Synlait launches stainless steel milk bottles in South Island supermarkets

Synlait Milk is today launching the first product under its own brand, a reusable stainless steel milk bottle that will initially be available in two supermarkets on the South Island.

The 1.5-liter bottle of homogenized milk will go on sale Tuesday for $ 15.29 at New World supermarkets in Ilam and Fendalton in Christchurch. The initial cost includes $ 9.99 for the Synlait Swappa bottle and $ 5.29 for the milk. Subsequent purchases when customers return their bottles to the store will only cost $ 5.29 for milk.

Synlait moved from being a manufacturer of products for other companies to developing its own consumer brands after acquiring Dairyworks in 2019, which supplies supermarkets with Dairyworks, Rolling Meadow and Alpine products. Its entry into Synlait brand milk comes after several years of experience supplying fresh milk and cream to Foodstuffs South Island under its Pams and Value labels.

The supermarket group will monitor sales at the two pilot stores and should have a good understanding of consumer adoption within two to four weeks, said Hamish Reid, director of sustainability and branding for Synlait.

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“If we hit the numbers they want us to hit, then they’ll start rolling us out to other stores quickly,†Reid said. “It would be great if we got national coverage within a few months. “

Reid, who joined Synlait in 2017 with training in food marketing to consumers, said Synlait had “tons†of milk from its 280 farmer suppliers to support a nationwide rollout.

Private labels like Pams account for around 70 percent of fresh milk sales nationwide, with the remaining 30 percent taken by Fonterra’s Anchor brand and Goodman Fielder’s Meadow Fresh. Small brands like Lewis Road represent only 2-3% of the total market.

Synlait would like to carve out a “double-digit” share of the branded milk market, Reid said.

The cost of taking back the swappa bottles for washing and filling prevents Synlait from competing in the more price-sensitive private label market, he said.

Yet even a reasonably modest market share would wipe out a lot of plastic bottles from the market, he said.

“New Zealanders have told us for years that they are deeply concerned about plastic waste, but in milk there haven’t been a lot of options,†he said. “The Synlait Swappa bottle is a step in the process of eliminating plastic waste.

The company has been working on the sustainability project for several years and considered other materials such as glass, recycled plastic, and plant-based plastic, but “canceled them pretty quickly,” Reid said.

“Milk in glass bottles is actually an environmental crime site,†he said. “We really eliminated that from day one. “

The glass was heavy to transport and most of the recycled glass was recycled into lower-value products like roads and trails, with only a few niche companies taking back the glass bottles for cleaning and refilling, he said. . Milk in glass bottles also deteriorated rapidly due to its exposure to light, he said.

“It’s really a bit of a nostalgic throwback,†he said. “It’s something people will always remember, those golden days when we used to have milk delivered to our doorstep. The reality was, it was really shoddy.

Centralizing milk production means milk now has to come a long way, and shipping heavy glass across the country has increased the product’s carbon footprint, he said.

Synlait wanted to do something “really radically different†from plastic, in line with his goal of “making milk differently for a healthier world,†he said.

Reid said he hoped the swappa bottles could be used hundreds of times, and prototype testing at home showed they were “really tough.”

If consumers started milking the swappa bottles, the company planned to roll out other products in similar containers.

The model has taken off overseas, launched by TerraCycle’s Loop initiative, which partners with major global companies like Nestlé, Unilever and Procter & Gamble to offer reusable containers.

Synlait was hoping other companies would embrace the concept as well, allowing for infrastructure costs like reverse vending machines in stores to be shared, Reid said.

Establishing the company’s credentials as a national brand will help Synlait grow in selling its branded products overseas.

“We believe there are many opportunities for our company and other businesses in New Zealand to own more of the value chain, to take more of it rather than to give too much into the value chain. commodity prices for overseas companies to realize the full benefit, â€Reid said.

“We could produce a lot less food with a lower environmental impact and we could sell it a lot more if we’re smarter and that’s what Synlait is really trying to launch. “