Press Release

Northumberland Dairy Driven by Innovation and Quality Practices

Jun 6th 1999

By Duncan Matheson


Northumberland isnﾒt your average dairy. First of all itﾒs a co-operative, owned and operated by 375 members including 40 dairy farmers from seven different counties in central New Brunswick. It was formed in 1942, and has been an industry leader in innovation ever since.

Much of that innovation was and continues to center around a commitment to quality. Over the years, Northumberland has often gone the extra mile to ensure as high a quality product as possible. Now, the effort has become more formal with Northumberland Dairy working toward its HACCP designation.

Northumberland Director of Operations George Fuller explains that HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Program, is similar to an ISO quality control standard, but geared specifically toward food safety.

This constant striving for quality has resulted in the Miramichi, New Brunswick based dairy seeing both its plant and labs consistently achieving one of the highest government inspection scores in the Maritimes.

It is also one of the many reasons Northumberland Co-operative Dairy was Awarded the New Brunswick Quality Award for 1999.

The award is one more recognition in a history that is full of them ﾖ recognitions and accomplishments that speak to quality, innovation, leadership, growth and priorities that put employees and customers above all else.

While the co-operative has been around for half a century, a major turning point came a decade ago, in 1991, when it expanded its distribution capabilities by buying out two other dairies. This gave Northumberland the most extensive distribution network in New Brunswick, covering, in effect, the whole province, and offering home delivery to many major areas. In 1995 it expanded again, this time by erecting a new building tripling the size of their frozen food storage facility. These expansions, and the extra business they led to, also doubled the size of the workforce over the past 10 years, to 285 today.

In some respects, Northumberland is like the little train that could. While a very successful operation, it is only a fraction the size of its main competitors. But this hasn't stopped it from being a leader in its field. Consider that in 1997, Northumberland received a license from Environment Canada to use the Ecologo on its 4L milk bags. This is because it became the first dairy in Atlantic Canada to participate in the program, which encourages demand for, and, supply of, environmentally responsible product. Northumberland was also the first dairy to bring Atlantic Canadians milk cartons with a resealable screw off cap.

Northumberland was also the first diary in New Brunswick to introduce extended shelf life cream in the carton. Like screw tops, this has now also become a standard in the industry.

Northumberland has also seen steady expansion over the years, not only in size and distribution, but in products as well. It produces milk, butter and other dairy products plus fruit drinks at its Miramichi facility. New products recently introduced include Fat Free Sour Cream, Fat Free Egg Nog, and Northumberland Pink Lemonade. Aside from its own brands, Northumberland now handles distribution of 2,500 frozen food items, including products by Tropicana, Yoplait and Nestle. It is a challenging time in the dairy industry. Northumberland's major competitor was recently bought out by an Italian dairy giant, a move that took that competitor form being 20 times larger than Northumberland, to being 50 times bigger. Fuller acknowledges that it will be tough to compete, but that Northumberland has always been up for a challenge. "We have always been able to give shareholders a good return on their investment, and we plan to continue to do that by remaining an important player in the industry."

Fuller says to meet the challenge of more intense competition, they will look at updating their dairy technology, specifically technology that will give extended life to their products. "Weﾒre looking at what is called UHT, or Ultra High Temperature technology, that will allow milk and other dairy products to stay fresh for 60 days. This won't be much of a factor for our New Brunswick customers, but it will allow us to ship milk further distances, and it will also allow us to reduce wastage."

There are some interesting days ahead for the dairy business in New Brunswick. But for a co-operative like Northumberland, with a history that shows a preference for driving the milk truck rather than resting in the back, you can be confident it will remain a significant and ever innovative player.

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