The remaining 10 per cent of Goodman Fielder's production is destined for the international market, and is growing quickly with a "bullseye on China" according to Reidie. The key product in Goodman Fielder's growing export strategy is UHT (ultra heat treated) long life milk, sold under the Meadow Fresh brand - with growth over the past 5 years averaging between 15 and 25 per cent each year.
"As Asia in particular develops and seeks New Zealand food products, we're very well-placed because we're the New Zealand food manufacturer," explains Reidie. "It's growing incredibly rapidly and there's a huge changing demographic of the income profile in China; coming with that is a quest for quality food. There's so many boxes that we tick over there.
"We don't dry any milk [for infant formula]. That's a commodity game and that's where Fonterra's scale is significantly superior to anyone else in the market. We don't see an opportunity to go there, but we do see an opportunity to use our domestic dairy market expertise and develop options for Southeast Asia and China, but in particular China.
"In China, everything that is sold is a bring-in sourced from ourselves and manufactured in New Zealand or Australia.
"Our people on the ground are effectively an importing office whose brief is to grow the brands we're asking them to grow."
Reidie points to Meadow Fresh, "we don't have two brands, it's the same in New Zealand and overseas. So the challenge is to develop Meadow Fresh in a way that keeps it strong and appealing in New Zealand, yet also relevant to the Asian market.
"Our brand is stronger in New Zealand in the value-added category. We see developing value-added products for the Chinese market as a big part of our strategy going forward.
They might not be the same products as we see in New Zealand, but they're identifying needs for the Chinese market and then meeting them."
The key for Goodman Fielder growing in China will be developing the supporting infrastructure around their business locally.
Distribution had thus far proved effective and relatively issue free, but pressures on an ad-hoc supply chain can emerge as quantities scale up.
At present large customers are supplied directly, with smaller and more fragmented buyers serviced through local distributors.
Prospective partners are being investigated within China to improve both distribution and demand, with Wal-Mart said to be leading the pack.
"If that was to proceed, one of the things they see as an opportunity is what we make on top of their distribution system," says Reidie.
"Working with a customer base who understands the psyche of where we are coming from, but can also help us with their knowledge of that market. But things aren't radically different from when you're going through the alternative distribution methods."
Though demand for premium dairy products has presented opportunities for Goodman Fielder, the rising costs of raw milk globally have put pressure on the business.
"For us that means our milk input cost has gone up every quarter and that provides us a challenge as passing on those milk price increases has really been undoable.
"What we're seeking to do is grow our brands and we're trying to innovate and lead the market and do things differently.
"We've recently reformulated our entire Meadow Fresh yoghurt range and that range now has 25 per cent less sugar than is has previously so it's healthier, while also containing a larger proportion of fruit.
"We think we can make points of difference by doing things like that which will hopefully help the price equation go away a bit.
"It gives our brand a point of difference, which doesn't necessarily mean that we price up but hopefully enables us to sell less on promotion or gain volume on the back of that."
