As we enter the new season, Westland once again has the opportunity to welcome new members to our supplier family, strengthening the foundation behind the high-quality dairy ingredients our customers rely on.

Over the past year, we’ve seen strong momentum in farm sales, with more than seven properties transitioning to new ownership for the 2025/26 season.

What’s especially exciting is that many of our new farm owners are already part of the Westland family – former sharemilkers stepping into ownership roles. This continuity ensures that the values and standards our customers expect remain firmly in place.

West Coast an attractive farming location

Farm sales have experienced a lift not only to a slightly cheaper entry point to ownership, but in the West Coast more specially as the proven advantages to supplying Westland become more well known across the region.

On top of these changes, we also have several new sharemilkers and contract milkers making the move to the West Coast and we look forward to working with them to help them succeed in their businesses.

Engaging our farmer suppliers

We’re also keen to engage with them to help them get to know the wonderful communities they are now a part of. We’ll do this as a part of our recently introduced onboarding programme for suppliers new to the Westland catchment where we take the time to sit with them and go through how Westland works and present them with a welcome pack that showcases some of our family of products.

Beginning in 2024, we recognised that we need to have a more professional and consistent presence at the start of any new farmer supplier’s journey and show them how important they are to the Westland business. The relationship we have with our farmers reflects the deep level of organisation and collaboration that underpins the primary sector – something that ultimately supports the consistency, reliability and professionalism behind the dairy ingredients our customers receive.