The third phase of a multi-million-dollar redevelopment of ProviCo’s Dennington plant will come online early next year, creating more specialist products for a worldwide market.

The development of the next-generation global bio-protein hub continues to build on more than a century of dairy manufacturing in Dennington.

ProviCo purchased the 34-ha site from Fonterra Australia in 2020, after the plant had laid dormant for almost a year.

The redevelopment of the site into a next-gen facility delivered a lactoferrin plant in 2022 and micellar casein isolate (MCI) and native Whey Protein Isolate (nWPI) capability using membrane technology in 2024.

The third phase of investment is underway for early 2027 completion and will further fractionate native whey into higher value proteins, including alpha lactalbumin and beta lactoglobulin.

The three phases of the redevelopment will cost close to $90 million over five years, using world-first technology in collaboration with HPS Tech, an engineering firm that specialises in membrane technology.

ProviCo Dennington CEO Ben Anderson said the plant was focused on precision dairy processing, creating high value bio proteins from raw milk.

About 90 per cent of the protein products made at Dennington are exported and used in sports supplements, pharmaceuticals, nutritional powders, milk powders, chocolates, and health products.

Locally, Nippy’s has launched a high protein flavoured milk containing ProviCo micellar casein isolate and ingredients are supplied other leading brands within Australia and internationally.

Mr Anderson said ProviCo was continuing to develop a world-wide customer base for micellar casein isolate and native whey protein isolate.

“As we transition to bio-proteins, we are developing different markets for these new specialist products.

“We are confident that the demand for specialist nutrition and health products is there and that we will be at the forefront of the push to having more protein in our diets.”

Whey protein concentrates are a key ingredient in sports nutrition supplements and ProviCo Dennington produces an isolate that is 90 per cent protein.

“We’ve separated the native whey from the casein to produce whey protein isolate and when we bring this new plant on, we will further breakdown that whey stream into new products,” Mr Anderson said.

ProviCo procures milk for its value-added products through a combination of its own supplier base and other dairy manufacturers and traders. It is seeking to increase the amount of milk it procures directly from farmers.

“We have a fantastic group of farmer suppliers throughout south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia who are very engaged with the journey we are on,” Mr Anderson added

ProviCo is also working with Deakin University in a research partnership to guide the future of the plant.

This includes research into optimising the performance of the current plant and what is needed to grow production, better understanding the ingredients needed to gain the best possible yield from supplied milk, how the ingredients perform in products, and how ProviCo ingredients can be sold into various sectors of the market to fill nutritional needs.

One stream of research involves collaboration with farmer suppliers to test milk off-farm and understand more about the whey fractions and specific influences at the farmgate.

Mr Anderson said the revitalisation of the Dennington plant had been great for the local and regional community.

“This plant has been important to the Dennington community for a long time and today it’s creating a lot of opportunity for highly skilled careers, working together with farmers to build businesses, contributing to the community, and creating new nutritional and healthy specialist products.

“It’s a great story of imagination, transformation, and positive investment for the future of rural Australia.”

Founder Andrew Paterson, who established ProviCo in 1999, said the focus on value-added protein continued to have strong support.

“We’ve had an unwavering protein strategy that hasn’t changed,” Mr Paterson said.

“We in agriculture have been told for a long time that we shouldn’t just sell commodities; we should apply technology to primary products to make them more valuable.

“ProviCo is doing is just that, looking at an asset with imagination and saying what makes that asset relevant in the next 30-40 years.”

Additional information:

ProviCo Group was established in 1999 as Australian Dairy Goods and remains proudly Australian owned and operates as an integrated dairy company.

ProviCo (Protein Vitamin Company) manufactures functional dairy ingredients and specialised dairy nutrition products that are supplied into the domestic and international markets.

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