Bulla Dairy Foods is an Australian dairy-foods manufacturer best known for its cream, ice cream, yoghurt, sour cream and cottage cheese. Founded in 1910, Bulla has grown from a small cream business in Melbourne into one of Australia’s oldest and largest family-owned dairy companies, while remaining controlled by descendants of its founding families.

Bulla describes itself as Australia’s oldest family dairy company, and its current business remains owned and operated by descendants of its original founders. 1

Foundation: 1910

Bulla’s story began in 1910, when Thomas Sloan established the Bulla Cream Company in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne.

Sloan developed a method for producing thickened cream by pasteurising cream in open copper cans heated with wood-fired equipment. His brother William operated a dairy farm in Bulla, north-west of Melbourne, and supplied milk for the business.

The early Bulla operation was very small. Cream was transported around Melbourne by horse and cart, establishing the foundations of what would eventually become a major Australian dairy company.

The three founding families

Bulla subsequently became a business operated by three interconnected families: the Sloans, Andersons and Downeys. The company says descendants of the original founders continue to own and work within the business today.

This family ownership is one of Bulla’s defining characteristics and has continued across multiple generations.

Move to Colac

Bulla expanded beyond its original Melbourne operation during the early twentieth century. The company acquired a factory at Drysdale in 1914 and subsequently purchased land in Colac, in western Victoria.

By the late 1920s, Colac had become central to Bulla’s manufacturing operations. The company’s manufacturing heritage in the town therefore goes back almost a century.

Expansion into ice cream

Cream was Bulla’s original specialty, but the company gradually expanded into other dairy categories.

Bulla began producing ice cream in Colac in 1929. Ice cream subsequently became one of the company’s major product categories, alongside its traditional cream business.

Over the decades, Bulla expanded its portfolio into products such as:

• Ice cream
• Thickened cream
• Sour cream
• Cottage cheese
• Yoghurt
• Crème fraîche
• Cooking cream
• Other chilled and frozen dairy products

Today, Bulla’s product catalogue spans both refrigerated and frozen dairy categories.

Bulla’s modern portfolio is considerably broader than the cream business with which it began.

Cream

Cream remains one of Bulla’s signature categories. Its range includes:

• Thickened Cream
• Light Thickened Cream
• Double Cream
• Dollop Cream
• Cooking Cream
• Crème fraîche

Bulla continues to emphasize fresh Australian milk and cream as fundamental ingredients in its products.

Ice cream

Ice cream is another major part of the Bulla brand.

Its current range includes products under names such as:

• Creamy Classics
• Murray Street Ice Creamery
• Real Dairy
• Choc Tops
• Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Cones
• Sticks
• Splits
• Crunch
• Frozen Yoghurt
• Ice cream cakes

The exact range varies by market, with some products specifically identified by Bulla as export products.

Yoghurt

Bulla also produces yoghurt, including Australian-style yoghurt in flavours such as vanilla, strawberry, mango, blueberry and natural. 2

Cheese and other chilled dairy

The company has expanded into products including:

• Cottage cheese
• High-protein cottage cheese
• Sour cream
• Crème fraîche

This gives Bulla a presence across multiple sections of the supermarket dairy aisle rather than being solely an ice-cream or cream brand.

Bulla’s branding is strongly associated with Australian heritage, family ownership and dairy craftsmanship.

Rather than positioning itself simply as a mass-market food manufacturer, Bulla emphasizes its continuity with the original family business. Its corporate messaging repeatedly highlights ideas such as:

• Australian ownership
• Family heritage
• Fresh dairy
• Craftsmanship
• Quality
• Tradition
• Innovation
• Sustainability

The company describes its vision as “Our family craft the best of Australian Dairy to share with the world.” 3

Its long-running identity is therefore built around the idea that Bulla is an Australian family dairy business that has modernized without abandoning its heritage.

Australian provenance is particularly important to Bulla.

The company states that its products are made in Victoria, Australia, using fresh milk sourced from Australian dairy farmers. It says the majority of its milk comes from Western Victoria, one of Australia’s major dairy-producing regions.

Bulla’s manufacturing footprint includes multiple Victorian sites, with Colac remaining especially important to its production history.

