Westland Milk Products has been recognised for best use of research and development in the 2012 New Zealand International Business Awards. Investing in research and development has helped Westland turn great ideas into commercial realities.
The judges said Westland tackles every new product development project, whether self-driven or at the request of its customers, with a clear sense of the product’s potential in international markets.
When the company decided not to join dairy giant Fonterra in 2001, shareholders realised they had to take a deep breath and develop new skills fast.
“It was a big courageous decision and Westland has shown you can be very successful as a small business in the dairy industry if you choose to do certain things very well,” chief executive Rod Quin says.
Farmer shareholders are now reaping the benefits of their gutsy decision to go it alone.
One of those key areas of focus and success is innovation, and Westland Milk Products has been recognised for the best use of research and development among businesses operating internationally.
In 10 years, the dairy company has grown to manufacture and sell more than 95,000 tonnes of dairy products a year, 84 percent of which is sold offshore. Westland exports to more than 50 countries around the world and has over 70 customers globally.
Mr Quin says the majority of Westland’s core business is ingredients for other businesses, particularly those making nutritional products. It also retails products such as its own Westgold Butter to markets such as Azerbaijan, Hong Kong and China.
Customers include global food giants Nestle, Danone and Amway.
In recent years, Westland decided on getting as close to its customers as possible. That mission required scale and new skills.
“At some stage you’ve got to be big enough to go direct to your customer,” Mr Quin says.
“You’ve got to be a certain scale so they know you can grow with their growth.”
A key plank of the new approach was to focus the company’s research and development resources on firm commercial objectives. Westland has built a reputation for solving customers’ problems and developing new products.
Each year, the company – which is New Zealand’s third largest processor and exporter of dairy products – turns more than 500 million litres of milk into products such as butter pats and infant milk powder.
Mr Quin says the 84-year-old company has about 350 West Coast and Canterbury-based dairy farmer shareholders and 400 staff in Hokitika, Christchurch, Auckland, Australia and the UK.
International revenue made up 86 percent of Westland’s sales for the 2010-2011 dairying season and, in the last three years, the company has generated $1.2 billion in export earnings.
Westland is an experienced collaborator, pairing up with one large European company to develop a “growing up” milk-based powder for the emerging Asian market.
The company’s research and development team works direct with clients’ engineers to create a customised end product. Its flexible manufacturing facilities offer short or long manufacturing runs to suit customer needs.
The R&D team interacts directly with customer’s own product development teams.
Westland has highly qualified scientists who work in state of the art laboratories facilitating rapid product development tailored to customers’ specifications.
Interaction and good relationships with external organisations in New Zealand and the world gives Westland access to the latest developments in the industry and keeps it at the forefront of worldwide dairy research, the company says.
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise
