Our ingredients will give your chocolate and confectionery products a natural richness and mouthfeel for unbeatable creaminess and flavour.

Chocolate & confectionery

Our ingredients can be used in a wide range of bakery applications, our attention to detail ensures that consumers enjoy the premium quality they expect.

Bakery

Ingredients suitable for high quality cheese products.

Cheese

Our ingredients provide a clean, milky flavour to canned milk products.

Canned milk

From bespoke creations to classic crowd-pleasers. Our ingredients hero full flavour, nutritional value and creamy texture.

Ice cream

Our ingredients have your yoghurt and cultured needs covered, ensuring full flavour, creamy texture and nutrition. 

Yogurt & cultured foods

Providing nutritional benefits and a clean, milky flavour to liquid milk and other ready to drink products.

RTD liquid milk & beverages

Our ingredients are perfect for a range of formulations. Natural in richness and a creamy, full flavour mouthful. 

Dips, sauces & desserts

Ingredients to provide clean, milky flavour and whitening to coffee creamer applications.

Coffee creamer

Ingredients that will give your powdered beverages a delicious milky flavour, with multiple nutritional benefits.

Powdered beverages

With a clean, natural taste that adds function, texture and nutritional benefits to your performance products. 

Performance nutrition

A range of specialty ingredients made with the highest care, attention and superior quality necessary for paediatric nutrition.

Paediatric nutrition

A range of ingredients that are nutritionally rich and recognised for helping stimulate cell growth and support immunity. 

Health supplements

Take advantage of the antimicrobial and oral health benefits that can be provided by bioactives. 

Oral hygiene

Take advantage of the antimicrobial and skin care benefits that can be provided by bioactives.

Skin care

India is a potential market for Westpro’s Whey Protein Concentrate where whey protein is used widely as an egg replacer and in nutritional products.

India – a potential market for our protein products.

India is a growing market for Westpro’s Whey Protein Concentrate where whey protein is used widely as an egg replacer and in nutritional products. Our sales team visited India recently and found that in line with other parts of the world, India is experiencing strong consumer demand for high protein products from its growing population.

We have recently started selling our protein products to India as an opportunity for more New Zealand supply has arisen. Westpro’s Whey Protein Concentrate, a proven quality egg replacer from a functional perspective, is definitely the right product for us to market in India, an evolving market due to its growth, changing retail environment and modernisation.

Culturally as a market only 23% of the population eat eggs. The lacto-vegetarian diet favoured by many Hindus, the main religion in India, includes milk-based foods and other non-animal derived foods, but excludes meat and eggs. Hence the high use of eggs replacers in products such as cake mixes and UHT products for domestic use.

India is different from other markets, but there seems to be drive for growth and modernisation, particularly in cities such as Delhi where the streets are beautiful. As a country, it is early in its evolution of organised retail shopping, but significant effort is going into the growth of organised retail chains. For example, Starbucks plans to open 1000 new stores in tea-loving India which equates to one new store every three days. This retail growth is providing employment, particularly for young people giving them a sense of independence and wealth.

Considerable research into new food products is accompanying this modernisation. There is a real commitment to innovation which involves pilot laboratories and test kitchens. Products are being developed in laboratories using precision fermentation which is being used in a variety of ways by both the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Our visit involved meeting with some key customers and contacts and to meet in person our new customers. We visited distributors, end users and the team from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to give us the best possible view on what the future could be in India for Westpro and dairy products in general, from New Zealand.

We believe there is bright future of our products in the rapidly evolving Indian market. Customers we met like having a choice of suppliers, and products from New Zealand have strong appeal.

We have reduced the coal needed to heat the boilers at Westland’s Hokitika plant by up to 45 truck and trailer loads a year due to the success of a heat recovery project initiated three years ago.

Waste heat from our factory reducing our coal use.

The project is one of several initiatives launched as part of a $2.39 million investment to reduce the carbon emissions from the plant. The Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry fund provided $1.24 million of the co-investment and Westland the balance.

