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DairyPost Africa • May 2014
This points to a significant investment in
the raw milk procurement and extension
services function at Brookside. All the more
than 40 cooling and bulking stations have a
set standard of equipment: you will find this
very same equipment at Kaptalamwa cooling
centre in Marakwet, Engineer in Kinangop
and at Wumingu atop the Taita Hills.
Setting up a cooling centre is no cheap
financial feat, but in spite of the colossal
nature of the capital investment in the
centres, Mr. Gethi says there is no short
cut as to the set standard of equipment
Brookside uses to handle the milk.
“One area where we don’t compromise is the
provision of adequate protective clothing
and equipment to our staff. Periodically, we
conduct wellness examination of the staff,
based on the roles they undertake at the
cooling centres. For example, Brookside
conducts oscillatory testing on staff handling
milk cans. Our goal is to maintain healthy,
productive personnel,” Mr. Gethi said.
At Brookside, the milk collection, bulking
and transport business is a 24-hour
operation. The company’s tankers are on the
A Brookside Dairy tanker offloads at the company’s Ruiru
factory after arriving from Kiganjo bulking station, Nyeri.
road on a 24-hour basis, and you are likely
to find Brookside’s raw milk collection team,
say at Githongo in Meru or at Enoosaen
in Trans Mara, at work in the wee hours
of the morning. You would also likely
meet them collecting milk in one of the
Gatamayu evening routes or Ting’ang’a in
Kiambu county, or on a chilly morning at
Kapseret in Uasin Gishu county. It is a highly
co-ordinated process that works more like
clockwork.
At the end of the day, your product of choice
on the shelves has been managed with the
rigours that come with the highest quality
standards, from the time it was received
from farmers as raw milk, to the time you
lay your fingers on it on the shelves. It is a
heritage of high quality and standards for
East Africa’s largest milk processor.