A dairy processing factory has been part of the Koroit landscape since 1888 when the Koroit and Tower Hill Butter and Cheese factory was built.

In 1958, that enterprise grew when it took over the Grassmere Butter Company. In 1966, the partnership between Koroit and MG began. 

The move to MG came through smaller dairy companies, like the one in Koroit, wanting to stay competitive against bigger players in the milk industry.

Koroit was one of five Western District dairy companies that approached MG. Those companies brought with them a strong infrastructure base with factories in places including Koroit, Tandarook, Grassmere, Penshurst, Condah, Portland, Macarthur, Hamilton, Coleraine, Merino, Heywood and Casterton.

As the name suggests, MG began life in the north of Victoria. At a meeting at Katunga in 1949, the decision was made to form a farmers dairy co-operative. 

The first MG factory opened in Cobram in 1951. By the end of its first decade, the cooperative was sending over a million gallons of milk to local and Melbourne markets.

But the acquisition of the smaller Western District dairy companies in 1966 was to take MG to a position of even greater strength, with almost a 1000 new suppliers coming on board. The smaller factories around the district were closed down with Koroit chosen as MG’s flagship Western District factory.

Major extensions to the factory in 1996 and 2001 developed it into MG’s biggest milk processing factory. 

Saputo has agreed to divest itself of the Koroit plant after it buys it and other MG plants.

It gave the undertaking after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised concerns that Saputo would have too much control over the regional milk market if it was able to add the Koroit plant to its other regional plant at Warrnambool Cheese and Butter.