The investment funded the installation of new heat exchangers to recover heat from the hot water generated during milk evaporation and from air compressors. The heat recovered by the exchangers is reused to pre-heat the cold water entering the boiler, reducing the amount of coal that the factory requires to run its boilers. Another efficiency project supported by the fund shifted water removal load from the dryer to the more thermally efficient evaporator by enabling the milk to pass through the evaporator more than once. 

We are up and running with pre-heating the boiler water using our saved heat. Not only are we saving an estimated 1700 tonnes of carbon a year, but we are reducing costs by burning less coal.

 This is part of our carbon reduction roadmap to reduce our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2035.

We’re being creative in our thinking as we try to reduce the waste we are sending to landfill, and our staff are getting right behind our endeavours.

We are making inroads on reducing our waste.

We’re being creative in our thinking as we try to reduce the waste we are sending to landfill, and our staff are getting right behind our endeavours. An example is the new use we’ve been trialling for the large cardboard tubes in the packaging for our shrink wrap. The tubes used to go to landfill as they can’t be recycled. Instead, we are now chipping them and send the cardboard chips to a local farmer who has been trialling them in his composting process.

Other initiatives include donating pallets to other companies to repurpose and disposing of our e-waste through the Christchurch-based charity, Kilmarnock Enterprises, where people with intellectual disabilities dismantle the electronic devices and salvage metal and electronic components for recycling.

To identify our many initiatives underway, we have developed a waste reduction roadmap which focuses on reducing solid and liquid waste produced on our sites, while also considering the future delivery of a circular economy approach to reuse and recycle products.

Our next step is a clearly defined site by site strategy as to how we deliver on the target of reducing our waste to landfill by 35% by 2030 and to connect the great work currently underway. Tactics are likely to include regular audits to understand the type of waste we are producing, improving staff awareness, and empowering them to segregate and reuse materials where possible, reviewing our pallet and wrap usage, and investigating using environmental-friendly alternatives such as sustainable butter wraps.

Westland is going the extra mile to protect and care for our environment and our community. Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy is core to our overall business strategy.

Corporate Social Responsibility core to our business.

Our first CSR Progress Update was released last year, and we are expecting to have the results of our second update within the next month. It will show how we are tracking against our targets which include reducing our waste by 35% by 2030 and our carbon emissions on-site by 25%, by 2025. The review will also detail progress highlights in 2023 and include an updated view of our carbon footprint.

Several initiatives are underway or planned to help us achieve our goals.  We will refresh our CSR strategy at the end of the year and include our wider New Zealand group (Oceania Dairy and our subsidiaries: Canary Foods, EasiYo and Pure Nutrition Ltd).

Although we are at the start of our CSR journey, already our efforts are being recognised. Last year we were awarded a Gold Medal by internationally renowned CSR auditor Ecovardis, which followed silver medals in each of the previous five years. We also gained Toitῡ Enviromark Diamond Certification for the first time which is in line with the ISO 14001 environmental management certification. We have progressed to the diamond level from our gold certification.

While sports people are the traditional target for high protein foods, there is a growing trend for other demographics, particularly seniors, to switch to a high protein diet for various health and wellbeing reasons.

Westpro products catering for diets high in protein.

While sports people are the traditional target for high protein foods, there is a growing trend for other demographics, particularly seniors, to switch to a high protein diet for various health and wellbeing reasons. Protein-rich diets are perceived to offer various health benefits including supporting muscle health and mobility, managing weight and satisfying hunger.

The consumer shift to protein-rich foods has opened a world of opportunities for Westpro’s range of protein concentrates.

We’re well placed to meet these opportunities given the functional benefits of our proteins - casein, caseinate, milk protein concentrate, and whey protein concentrate - as ingredients for a raft of protein-enriched foods for specific dietary needs.    

Last year, 35% of all new products containing protein concentrate sourced from milk claimed to have high added protein, while the figure was even higher in Europe at 62% according to Mintel.

