Green sensibilities, product quality and consistency, and a genuine desire to delight customers are among the driving forces behind Procal Dairy's processing and distribution operations.
Owned and operated by the Thyssen family, the business is a relative newcomer to the dairy processing market, having been established four years after the industry deregulation of 1999.
But as one of only a few Australian-owned dairy processors, it is now one of the country’s largest independent operators, and supplies white milk for the café industry, and also produces a range of cream, and yoghurts – including a Greek yoghurt that claimed Gold at the 2018 Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria’s Australian Food Awards.
“Prior to deregulation, the price of milk was set by the government and there was no real competition in the market,” Procal chief executive Adam Thyssen says.
“Because of this, the general level of service was very poor, with milk suppliers bringing to market whatever quality of product that they wanted to.”
To help turn this around, Procal built a new, modern processing facility ten years ago in Campbellfield, Victoria.
“So many dairy companies have older factories that have been around for a long time,” says Thyssen. “What we tried to do was to create the most advanced fresh dairy processing plant in Australia.”
At this facility, Procal can pack 40,000 litres of milk and produce 10,000 small yoghurt cups every hour.
Selecting the right technology was also critical to establishing the strong sustainability credentials of the facility.
