By LIAM DANN
Not so long ago the sight of a smartly dressed Swiss gentleman snooping around New Zealand dairy factories would probably have had management calling the security guards.
But times have changed and this week Hugo Lanthemann - who has 23 years' experience with European rival Nestle - is
a guest of honour at Fonterra's key production and research facilities.
That's because, as chief executive of the Fonterra and Nestle joint venture company Dairy Partners of America (DPA), he will deliver significant returns to New Zealand farmers in the next few years.
Lanthemann is here to learn about Fonterra's structure and see what manufacturing innovations the company has that may be applicable to his South American business.
He will visit Nestle's Swiss headquarters later this year to draw on the best of the research.
While he admits he is fortunate to have such heavyweight resources at his disposal, he also has some enormous growth targets in front of him.
At the moment DPA has turnover of US$400 million ($692 million). His goal was to expand it to a US$1 billion business in three years, he said.
This would be achieved through acquisitions and internal growth.
So far DPA is operating in just Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina but the 50/50 partnership agreement applies to all of the Americas.
By 2005 Lanthemann hopes the joint venture will cover all of South America and that the company will have a strategy in place to push on into the United States and Canada.
But it was South America that offered the most growth potential, he said.
Per capita dairy consumption is extremely low there but growing fast.
Despite his Swiss background, Lanthemann is not short of American experience, having previously headed Nestle's chilled product division in Brazil and marketing of chilled products in Mexico.
He is now based at DPA's headquarters in Sao Paulo.