Protein is an essential nutrient for muscle recovery – the reason athletes or others who engage in regular exercise opt for high protein diets. The sports protein industry is big business and sports’ protein products experienced a strong year in 2023 according to Euromonitor.  The category for protein/energy bars reached over $US7.6 billion in retail value sales worldwide, accounting for 27% of the total sports nutrition market. This reflected a 9.5% growth in the global market for sports protein/energy bars, with some countries outstripping this growth including China (28.9%) and South Korea (20.1%).

It’s not just those exercising regularly who seek high protein foods. The strong performance of protein products is in part due to more consumers outside the target sporting demographic consuming such products. Higher protein intake can help deal with sarcopenia, an age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. With protein a building block for muscles, it is recommended that older adults consume more protein than their younger counterparts. For example, according to the Australian Government’s National Health & Medical Research Council, men aged over 70 are encouraged to eat 1.07g/kg of body weight daily, higher than 0.84g/kg of body weight for men under 70. The recommendation is to minimise the effects of sarcopenia and maintain stronger muscles for longer.

And our seniors are an active group, according to Euromonitor Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition Survey. Most baby boomers exercise at least once or twice a week, while consumers in China and South Korea are the most likely to be doing daily exercise. The proportion of baby boomers getting no exercise is relatively small.

Check out our high-protein ingredients offering and learn how they could provide functional benefits in your product:

https://www.westpronz.com/products/proteins

Consumer buying habits in China, a major market for our products, are very different to 10 years ago, with a significant shift to online buying across nearly all categories.

Chinese consumers switch to online purchasing.

Our Westland sales team saw first-hand the impact of a move away from retail sales to online buying when they visited China in March to meet with Westpro BioactiveMax Lactoferrin customers and our new national distribution partner for bioactives, Yijia Grain and Oil Food.

A leading pet food company in China confirmed this trend, saying that more than 75% of their sales are now made through online channels, including social media selling as well as through larger online platforms, a marked reversal to 20% in 2009. Due to the slow-down in “bricks and mortar” trade across nearly all categories, supermarkets and malls, even in highly populated urban areas, are relatively quiet.

The change to online shopping is rapid and for us the positive impact of this change is that consumers can be better educated about product benefits and reached quickly and directly with news about new products. There is also greater product diversity across categories as traditional hurdle rates to be ranged in retail channels are no longer a barrier for smaller brands and products.

China remains the largest market for products containing Lactoferrin as it is increasingly added to new infant and toddler nutrition formulations to enhance their nutritional benefits. The quality of ingredients used by infant formula manufacturers must be exceptional as these products sometimes provide the only source of nutrition to newborn infants and Westpro BioactiveMax Lactoferrin continues to hold a reputation of being of the highest quality – a reputation we are proud of and know is well deserved.

Our sales team continues to promote our products on the world stage and is attending Vitafoods in Geneva, May 14-16. If you are attending and would like to catch up, please get in touch with Nicola Covich or Susan Coveney.

Yijia Grain and Oil Food Limited have been appointed as the Distribution partner in China of Westpro BioactiveMax products. Hamish Yates, GM Sales & Marketing for Westland Milk with Mr Zeqing Mi, General Manager Yijia Grain & Oil Food Limited.

The Westpro and Yijia teams held a signing ceremony in Beijing in March. 

Infant formula on sale in a specialist Mother & Baby store in Shanghai.

Westland has the best of both worlds when it comes to product development. We get support and expertise and work collaboratively with the Yili Innovation Centres, but we also run our own research and development projects using our skilled in-house innovation team.

Product development – a huge focus

We are currently testing our high protein dairy powders (MPC70, MPC85, WPC80 and Acid Casein) for their key physicochemical, functional and application properties. We will include an overview of findings in our Westpro TotalPRO marketing collateral. The information will detail the specific properties of the powders including the effects of factors such as reconstitution/heating temperature and acidity. It will help the end-users of our high protein powders to maximise ingredient performance across the spectrum of applications.

As we continue to further develop our products, we are exploring opportunities to better meet our customers’ needs.

Westland continues to perform strongly with an an after-tax profit of $55.9 million in 2023, a further improvement on its outstanding result in the previous year.

Good news in a year of challenges

Our performance is all the more impressive given current market challenges including disruption to global shipping due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East and a significant drop in underlying commodity prices of up to 20% for some of our products.

