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The Yili Group is incredibly proud to have partnered with the New Zealand dairy industry over the past decade. Yili’s initial investment in New Zealand with construction of Oceania Dairy Limited in Waimate, South Canterbury, in 2013, was also Yili’s first major offshore acquisition.
Since that time, Yili has gone from strength to strength, establishing a global resource, innovation, and market system across 33 countries in five continents.
Yili is now regarded as one of the world’s most valuable food brands. It is the fifth largest dairy company in the world and the largest dairy manufacturer in Asia.
Yili has thrived by creating a global business culture committed to international collaboration and a culture of win-win. New Zealand has played a strong part in this with the establishment of the Yili Innovation Centre Oceania in November 2014, a strategic partnership with Lincoln University.
Established in the same year as Yili’s European Innovation Centre, in collaboration with Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the Yili Innovation Centre Oceania has established sound partnerships with the New Zealand Food Safety Science & Research Centre (NZFSSRC), AgResearch, and the University of Otago.
Following its success with Oceania Dairy and construction of a state-of-the-art plant to process milk containing functional milk proteins, ultra-high temperature (UHT) liquid milk, whole milk powder and infant formula, in 2019 Yili announced that it had completed the purchase of 100% of shares in Westland Co-Operative Dairy Company Limited through its wholly owned subsidiary Jingang Trade Holding Limited.
On March 24, 2021, with the launch of its Goldrush project at Westland, Yili invested $NZ40 million to double capacity of premium consumer butter production at Westland Milk Products.
The investment has transformed the Hokitika plant’s capability from being largely a producer of bulk commodity butter to one which has a vastly increased capacity to produce goods for the high-value global consumer market. Construction of the plant was completed in 2021 with the launch by New Zealand’s Trade Minister Damien O’Connor conducted earlier this year.
In October this year, Westland announced the acquisition of dairy manufacturer Canary Foods, an innovative business that has already spread its wings to international markets.
Canary has developed a world-first compostable, individually sized butter squeeze pack in response to consumer demands for ethically responsible packaging and global calls for an end to single-use plastics.
Canary’s 100 per cent New Zealand dairy products are supplied to a diverse range of businesses in the retail and food service sectors, including supermarkets, airlines, restaurants and bakery outlets.
Learn more about Yili Group here