Thanks AO for piquing my curiosity and spurring me to do some research into Camperdown Powers.
Thought I'd share my research... but as always, DYOR.
About 2015, Queensland mining entrepreneur Bill McDonald announced plans for a $500m investment to establish a dairy empire, fully integrated from the paddock to distribution. That entity was Camperdown Dairy International (CDI).
The plans were to own and operate the dairy farms, centrally collect the milk, then dry and process this product (incl infant formula, adult nutritionals, powdered milk, etc) and finally manage distribution to international markets.
So from what I can deduce, the facility in Camperdown (previously the Camperdown Cheese and Butter Factory) was the central collection and processing facility for fresh milk.
Camperdown Power (based in Braeside), a fully owned subsidiary of CDI, then took delivery of the product from the Camperdown facility and in turn produced the various infant formulas, powered milks, etc.
As part of this planned dairy empire, CDI had purchased the Camperdown Powder facility in Braeside in 2014.
In Sept 2016, CDI announced their plans (and the $500m investment) were on hold. They cited setbacks due to global over supply of milk and Chinese regulatory uncertainty.
This announcement advised plans to purchase farms, upgrade the Camperdown facility, and all dairy and processing plans were on the back burner, and that instead, they would focus on building it's manufacturing operation in Braeside (i.e. Camperdown Powers), which had been increasingly profitable since exporting to China.
In Nov 2016, Bill McDonald, confirmed he was abandoning the diary industry and returning to the mining sector.
So my thoughts are:
- Bill McDonald was the money behind the grand plans, including having the funds to upgrade the Braeside facility to increase production and hence further expand profitability.
- It seems the only part of the grand CDI plans which came to fruition was Camperdown Powders, a profitable and valuable asset.
- With Bill McDonald's exit from CDI, the remaining shareholders/BoD, have sold Camperdown Powders to BAL (well 90% at least), who will be able to provide the necessary capital to continue with the plans to upgrade the Braeside facility and hence continue to further increase it's capacity and profitability.
- As such, the original CDI business model is no longer an on-going concern, and hence is being wound up in an orderly manner. (I'm not an expert in voluntary company liquidations, but I would assume that a creditors meeting would be par for the course???.... and not something that needs to fan any fear for BAL shareholders.)
Here are some of the links from my research:
ABC Rural news:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/20...ional-milk-price-crisis-china-exports/7831162
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/20...ternational-bill-mcdonald-milk-powder/8049822
Nutrico Website (one of the infant formulas being produced by CDI):
http://www.nutrico.com.au/manufacturing/
Hope this helps better understand the Camperdown Powder story - but as always, this is my own research and my own analysis, and as such, I can't verify the accuracy of all this information, but I wouldn't post this info if I thought it would mislead anyone - however the usual caveat applies - DYOR.