Despite these challenges our revenue of $1.065 billion was our highest ever, up from the previous year’s $1.021 billion.

Our strong focus on quality is paying dividends with our last time grade achievement of 99.8%. Other factors contributing to our strong performance include cost savings across our operation with significant reductions in chemical use at all our sites. We’ve also increased the throughput of a major dryer at our Hokitika plant by up to 30% and we are benefiting from additional cream processing capacity at our new butter facility.

Conditions have also been favourable this season on our suppliers’ farms. Milk supply is up by about 2.5% on the same period last year. The increase reflects stock being in very good condition following a season of ample grass growth in most parts of the West Coast.  Generally, rain has arrived before pastures dried out too much and the grass quality is good. We’re predicting that milk production should stay on track unless a major weather event hits between now and the end of the season.

Other reasons for optimism include the recent announcement guaranteeing indefinite milk collection beyond the 10 years specified at the time of the Yili purchase, the extension of the 10c a kg milk solids premium over Fonterra’s price, for two more seasons beyond the current season, and several increases in the farm gate milk price this season.

Unfortunately, shipping continues to be an ongoing and serious concern. Attacks by rebel groups from Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have caused delays and disruptions to all New Zealand exports/imports. Carriers are avoiding the area, and instead taking a longer route to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope and along the West Coast of Africa, or entering the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. The distance is about 40% longer causing delays of between two and five weeks.

Given the effect on some of the most important trade lanes in global shipping, the flow on impact is worldwide as carriers adjust to major changes. 

There is no resolution in sight to the conflict and disruption and resulting congestion is expected to continue.  Shipping costs have increased with carriers recovering their additional costs through surcharges which we anticipate will remain at least until the third quarter of this year.

Our import/export team is working closely with our carriers to remain up-to-date on the situation.

Westland’s connection to the Yili Innovation Centres (YICs), global innovation powerhouses owned by our parent company Yili, is helping us in our quest for new products, processes and technologies.

Yili Innovation Centres – a huge asset for Westland

Through the YICs, we can now access global expertise and research which offer opportunities to develop and improve uses for our grass-fed milk. Yili’s vision is to be the world’s most trusted healthy food provider and its innovation centres are key to achieving this with their research and development across all facets of the dairy industry, from production to the final consumer products.

The YICs are now at the forefront of global research and innovation into nutrition and health, product and process technology, food safety and farm management. This includes how to increase productivity and at the same time reduce the environmental impact of the farming process.

While most of Westland’s connection is with the Yili Innovation Centre Europe (YICE, Wageningen University in the Netherlands) and Yili Innovation Centre Oceania (YICO, Lincoln University New Zealand), there are also three centres in China (Hohhot, Beijing and Shanghai). All connect globally to share their research, leverage international research groups, and drive innovation linked to sustainable development and social responsibility. There are also extensive laboratory and pilot plant facilities at YICE and the China YICs.

Research being managed by the YICO is highly relevant to Westland. It includes ingredient development, food safety, sustainability, adult and infant nutrition, and on-farm improvements, all with a New Zealand focus.

Of particular interest is research into the advantages of grass-fed dairy production, including the opportunities of grazing stock on alternative pastures and the nutritional benefits of milk and its ingredients.

Westland is also benefitting from some of the current research projects at the Yili Innovation Centre Europe which include improving the flavour and texture of dairy products.

We enjoy our strong links to the innovation centres as we collaborate to scout opportunities for innovation and develop healthy, safe, and nutritious products.

Westland Milk Products is expected to deliver another billion-dollar revenue financial year in 2023 and a profit of around $NZ40 million. Westland CEO Richard Wyeth said the result, repeating last year’s performance, puts Westland in a strong position to maintain sustainable, healthy trading balances year-on-year.

Westland extends billion-dollar result

Westland Milk Products is expected to deliver another billion-dollar revenue financial year in 2023 and a profit of around $NZ40 million.

