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The Robertson brothers, originally from Waikaia. From left, Gus, Gilly and Stru.
A company started by three brothers from Waikaia is the latest to hitch its wagon to a proposed $50 million industry-leading oat milk factory in Southland.
Gus, Gilly and Stru Robertson distribute organic oat milk in New Zealand, farmed and produced in the United Kingdom, under their label Sunny South.
They started Sunny South with an eye to helping spawn organic oats growers in Southland.
Gus said it had signed a volume based production agreement with NZ Functional Foods, with an indication to produce between 500,000 to 1 million litres of oat milk in 2023, provided the factory was built.
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The deal would transfer the company’s production to the plant as long as it was complete, Gus said.
Gus is a forestry broker in Auckland, Gilly is a financial analyst in the kiwifruit industry in Mount Maunganui, and Stru is a surveyor in Sydney.
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Artist’s impression of a plant-based milk plant at Makarewa, near Invercargill. [Supplied]
The old Alliance Group Makarewa plant, near Invercargill, is earmarked as the site for the carbon-neutral factory, which could pump out 40 million litres of plant milk a year.
NZ Functional Foods is the company started by the Southland regional development agency to set up the oat milk factory project.
The factory could side-step the huge costs of transporting New Zealand-grown oats around the world to be processed and then returned to consumers here.
Robertson said Sunny South’s next step was to get farmers growing organic oats in Southland. Their contract is not contingent on being organic though.
There was lots of arable land in Southland that could be used for organic oats, he said, and now Sunny South aimed to prove there was a market.
Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Southland produces the bulk of New Zealand’s oats. [File Photo]
NZ Functional Foods chief executive Justin Riley remained tight-lipped on how many contracts had been signed, citing commercial confidence.
However, they were on track for the first products to come off the line in the first quarter of 2023, Riley said.
Sir Stephen Tindall’s company K1W1 is the majority shareholder of NZ Functional Foods, and contributed $1m in seed funding.
“The capital raise has gone really well, and we’re happy with where we’re at,” Riley said.
Riley felt the Robertson brothers had energy and vision, and said growing organic oats in New Zealand would be a great challenge for the industry.
Wellington-based All Good oat milk sell Swedish-made and packaged oat milk, made from non-organic but residue-free Swedish oats.
Director and co-founder Matthew Morrison said he hoped to sign a contract with NZ Functional Foods within the next few weeks.
Under the prospective deal, the factory would produce All Good milk made from New Zealand oats, Morrison said.
All Good was keen to get organic certification in New Zealand, but there were too few growers at the moment, and the factory could be the catalyst for farmers to go organic, he said.