This gives the brand a distinctive positioning in the Australian market: it combines a long-established local identity with the scale required to manufacture and export internationally.

One of Bulla’s most unusual characteristics is its continued family ownership.

Unlike many major food companies, Bulla has not become a subsidiary of a multinational food corporation. The business remains privately held by the descendants of its founding families.

Bulla says the same three Australian families have owned the business since 1910, now extending across six generations of family ownership.

The company therefore presents its corporate culture as an extension of the family itself. Employees are described as part of the wider “Bulla family”, while relationships, trust, cooperation and long-term thinking are emphasized as core values.

Bulla’s main manufacturing heritage is associated with Colac, Victoria, where the company has operated for most of its history since the 1920s.

According to Bulla’s corporate information, the company currently operates four manufacturing sites, including facilities in Colac and other parts of Victoria. A recent company statement reported more than 1,000 employees and exports to 28 countries.

The company’s manufacturing philosophy places particular emphasis on fresh Australian dairy ingredients rather than relying primarily on milk powder. Bulla says this is particularly important for the texture of its ice cream and the freshness of its chilled dairy products.

Although Bulla is strongly identified with Australia, it is no longer solely an Australian-market company.

Bulla exports dairy products internationally and has developed product ranges specifically for overseas consumers. The company’s international materials identify markets across Asia and the Pacific, among other regions.

Its export markets have included countries such as:

• Singapore
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Thailand
• Philippines
• Japan
• Hong Kong
• China
• South Korea
• New Zealand
• Fiji

Bulla’s recent corporate reporting has stated that its products are exported to 28 countries.

This international expansion is particularly significant because it allows Bulla to retain an Australian-origin identity while competing in markets dominated by much larger global food companies.

In Australia, Bulla products are sold through major supermarkets and independent retailers.

The company specifically identifies Coles, Woolworths and independent supermarkets as retail channels. It also operates a foodservice business supplying commercial customers.

Bulla does not currently sell its products directly to consumers from its own website; instead, consumers purchase them through retail outlets.

Sustainability has become an increasingly important part of Bulla’s corporate strategy.

The company has developed a sustainability strategy called “Sustainably Stronger, Together”, with areas including responsible supply chains, waste reduction, environmental responsibility and ethical business practices. 4

Bulla also emphasizes reducing waste and avoiding unnecessary or harmful manufacturing processes. Its sustainability approach is linked to its broader idea of preserving the dairy business for future generations.

The company’s supply chain is predominantly Australian for fresh dairy and many other ingredients, although it also sources certain specialty ingredients internationally.

Bulla occupies an interesting position in the Australian food market.

It combines heritage with mainstream supermarket accessibility. The brand is neither positioned solely as an artisanal boutique producer nor as a purely industrial commodity dairy manufacturer.

Its positioning can broadly be summarized as:

Australian family heritage + fresh dairy + quality + everyday accessibility.

The company’s longevity is a major part of its competitive identity. Bulla frequently uses its history dating back to 1910 as evidence of experience and authenticity.

Its “family dairy” positioning also differentiates it from major multinational dairy companies.

Historical details are based primarily on Bulla’s own corporate history and supporting company information.

Bulla is particularly notable because very few Australian food companies have maintained family ownership for such a long period while becoming a large-scale manufacturer.

The company’s story is essentially one of gradual evolution:

1910: small Melbourne cream producer
↓
1920s: manufacturing base established in regional Victoria
↓
1929: entry into ice cream
↓
20th century: expansion across Australian dairy categories
↓
2000s–2010s: modernization and international expansion
↓
Today: large Australian family-owned dairy manufacturer with international exports

Despite that transformation, Bulla retains the same fundamental connection to dairy production and the descendants of its founding families.

Bulla Dairy Foods is a more-than-century-old Australian family-owned dairy company founded in Melbourne in 1910, now headquartered in Victoria and known for cream, ice cream and other fresh dairy products, with manufacturing and exports extending well beyond its original Australian market.

Official sources

5

1. Our story | Bulla
2. Bulla Dairy Foods
3. Ice Cream, Cheese, Cream, Yoghurt, Milk in Australia | Bulla
4. The cream of the crop
5. Bulla Food Services | The Building Blocks of Bulla