Westland CEO Richard Wyeth said the result, repeating last year’s performance, puts Westland in a strong position to maintain sustainable, healthy trading balances year-on-year.

“The result has been a team effort across the board, from the quality product our farmer suppliers provide us with, to the support of our customers and work of all our team,’’ Richard said.

“Our strategy is to ensure we retain our competitive milk price advantage by ensuring we continue to maintain this strong, fiscally responsible position.

“I hope the result gives customers the confidence they need to navigate the fluctuating trading conditions we all have to deal with.’’

It has been a big year for Westland, which has included bringing innovative processor Canary under our wing.

Construction of our new $70m lactoferrin plant is well under way on our Hokitika site. Code-named Project Gold Dust, trebling our lactoferrin production capacity to meet global demand of this premium-grade product is an important part of Westland’s high-value profitability strategy.

“Investments such as this and our new butter plant will help ensure we maintain our business momentum as well as our high payments to farmers well beyond the 10-year price guarantee,’’ Richard said.

The company has also boosted its sustainability credentials substantially, winning an EcoVadis Gold award and being upgraded to Diamond status in the Toitu awards.

Strong progress has also been made across all our corporate social responsibility goals.

Our emissions audit has shown a 17.1 per cent overall reduction in emissions since the 2017/18 season, on track for an interim target of 25 per cent by 2025.

The next stage for Westland will be participating in a new management structure that will create greater collaboration across Yili’s affiliate businesses (Oceania Dairy Limited, Westland Milk Products, Canary, EasiYo and Pure Nutrition Limited), in New Zealand.

Together we are building on the success of Yili’s New Zealand ventures across the country to create a more collaborative way of operating across the business.

The new management structure, consolidates us as the third-largest dairy company in New Zealand. The aim of the new management structure is to create smoother inter-company operations across all businesses, while allowing each business to get on with what they do best. We expect this to streamline our operations and this strategic move enables us to pool resources, creating synergies and efficiencies in both production and support services. Rest assured, while we optimise our product mix and the utilisation of group assets, nothing changes for you, and our commitment to personalised and genuine customer service remains.

Oceania Dairy was purchased as a registered start-up company in 2013 and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of parent company Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Company Limited (Yili Group). Originally set up to supply milk products to its parent company either as finished goods, or as base ingredients for further blending and packaging, it now also has other customers’ in many locations around the globe and sells infant formular base powder, whole milk powder, UHT milk and cream and AMF.

Purchased by Westland in 2022, Canary produce "reworked" premium butter and cheese-based products such as butter sheets and medallions for use in the retail and food service sectors, including supermarkets, airlines, restaurants, and bakeries.

Purchased by Westland in 2010, EasiYo is a well-established company that is the number one brand in the make-at-home yogurt market in NZ and have developed into a strong international consumer brand. They sell through retail and catering channels, making it easy for anyone to create fresh yoghurt themselves.

Pure Nutrition Limited offers state of the art nutritional powder blending and canning.

Westland’s export team welcomes global improvement in shipping services

Westland Milk Products is welcoming world-wide shipping services slowly returning to normal following a disruptive period, including delays and congestion, during and post the COVID pandemic.

“Global shipping reliability has improved to 60 to 70 per cent, and New Zealand service reliability is continuing to get better, sitting at around 40 to 50 per cent,” Westland General Manager of Supply Chain Kevin Wang says.

The improvements in global shipping are positive, he says, given the uncertainties of recent years which at times created a “mission impossible” situation for the country’s export sector due to huge issues with capacity, reliability and cost.

“We are definitely anticipating the trend around both improved reliability and reducing base costs to continue moving in the right direction in the year ahead.”

Kevin Wang says that a reliable and cost-effective shipping service is critical for Westland Milk Products, which exports its products to more than 40 countries including China, Australia, the United States, the Middle East and Europe.

While transport developments on the international front are positive, the supply chain in New Zealand is slower catching up with global improvements. High demand from exporters for capacity at the country’s three main ports - Auckland, Tauranga and Lyttleton – continues to put pressure on their resources, he says.

