The Fonterra Hautapu team had good reason to celebrate at Fonterra’s Best Site Cup Awards.
The Hautapu dairy factory has been recognised for punching above its weight in terms of customer satisfaction, performance and productivity at the ‘Oscars of Dairy Manufacturing’, Fonterra’s Best Site Cup Awards.
Now in their 13th year, the awards are contested across all 26 Fonterra sites around the Country, with 14 cups up for grabs that celebrate the very best in dairy manufacturing.
Operations Manager and Cambridge resident Shane Harris accepted the cup for Best Customer Site and runner up recognition for Best Medium Site and Best Productivity Site last week in Hamilton.
“The wins highlight the solid performance put in by the team across the board, a result of a heap of hard work and commitment put in across the season. The site’s strategy has been on point and I’m really proud of the team,” he said.
The Customer Cup – part of the judging for which is based on customer feedback – is given to the site that makes product on time and in full to a high standard, which is particularly important for Hautapu since the milk they process is turned into very high-value products, including lactoferrin. Known as ‘pink gold’, lactoferrin is very popular in Asia and commands such a high price that it’s sold per kilo, not tonne.
As part of the award presentation the Hautapu team was acknowledged for servicing the Japan market well.
“The Customer Cup win is pretty special and we’re fortunate to have a close relationship with both our internal and external customers. Every product that leaves site is the best quality and throughout the year the team’s obsessed with making sure of that,” said Shane.
The Hautapu dairy factory was originall established in 1886 and now employs around 300 people. At the peak of the season it can process around 150 tanker loads of milk (4.2 mill litres) per day. The site is the headquarters of Fonterra’s NZ protein and cheese technical teams, specializing in high-value products including cheese, casein, whey protein concentrate, hydrolysate, lactoferrin, milk protein concentrate and lactose. Products are made for New Zealand, Europe, USA and Asia markets.
