King Island Dairy is a staple. Its logo, a Delft-esque blue-and-white design with a tall ship with billowing sails, decks the aisles of supermarkets. The brand is 120 years old, and one of the biggest employers on King Island, a tiny island of around 1500 people in the Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania.
King Island is owned by dairy giant Saputo, which also owns South Cape, Mersey Valley and Cracker Barrel, among others. For the last 10 months, Saputo has been searching for a buyer for the heritage brand, without success.
With no buyer on the horizon, the dairy will cease production. When it closes in 2025, 58 employees will be impacted.
“Saputo’s decision to exit King Island next year is very disappointing,” Tasmania Premier Jeremy Rockliff said in a statement.
Rockliff says the state government is “providing immediate support to the company’s workers, farmers, and the wider island community” but is also “working with the company in an effort to find a new operator for this iconic dairy”.
King Island Mayor Marcus Blackie was more optimistic, saying “[T]he second-last chapter of the book isn’t the end; there is the potential for someone out there who has admired King Island Dairy from afar to possibly come in and rescue the brand yet … but either way we will get through this together on King Island.”