Performance at our main ports is interlinked as vessels travelling to New Zealand tend to do the round trip – unloading at Auckland and then loading at both Tauranga and Lyttelton. Issues at any of the ports impact on the others. 

Westland exports 99 per cent of its exported products through Lyttelton, the dairy company’s closest deep-sea port, and one which Kevin Wang credits for doing all it can to address the demand for increased capacity. “We work closely with the Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) which from our perspective is an ideal partner.

“LPC has done some amazing work. An innovation is a reefer tower – a racking system to support our containers - which has doubled the holding capacity at the port. It has also invested in approximately 34 hectares of new land, the construction of a new 700m long wharf, and new cranes to support the forecasted growth in containerised cargo. The total cost is about $90m,” he says.

Westland, one of the country’s largest exporters of agricultural produce, prioritises making its own improvements to facilitate transport to international markets.  This includes having its own warehouses near rail lines and ports to store its products before export. 

“We’re working with our end-to-end supply chain to ensure we can meet the high standards expected by our customers, who are willing to pay a premium for high value products. For our customers we always look at service over cost, ensuring we manage transit times and reliability first,” Wang says.

“On top of the reliability, we are also working hard to drive efficiency and agility. One of our key measures of supply chain is our speed to market strategy. We ensure customers receive our products as quickly as we can, and this removes waste and waiting time in the supply chain. Ultimately, we want to achieve a cost and service balance and deliver a reliable and efficient supply chain.”

The company also continues to look at ways to improve how goods are handled in transit. This includes better GPS tracking, more protection of products inside the containers, and putting temperature trackers in cold chain shipments to monitor the temperature at all times.

Westpro is part of the Westland Milk Products business-to-business ingredients’ brand and one of the company’s stable of brands, which includes Westgold, EasiYo and Canary.

Westland Milk Products’ suppliers have helped the company move up global independent rankings for corporate social responsibility.

Suppliers help put Westland in world’s top 5% for ethical management

Westland General Manager Environment and Milk Supply Mark Lockington said the involvement of Westland suppliers in signing on to the company’s new Code of Conduct was one of the major factors behind the company being awarded a Gold ranking for its sustainability credentials.

In July, Westland was advised it was now amongst the top 5% of global companies ranked by sustainability auditors EcoVadis and had been given the Gold Award.

The EcoVadis Gold Award demonstrates Westland is actively promoting responsible environmental practices, employee engagement, and ethical codes of conduct.

“The new policies and procedures put in place with our supply chain, such as our Code of Conduct, were singled out by EcoVadis as a factor in our improved ranking,’’ Mr Lockington said.

“We’re really grateful for the response from our suppliers in signing up to the Code and the care and time they took to participate.

“The award levels continue to evolve in line with market expectations so we will need to continue to invest and improve in order to maintain our Gold status.’’

Westland’s Code of Conduct sets out the company’s approach to ethical business conduct; health, safety, and wellbeing; environment; labour and human rights and compliance with law.

As corporate social responsibility continues to increase in importance globally, Westland CEO Richard Wyeth said the Gold award reduces the compliance expectations of new customers.

“Being able to demonstrate our social responsibility credentials is vital in global business and this ranking supports the work done not only across our team, but across our whole supply chain,’’ Mr Wyeth said.

“It shows we mean business when it comes to operating to the highest ethical standards and can demonstrate our commitment to corporate social responsibility, trust and integrity.’’

Westland first joined the EcoVadis ranking system in 2018 as a supply chain requirement of some major international customers and has ranked at Silver for the past five years.

For more information and interviews contact: info@sasgroup.net.nz Local: +64 (03) 288 0213 Global: +61 467 792 0313

Westpro is cementing its place as a world leader in the production of high value bioactive ingredients with its new $70 million specialised plant to be built at Westland Milk Products Hokitika facility.

New Lactoferrin Plant further boost for Westland as global dairy leader

Building will start next year on the new lactoferrin plant which will treble the company’s capacity to produce lactoferrin, the minor protein found in milk, which is fast gaining global recognition for its reported health benefits. 

For the last five years the global demand for lactoferrin, has far outstripped Westland’s product capacity – a trend which is expected to continue. 

