Wanganui Dairy Trust plant manager Stu Ray is stunned by hundreds of applications that have poured in for the 20 jobs advertised at a multimillion-dollar plant still under construction in Heads Rd.
Mr Ray said yesterday the response had been absolutely overwhelming.
Even though initially an ad on a internet job site had attracted large numbers of people, it was the job ads in January in the Chronicle that had sparked the huge interest, he said.
"The phone started ringing at 8 in the morning and never stopped till really late at night. It was just amazing the number of calls from all over the country as well as Wanganui and districts around here."
The new fully automated plant was due to be up and running by August 1. This week the short-listed applicants will be interviewed. People who have applied for process and packing operator positions will also have a second interview with their direct supervisors, he said.
"After all, that's who they will be working with, and it's important to get the mix right."
The job list included process and packing operators, a day shift service operator and day shift operator, a compliance and administration assistant, a plant engineer and a production co-ordinator.
The successful applicants would be sent down to the company's Awarua Plant in Invercargill for three or four months intensive training, he said.
The company believed there was no point in hiring people unless you're prepared to train them properly because good training was vital to good production, he said.
Some of the features of the new Wanganui plant include a 31m high milk powder tower, tanker unloading bays, silo pads, a packing room and a host of engineered manufacturing equipment for converting milk to powder.
The new equipment even includes robots.
"It's the absolute very latest technology."
Hundreds apply for milk powder factory jobs
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