Westgold is spreading its clean, green and healthy messages far and wide with its bold signage on three new milk tankers which will be on the road this month. 

The new Scania trucks will be the perfect mobile billboard for showcasing Westgold’s very clear message, “Plant-based since 7000BC”, recognising that the source of all milk is, and has always been, plants.  

The message will be very visible given that each of the Westgold trucks is on the road 24 hours a day /seven days a week, travelling around 200,000 kms a year.  

They are part of Westland Milk Products  28-strong fleet which every day collects milk from around 400 suppliers farming from Karamea in the north, to south of Fox Glacier, and east to supplier farms in Canterbury. Each truck carries loads ranging from 29,000 litres of milk up to 39,000 litres for the bigger units. 

Westgold’s General Manager Sales and Marketing Hamish Yates says it makes sense to use the trucks, which travel so extensively, to promote the “Plant-based since 7000BC” message. 

“As a company we are very proud that our award-winning dairy products are plant-based given they are made from the milk of cows grazing on the lush green grass on our suppliers’ farms. We want people to make the link from our tanker signage that the pastures they drive past around the region are the source of Westgold’s butter,” Hamish Yates says. 

The three Westgold trucks are among seven new additions to Westland Milk Products’ fleet this season. 

Both Westgold and the tanker drivers take huge pride in our distinctively designed and well-maintained trucks, the company’s Transport Operations Manager Kent Routhan, says. 

“It was very timely to put the Westgold signage on the new trucks before their launch at the start of the new dairy season this month. Each of our trucks is replaced every five years to ensure driver and public safety and efficiency. 

“The XT Scania trucks joining the fleet are high spec and designed for tough road conditions, which range from the state highways to gravel roads and farm tracks. Their design is advanced and from a safety perspective, they are exceptional,” Kent Routhan says. 

Rick Bryan, who has driven milk tankers for Westland for the past 28 years, reckons he has a dream job driving around the West Coast, one of the best dairy environments in the world and Westgold’s home. 

“Although I’m West Coast born and bred, when I started driving the tankers, I hadn’t been to Karamea. Now I have been all over the coast and each day or night’s drive is different,” he says.  

“I hope to have another 10 years driving in me, I love the work and also the company I work for. I would never be able to match a job like this anywhere. You can’t beat it,” he says. 

Rick Bryan’s favourite drive is along the Coast Road between Greymouth and Westport, particularly the return trip at dusk when he sees some amazing sunsets over the Tasman Sea. As a driver he treasures his relationship with the farmer suppliers he meets on his daily trips.  

Another who shares Bryan’s enthusiasm about life behind the steering wheel of a milk tanker is Chris Roberts, who retired from driving last year after 47 years with the company, 40 of those driving.  

He too values the friendships built up over years with the farmer suppliers saying it is a “pretty special” aspect of the job. And his favourite drive is up the Grey Valley and also north to Reefton. 

“I definitely miss it. I loved my time working for Westland. I only have good things to say about the place - the company, the managers, my co-workers, the famers and the job I had. It was awesome.” 

To learn more about Westgold visit westgold.com. 

For more information and interviews contact: 

[email protected] 

Diane Keenan +64 27 2353711 

About Westgold  

Westgold’s home is the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, one of the best dairy environments in the world. It’s where healthy free-range cows and quality grass combine to produce excellent milk and award-winning dairy products. More than 100 years after butter was first commercially produced on the West Coast, the food service and retail food brand Westgold was launched in 2004 – the culmination of perfecting our butter producing craft over generations. Westgold was rebranded in 2016 and launched into New Zealand domestic supermarkets – the same year it received the title champion butter at the New Zealand Champions of Cheese awards. Westgold butters have also previously won medals in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Its salted and unsalted butters won gold medals in the 2023 Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards. Westgold now sells butter globally in 18 countries and in 2022 alone it saw volume growth of 58% compared to the previous year. Westgold, is owned by Westland Milk Products, New Zealand’s third largest dairy processor.