Pilot gets the cream
Former Air New Zealand pilot Liam Fitzgerald is one of five new employees at Fonterra’s cream cheese plant in Darfield, who have been hired to help meet surging demand from China.
The plant had more than doubled production of the dairy product in the last year, plant manager
Blake Aston said.
Fitzgerald was put on furlough by Air New Zealand after Covid19 severely disrupted international travel.
He had worked for Fonterra in a whey production plant before he became a pilot and decided he wanted to go back.
Fitzgerald began doing temporary work in one of the two milk powder plants at the Darfield site, but when production at the cream cheese plant increased he applied for a permanent role.
The plant at Darfield is now operating around the clock to meet the demand, having added 75 per cent more capacity.
Plant manager Blake Aston said demand had grown by more than 100 per cent in the past year and five new permanent employees were needed to work the new shifts.
China’s changing demographics were driving the popularity of Western foods, including huge demand for cream cheese which was used in lollipops, drinks and moon cakes, Aston said.
Darfield produced 90 tonnes of cream cheese a day, packed into 20 kilogram boxes for export. There was an existing cream cheese factory in Hamilton, but Darfield had been established in 2012 to service the growing Asian market. It employed more than 280 people, he said.
Most of what the plant produced went to China as well as the Middle East and US. A new German blender allowed the plant to change the firmness and consistency of the cheese to meet customer preference and give its products a competitive advantage, he said.
The plant work was technical and staff were expected to be able to run every piece of equipment, Aston said.
Fitzgerald had just completed his forklift training for use in the pack house. Most of the training was done on the job.
He had only been there for three months but said there room for his career to grow. ‘‘I’d love to learn the other roles. I love flying but at the moment I have a young family and this role works quite well. I see my family every day,’’ he said.