Creamery’s $10M expansion fuels growth
By Deanne Jeffers
KYABRAM’S dairy industry is celebrating a major win, with a $10M expansion of Goulburn Valley Creamery, creating more local jobs and a greater capacity to process the region’s world-class milk.
Housed in the historic Kyabram Jam Factory, home to IXL Jams, Goulburn Valley Creamery has called the site home since 2020. Thanks to support from the State Government’s Regional Development Fund, the creamery’s upgrades have more than doubled its production capacity to a massive 100M litres of milk per year. This investment includes a state-of-the-art processing area fit-out and crucial upgrades to equipment and water infrastructure.
The expansion is already paying off, with 17 new operational jobs created at the Kyabram site and increased demand for milk from Goulburn Valley dairy farms. The benefits are flowing through the entire supply chain, including a growing need for frozen milk storage post-processing.
“We’re thrilled with the expansion at our Kyabram factory, which has included water treatment upgrades that have boosted our production capacity and opened up new market opportunities and enabled us to employ more people in the local area,” said Goulburn Valley Creamery CEO, Mancel Hickey.
The upgrades include advanced water treatment technology, from cutting-edge filtration to dissolved air flotation systems, giving the creamery the capacity to treat more water and support its increased output. Access to reliable, safe water is critical for operations and underpinned the company’s plans for expansion, helping to deliver more premium dairy products to customers across Australia and around the globe.
From frozen milk concentrate to frozen cream, Goulburn Valley Creamery proudly sources from local dairy farms and exports its products internationally. The company now employs 90 full-time staff across Victoria, with the Kyabram facility alone doubling its workforce to 30 team members.
Minister for Regional Development Jaclyn Symes praised the project. She said, “The expansion project is enabling local dairy producers like Goulburn Valley Creamery to support towns like Kyabram with more workers and a strengthened supply chain.”
The expansion highlights the vital role the dairy industry plays in Kyabram and northern Victoria, where around 30 per cent of the state’s dairy farms produced 1.55B litres of milk in the 2023-24 financial year alone.
