By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
Domestic dairy marketer New Zealand Dairy Foods could become the country's largest specialty cheese supplier if it succeeds with a $6 million bid for North Auckland's Puhoi Valley Cheeses.
The Puhoi company, with a $10 million turnover from a number of brands including Bouton d'or, was founded in 1983
by Lloyd Darroch and is now owned by him and 32 other shareholders, mostly employees.
It has a 26 per cent share of the $29.8 million speciality cheese market with its 65-strong staff producing 1000 tonnes of cheese including camembert, brie, blue, feta and quarg each year.
Dairy Foods, owned 50:50 by New Zealand Dairy Group and about 7000 of its North Island farmer suppliers, has an annual turnover of $390.4 million and 20 per cent speciality cheese market share with such brands as Ornelle and Royal Tasman.
Puhoi Valley general manager and shareholder Corrie den Haring said the company was considering Dairy Foods' offer, which was "probably in the ballpark."
The intention of the deal was to expand business and no rationalisation or job losses were contemplated, he said.
The bid had come about because "everyone in the dairy industry is talking to everyone else at the moment. It is part of the changing face of the dairy industry in New Zealand," Mr den Haring said.
Dairy Foods chief executive Peter McClure said the addition of Puhoi Valley Cheese would make his company the market leader in a sector growing at the rate of 11 per cent a year.
"Currently only 40 per cent of New Zealand households purchase specialty cheese, which means there is strong potential for significant growth."
The Puhoi company's expertise, particularly as the country's leading feta maker, would contribute to Dairy Foods' existing stable. Dairy Foods currently imports Australian feta.
Meanwhile, Kiwi Dairies, which owns rival domestic dairy product marketer Mainland, is to spend $30 million to upgrade its Stirling cheese plant in Otago.
The expansion will lift processing capacity from 1.5 million litres of milk a day to 2.5 million litres.
