Milk-on-tap - it’s all about family
We’re thrilled about how our milk-on-tap has taken off in Hill Street stores across Tassie since its introduction in July last year. And we’re also thrilled that the three milk suppliers which supply our milk-on-tap are family-owned Tasmanian producers: Bream Creek Dairy, Ashgrove and La Cantara.
With a few hundred litres of milk per week sold by each store since July last year when our first milk stations were installed, we estimate at least 30,000 2L plastic bottles have been kept out of the waste system in this time. That’s a lot of plastic - thanks to our customers for embracing this system so enthusiastically!
For those who haven’t made the switch, all you need to do is purchase and fill up a glass bottle at the store and then bring back your clean bottle to refill next time.
The milk is full cream, pasteurised, and non-homogenised (meaning that the cream will rise to the top when left to stand).
The milk stations use a milk delivery system from Australian company the Udder Way, which makes 18L food grade kegs which are 100% reusable and recyclable, free of BPA and other harmful nasties. The kegs have a lifespan of 8-10 years and can be re-used 800 times. It’s estimated that each keg will prevent 7000 2L plastic bottles (that’s 302.4 kg of plastic) from being used and put into the waste system.
Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without the support of our wonderful milk suppliers, Bream Creek Dairy, Ashgrove and La Cantara.
Ashgrove, which has supplied our bottled milk for many years, also supplies our Longford store with milk-on-tap. Ashgrove has been family-owned since 1908 by the Bennett family. From small beginnings with a few sheep, a paddock of vegetables and a herd of dairy cows at Eddington Farm in the fertile plains of northern Tasmania, it’s now one of Tasmania’s most successful brands manufacturing award-winning cheeses, butter, cream and of course milk.
La Cantara is a more recent local success story. Genaro and Rosselyn Velasquez lease and operate a two-robot dairy in Smithton, running 100 mixed-breed cows over about 25 hectares. Originally from Venezuela and both veterinarians in their home country, Genaro and Rosselyn arrived in Australia in 2009 and fell in love with Tasmania’s North West coast in 2016. Their experience with animals led them to cattle and the dairy industry and in 2019 La Cantara Artisan Cheeses was born. ‘La Cantara’ is the Spanish word for a stainless-steel milk can. Today they produce a range of European and Venezuelan-style cheeses and supply milk-on-tap to our Devonport store. In April 2020 they were awarded the prestigious 2020 Fonterra Dairy Sharefarmer of the Year Award.
Down south our milk-on-tap supplier to our Dodges Ferry, Blackmans Bay and Sandy Bay stores is Bream Creek Dairy, also a Tasmanian family-owned venture. It was established in the 1950s by John Bignell on Stroud Farm, 70 acres of land at Bream Creek with a herd of 12 dairy cows. Today three generations of the Bignell family live and work off 2000 acres milking a herd of 800 Friesian cows, bringing fine artisan cheese and premium quality milk to the Tasmanian community under the Bream Creek Dairy brand.
Stay tuned as our Lauderdale, Newtown, West Hobart and South Hobart stores come on-line with milk stations in the next few months.
