Must be Bega's turn to fly, page-4

And now one blows up!!

United Dairy Power in receivership

• THE AUSTRALIAN
• NOVEMBER 18, 2014 4:36PM
• SAVE
• PRINT
• Damon Kitney
  
  Victorian Business Editor
  Melbourne
  https://plus.google.com/118107316791307666801
  

THE parent company of Australia’s largest privately owned milk processing company, United Dairy Power (UDP) has been placed in receivership after its banker moved to remove its board and appoint a new CEO to manage its debts.

Insolvency firm PPB and the dairy company’s financier, Rabobank, appointed Marcus Derwin as managing director of Five Star United Food — which controls UDP — last week on the same day the dairy company was placed in receivership.
It is understood the firms involved wanted to talk to the farmers that dairy supply the group before the news was made public.
The receivership is unusual in that UDP and its subsidiaries will continue trading, while Mr Derwin will work to stabilise the parent company.
Greg Quinn, Partner at PPB Advisory said: “The priority since our appointment has been to support UDP management and all its stakeholders including suppliers, customers and employees to stabilise the business. This has been successfully achieved and we’ve been encouraged by the positive response from key suppliers and customers of UDP.
“UDP plays a key role in the local dairy industry, and through our appointment, we will endeavour to ensure that it continues to do so in the future.”
The news comes only nine months after Hong Kong businessman William Hui paid about $70 million to take control of UDP from its founder Tony Esposito.
In March Mr Hui said he was willing to spend a further $20m to bolster capacity at the group’s factories or seek alliances to help UDP expand into the milk powder business.
UDP processes more than 200 million litres of milk annually into dairy products such as cheddar, the Caboolture brand of mozzarella cheese, butter and whey powder.