Devondale, Coles sign 10-year dairy deal DAIRY producer Devondale has signed an exclusive, 10-year deal with Coles to supply the supermarket giant with milk products. Devondale, which is owned by Murray Goulburn Co-operative Co Ltd, said under the deal, the company will provide Coles' NSW and Victorian stores with private label and Devondale-branded pasteurised milk. Devondale plans to spend $120 million on the construction of two processing plants in Sydney and Melbourne to produce pasteurised milk, and says the processing investment is the country's biggest since the dairy industry was deregulated in 2000. In announcing the deal on Wednesday, Devondale managing director Gary Helou said the deal locked in healthy profits for Australian dairy farmers. "The daily pasteurised milk segment is currently mainly supplied by foreign owned companies that repatriate their profits to overseas shareholders," he said in a statement. (The deal) is expected to lock in returns that will be paid to farmers through higher farm-gate prices. The contract, which kicks in July 2014, also means Coles will return Devondale cheese products to its shelves.