compliance requirements were complex and difficult to maintain, so the shunter was no longer an option operationally.

While the team wasn't "too keen to get rid of it", they were pleased that something "really nice" was being done with the shunter, Rivers said.

Listen below:

Rivers said it was important to the team that the shunter remained operational and stayed in the region. He encouraged anyone visiting Kawakawa to "pop in and check it out".

Meanwhile, Fonterra displayed a state of the art form of transport at Fieldays last week - the Good Together tanker.

It was the first chance for the public to experience the new tanker, and there were a couple of drivers at Fieldays to answer people's questions, such as how much milk it held, or how many kilometres it would travel in its lifetime.

"You could even experience what it's like to drive a tanker using a simulator. In fact I had a chance as well - it was a lot of fun, but don't worry, I'm not going to be quitting my day job any time soon - my score wasn't the best" Rivers said.

Fieldays 2021 was an excellent way to bring farmers, the public and Fonterra employees together in one place, Rivers said,

"The whole team was out there, they had a great time all last week. Thousands of people come through the co-op tent over the four days - so it was pretty impressive."

Also in today's interview: Rivers was looking forward to Fonterra's annual Best Site Cup awards, (aka "the Oscars of manufacturing") next week, with all 26 of the co-op's manufacturing sites in the running for awards.