Gardians Overview

Gardians is a custom-built dairy site, using the latest European spray dryer technology and is equipped to handle a minimum of 20,000 tonnes per year to supply the highest grades of nutritional powders to international markets.

Gardians represents the responsible approach taken to source and process milk, whilst standing for Greenfields, Agricultural Research Dairy Innovation and Nutritional Systems.

Our milk is sourced from a select group of sustainably run farms and dairy herds in the South Island of New Zealand, under the control of Grant Paterson, Dunedin based agricultural investor, who is 50% shareholder in the company. The other 50% of Gardians is held by Sutton Group, one of New Zealand’s leading nutritional solution providers.

Quality is key – What we offer

We retain close quality control of the supply chain, by processing all our directly controlled milk in our own dairy factory. Using the latest European spray dryer technology, we turn this premium product into high-quality nutritional products.

The last stage involves the journey to the consumer. We are dedicated to providing a comprehensive range of products, formulated with scientific precision and utilising the Sutton Group’s expertise in packaging to supply in packaging formats our customers require.

As we retain quality control through the entire process we stand by absolute traceability and guaranteed integrity of the products.

GARDIANS journey

With resource consents in place and construction underway, the 4 hectare site near Balclutha, South Island, New Zealand will finish 20,000 metric tonnes of nutritional products using a new top of the line European Spray drier and is on schedule to be fully operational by July 2012. The finished product will then be sent to Sutton Group for consumer packaging.

"It (Gardians) encapsulated the essence of "Brand New Zealand" and recognised the world was becoming a more discerning place, where both brands and consumers were demanding traceability of their end products, especially in ranges as sensitive as infant formula and early developmental Nutritional products, Gardians spokeswoman Rachelle Sutton said."

(Otago Daily Times, October 2011)