Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Food manufacturing |
Founded | 1886 |
Founder | Edward Browne |
Headquarters | , Australia |
Owner | Shanghai Ground Food Tech |
Website | brownesdairy |
Brownes Dairy is an Australian dairy company. It produces dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt for the domestic and international market.[1] The company is the oldest and largest dairy processor in Western Australia.[2][3]
Brownes was established in 1886.[1] It became the first Western Australian company to produce flavoured milk in 1951.[4]
In 1955 the family company became a public company,[5] changing its name from Brownes Limited to Brownes Dairy limited.[6]
The company began making yoghurt in 1959.[7] Ice cream company Peters acquired Brownes in 1962.[8] In the 1970s, Brownes started making sour cream and feta cheese.[9]
In 2010, Fonterra sold Brownes to DairyWest, a subsidiary of private investment firm Archer Capital.[10] In July 2012, Brownes acquired Casa Dairy, a maker of niche products like European-style cheeses and buttermilk located in Canning Vale.[11]
Brownes was fined $100,000 in July 2014 after waste milk from its Brunswick facility spilled into a nearby creek causing fish to die and a foul odour. The company also spent about four weeks and about $387,000 to clean up the spill.[12]
In November 2017, Brownes was purchased by Australia Zhiran Co, a Chinese consortium led by Shanghai Ground Food Tech.[13]
In July 2021, Brownes was fined $22,000 by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after it published two milk supply agreements on its website in June 2020 which did not comply with the Dairy Code.[14]
Annually, Brownes collects about 120 million litres of milk from over 50 farms.[1] Brownes has processing facilities located in Balcatta, Brunswick and Shanghai.[10][15] As of 2010, the company processes 40 per cent of WA's milk production.[10]