US natural and processed cheese packager, Great Lakes Cheese, has partnered with Melbourne-based producer, Pure Dairy – its first investment outside of America. The company aims to support Pure Dairy’s continued growth, as the company makes moves both domestically and internationally.
Great Lakes Cheese’s vice president and chief financial officer, Mark Anderson, said the company was impressed by Pure Dairy’s existing global footprint and excited to be part of its expansion.
“Their strong relationships and deep understanding of individual markets assured us that Pure Dairy is the right partner for us, as we now make our very first investment outside of America,” said Anderson.
Over the past decade, Pure Dairy has gone from being a local business to building a trading network across 72 countries and opening four international offices.
Its latest investment is a 13,000 square metre Victorian production facility, set to open in April 2025. With easy access to dairy producers and the export hub of Port Melbourne, Pure Dairy’s new plant will include an R&D kitchen, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics as well as the corporate office.
Pure Dairy executive chairman, Adrian Josephson, said the investment from Great Lakes Cheese accelerates the company’s plans to acquire further assets and consolidate Australia’s position as one of the world’s top dairy producers.
“The new facility will be a great asset to everyone in Australian dairy. Because although we’ll now have our own production lines, the plant will also be open to collaborative as well as white-label manufacture - and we’ll continue to serve our customers with data-driven, unbiased advice,” said Josephson.
“Great Lakes Cheese is well positioned to support sales of Australian Dairy products to American retailers and food service businesses through their strong network. The synergies that our partnership creates are endless.
“Today’s dairy industry is about constantly looking for new opportunities, always employing the most powerful way to think about dairy. For this, there’s no stronger partner than Pure Dairy. We go beyond transactional business to form strategic relationships, and we have the global insights required to succeed,” he said.
Pure Dairy’s day-to-day operations will remain under Australian management.
