Stanhope is Fonterra Australia’s largest and most complex cheese plant to date; designed to produce five different cheese types, as well as whey and nutritionals.
The new facility is larger than the original and features modern infrastructure. The project encompassed the demolition and reconstruction of the original fire damaged cheese plant, installation of cheese and whey processing plants, and the construction and installation of a modern mozzarella cheese producing facility.
Octa’s involvement with the first new cheese factory to be built by Fonterra in over 20 years required the coordination of over 20 process, mechanical, automation and electrical engineers to design the plant and then specify and procure the 7000+ components.
Senior Octa project managers were on site from March to December 2017 with the responsibility of leading the commissioning team and coordinating with Fonterra to train and handover to the operators and site engineers.
Stakeholders on the 18-month project included the entire township of Stanhope, keen to see a return to production after the original hard cheese plant burned down in December 2013.
