In 1903 Eureka opened a wooden butter factory on a site in Hunter Road, then called Factory Road. Local farmers delivered their wholemilk to a creamery at Tauwhare, where it was separated, the cream then being delivered to the butter factory. The whey was then returned to the farmers, who raised pigs as an extra income. In 1907 it burned down, and was replaced by a brick building with its own separating room, with additional cream supplied from other nearby districts. In 1921 it burned down again, leaving just a shell. In 1923 a cheese factory was erected on the site, supplied in its first season by 1000 cows, later 1800. From milk delivered before 9am the cheeses, made in a day and each weighing 36 kilos were packed in crates and railed to Auckland. The factory closed in 1945 and since then has been used for the making of round hay barns, a farm storage shed, in 1970 it became a potato factory until 1978 when a local transport company used it as a depot. In later years it has also been used as a factory for processing ‘slink’ skins from dead lambs.
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