Northcliffe-based Bannister Downs Farm has taken little more than a year to transform itself from a simple dairy operation into a supplier of locally produced fresh milk and dairy products to supermarkets, cafes and restaurants throughout the state.
Northcliffe-based Bannister Downs Farm has taken little more than a year to transform itself from a simple dairy operation into a supplier of locally produced fresh milk and dairy products to supermarkets, cafes and restaurants throughout the state.
In that time, the company has also received a flood of accolades for its range of products, as well as recognition for its innovative packaging and its tourism business, the Dairy Lounge Cafe.
Managing director Sue Daubney, who spearheaded the growth of the company, has also been acknowledged for her leadership, winning the Australian government business innovation award at last year’s Telstra Business Women’s Awards.
After establishing the dairy in 2000, Ms Daubney, along with husband Mathew, constructed the milk packaging facility in early 2005, located less than 10 metres from where the cows are milked.
Bannister Downs Farm products are now distributed throughout 75 IGA supermarkets, gourmet food outlets and farmers’ markets, with its milk supplied to 20 premium cafes and restaurants in Western Australia.
But like many agribusinesses and regional operators, maintaining a reliable workforce and a steady stream of permanent skilled workers has been the company’s number one challenge.
“I think in business, especially a business as dependent on staff as we are, it’s probably your biggest concern all the time,” Ms Daubney told WA Business News.
“People’s situations are constantly changing, or once they get comfortable in their areas, they get bored.
"Trying to keep that level of challenge, but also keeping some structure and stability, is the hardest thing to manage.”
Bannister Downs has aimed to hire predominantly local staff, and with the lack of job opportunities in regional areas, has found no shortage of candidates.
The company also has adopted a flexible approach to working conditions and hours, developing a roster system that allows employees to fit work around their families.
“In rural areas, there are a lot of women who haven’t got work, or work that is challenging enough for them because they have to fit in with school hours,” Ms Daubney said.
“There are also not a lot of job opportunities in rural areas. So we’ve kept our shifts as flexible as we can, and that allows us to get staff that wouldn’t normally be able to commit to work.”
With a total of 35 employees on the Northcliffe property, and six employees operating the company’s Perth metro distribution, merchandising and customer service arm, Ms Daubney concedes that Bannister Downs’ style of recruiting and staff management required extra time and effort.
“It creates a bit more work for us, but we try and keep very flexible. It enables you to get a better level of staff because they’re the sort of people that are juggling work in amongst a lot of other things,” Ms Daubney said.
Training staff has also proved a time-consuming challenge, according to Ms Daubney, with the majority of staff hired with little or no experience in the dairy industry.
And with the time and effort invested in training new staff, the focus on hiring predominantly local people not only supports the community, but also ensures permanency and lower staff turnover, with opportunities for staff to work in all facets of the business.
“We look for permanency, because we’re teaching skills – most of the people we employ have no previous experience, and so it takes a number of months to get them understanding the job,” Ms Daubney said.
“Once they’re comfortable in a certain area, if they’re interested in going a different way then we build on their skills, and it keeps them interested in the job.”
As the business continues to grow, however, the company has had to expand its recruiting options, advertising in Victoria, as well as locally, for an experienced full-time production manager.
Ms Daubney said that, a week after placing the advertisement in the local newspaper, she had only received one application for the position, so had decided to advertise interstate to cast their net across a larger pool of potential candidates.
This appointment will allow Ms Daubney to take a step back from the day-to-day running of the business and allow for her return to growing the company.
Bannister Downs aims to achieve 1 per cent of state’s milk market share – equal to selling two million litres of milk a year.
For now, Ms Daubney said the company would continue to distribute its products exclusively through the independent supermarkets, farmers and growers markets, in the interest of supporting independent and local businesses.
“Keeping in the ethos that we operate, we will continue to focus our energies on independent IGAs and farmers markets, which have been very supportive,” she said.
