Tatua Dairy Limited HAIF Facility

6 months duration

Tatua is growing, with 90 percent of its increasingly specialised and diverse products now being exported. Their Waikato production site needed another powder transport and packing line for its hypoallergenic dairy ingredient products. FPC was contracted to build a 20 metre steel and concrete tower to house the new line. It included a sifter and powder bin as well as a packing facility. The new building and its processes would connect to the adjacent D3 dryer and warehouse, and it needed to support the highest possible manufacturing hygiene standards.

FPC partnered with Tetra Pak (which provided the processing equipment) and the three companies worked closely together to ensure all the moving parts of the project operated smoothly and efficiently, despite many supply disruptions and challenges thrown up by the Covid-19 pandemic.

These included rapidly rising international prices for steelwork and a huge demand for precast concret panel fabrication which was overwhelming local suppliers. On top of this, continual bouts of Covid infection among the construction teams had to be anticipated and managed on a daily basis. On one day, a crane driver tested positive for Covid, as did their two replacements.

Material costs and delivery schedules were changing so rapidly, and on such an unprecedented scale that FPC and Tatua moved to a highly communicative project meeting arrangement so, together, they could identify issues and prepare solutions.

FPC also showed its ingenuity in sourcing the 37 pre-cast concrete panels needed for the project. FPC decided to make its own panels, assigning a project engineer to the task. A temporary fabrication site was set up on a vacant piece of land next to a Rotorua structural steel supplier who had recently built two pre-cast beds. FPC fabricated the reinforcing cages on the vacant piece of land and moved them next door when bed space came available to form and pour the panels. With a dedicated quality assurance supervisor on board, labour was brought in from throughout the region as needed.

FPC has built a solid reputation for success within the manufacturing construction sector, specialising in clients involved with food and dairy processing. Their staff are known for their commitment, communication, and problem-solving – all of which were crucial to this build.

“FPC’s resourcefulness in adapting to new situations kept the project moving steadily forward. We would work together with them on another project in a heartbeat.” – Tatua Dairy.