With the addition of spray-dried lactoferrin to complement Westland’s freeze-dried lactoferrin range, Westland will be one of the only lactoferrin manufacturers in the world capable of producing both formats on the one site, a unique advantage for its customers.

The new lactoferrin plant can also manufacture other high-value bioactive products – a major plus for Westpro as it continues to develop its nutritious and versatile product range to meet the evolving needs of the global ingredients industry. 

Westpro is an integral part of the Westland Milk Products’ family. Its nutritious and versatile product range  includes proteins, such as  lactoferrin, milk powders, and other bioactive ingredients.

Consumers like that the company’s healthy, natural products are sourced from dairy cows grazing on the lush green pastures of its West Coast home, recognised as one of the world’s best dairy farming environments. 

The new plant is the latest in Westland’s series of major investments on the West Coast and is supported by its parent company the Yili Group, the fifth largest dairy company in the world. The development follows a $40 million plant upgrade in 2021 which doubled consumer butter production at Hokitika. 

In announcing the new plant in April this year, Westland’s Resident Director Zhiqiang  Li said the investment in the new lactoferrin plant signals Westland’s commitment to take the lead in the high value bioactive ingredients sector. 

“Westland is the only New Zealand commercial manufacturer of bovine colostrum powder and this move will place us in the top three leading global companies in the lactoferrin category, with a market share of approximately 10 per cent,” Mr Li says. 

“We were one of the first to market with this highly specialised protein ingredient, and over the past 20 years have established a reputation as a manufacturer of a product of exceptional quality.”

Westland CEO Richard Wyeth says the investment extends Westland’s focus on high-value consumer goods and specialised ingredients to leverage Westland’s growing international reputation as a producer of premium dairy products and ingredients. 

“We cannot improve on the incredible quality of the natural product our farmers produce day after day, but we can ensure that we extract maximum value for that product, and our lactoferrin strategy is a critical part of that,’’ Mr Wyeth said. 

“Our bioactive ingredients innovation pipeline is well advanced, and we’re excited to be a step closer to bringing these concepts to commercialisation.’’ 

Construction of the new plant is scheduled to start in the first half of 2024 and is expected to take 16 months. 

Westland Milk Products has given its Westpro brand a fresh new look that better reflects the premium nature of the product range.

Boost for Westpro’s dairy range

Westpro is Westland Milk Products’ business-to-business ingredients’ brand and one of the company’s stable of brands, which includes Westgold, EasiYo and Canary.

Westland’s General Manager Sales and Marketing, Hamish Yates says the company wants to ensure that the value its dairy products including milk powders, bioactives, whey, and milk-derived proteins can offer premium brand owners across world markets, is well known.

The new Westpro brand identity, with its modern and unified “look and feel”, has been introduced across its products’ packaging and trade marketing materials. Part of the exercise included contemporising the Westpro logo.

“The decision to refresh Westpro and really bring the brand to life means it will now confidently lead everything Westland does in the ingredient space,” Hamish Yates says.

A dedicated website for Westpro, www.westpronz.com, was launched on November 1.

“We haven’t started from scratch with the Westpro brand refresh. Obviously, Westpro shares a very close connection to who we are as Westland Milk Products so, visually, there is still a strong link between the two brand identities,” Hamish Yates says.

“However, we are now able to better showcase our highly valued portfolio of premium dairy products and differentiate between product categories with proprietary product-range names that sit alongside ‘Westpro’ and speak to a tangible benefit that the product offers brand owners and their consumers. Better showcasing the value of our product range is key to achieving premium prices for our products in the world dairy markets.

“Our high-quality milk, sourced from grass fed cows grazing below the majestic Southern Alps is at the very heart of the Westpro story. Our customers resonate strongly with this provenance story and it is better reflected in our fresh new branding,” Hamish Yates says.

“We will continue to reinforce with our customers the amazing work our farmers are doing, on some of the best dairying land in the world.”

For more information and interviews contact:

56 Livingstone Street
 PO Box 96
 Hokitika, 7842
 New Zealand

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