Waikato Business News November/December 2016

WESTPAC WAIKATO BUSINESS AWARDS
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS November/December 2016
27
Innovation Award winner - Coolsense NZ Ltd.
From page 26
traction we are getting in the
marketplace now.
The company’s products
have been manufactured to be
super robust using the highest
quality state of the art componentry
and materials - and
they look attractive. The colour
LCD control panels and
the electronic 'smarts' at the
heart of their unit are comparatively
easy to use and also help
to make them future-proof in
terms of quality assessment,
data collection, data logging
and evaluation of their own
performance and savings.
The system has an extremely
high energy efficiency
rating and depending on the
scale of the farm, Allan says
it can save farmers anywhere
between $4000 and $12,000
per year in electrical consumption.
It is also connected to
the internet and works as a
supervisory system by recording
when milking starts, when
it stops, what the milk chilling
temperature is and how long
it took. You can check all this
remotely and should any issue
arise the machine will text
alert you.
Tim Stace says “we’re
the big little start-up company
which has concentrated
on innovation to produce an
industry changing eco-friendly
chilling system.”
Snap chilling is said to half
the bacterial content of the
milk which in turn increases
the value of the commodity.
Milk bacteria spreads asexually
so one cell splits into two,
two into four and so on. The
snap chilling system captures
what is called the bacterial lag
phase of the milk which is the
short period of time before the
bacteria multiplies. Getting the
milk from the udder to the milk
tank takes about 60 seconds
and in that time the milk has
been snap chilled from 36 to
6 degrees.
For processors like
Fonterra it adds value to the
milk because bacteria are the
greatest cause of food deterioration
and temperature is the
greatest single factor affecting
bacteria growth. Snap chilling
allows them to produce better
quality products from the milk
allowing them to create higher
value products.
Allan says he was motivated
to create a system like the
Vari-COOL when he saw there
was going to be a problem
with the current milk chilling
methodology.
“There really wasn’t a
robust solution for NZ dairy
farmers to use alongside the
current milk vat asset and to
attain snap chilling with a solid
return on investment. That has
been the drive for me… to fix
the problem that lies within the
industry.”
From July 2018 New
Zealand’s dairy farmers have
to comply with the new milk
temperature standards. It is
generally recognised that
between 40-60 percent of New
Zealand dairy farms will not
comply with the new standards
without some degree of
upgrading their current equipment.
Coolsense’s current target
market is the dairy industry
and although they are not
offering the lowest price, once
their industry-leading energy
savings are considered, the
engineering robustness of their
design, and how comprehensive
the installation package
on offer is, then the 'Vari-
COOL' will quickly become
the standard.
Initially, the units were
principally designed for use
by larger dairy farm platforms,
however they have
now expanded the range to
cover a full range of dairy farm
sizes. And have the potential to
move into the wine and brewing
industries.
Coolsense NZ has an
authorised dealer network of
refrigeration specialist companies
throughout New Zealand
who install, service and monitor
the machines.
Proud Winner of the Westpac Waikato Business Awards 2016 – Planning & Strategy
Proud Sponsor of the Not-for-profit Award Category
Congratulations to all the Winners