Strong growth for Yili's NZ operations
Chinese dairy giant Yili Group says its New Zealand operations are on track for strong revenue growth in 2025 after recording significant year-on-year growth for the first half of the year.
Redundancies are on the cards at Hokitika-based independent milk processor, Westland Milk Products.
The co-op is conducting a review of staff roles throughout Westland Group- made up of Westland Milk, Westland Shanghai and EasiYo.
It says the review is part of an overall programme to gain efficiencies and reduce costs to help restore the company to an industry competitive position and provide shareholders with sustainable returns.
Westland chief executive Toni Brendish says current payout predictions, while higher than for the last two seasons, are still not where shareholders need them to be.
“For some, we will still not be sustainable. We need to get our Group back to returning top value to shareholders.”
The review is likely to result in some staff redundancies but Brendish said she was not going to speculate on how many, or what positions might be affected, until it is complete and any affected staff informed. The review is scheduled for completion by the end of February.
“Westland Group has the capital investment, technical expertise, quality products and resources to recover from last year’s loss and get back to paying shareholders a competitive payout,” Brendish says. “But our current structure, including staff roles, is not set up in the best way to deliver the results we want to achieve.”
Westland says it will not be making any further statement until the review is complete and any impacted staff informed.
Fonterra shareholders say they will be keeping an eye on their co-operative's performance after the sale of its consumer businesses.
T&G Global says its 2025 New Zealand apple season has delivered higher returns for growers, reflecting strong global consumer demand and pricing across its Envy and Jazz apple brands.
New Zealand's primary sector is set to reach a record $62 billion in food and fibre exports next year.
A new levying body, currently with the working title of NZWool, has been proposed to secure the future of New Zealand's strong wool sector.
The most talked about, economically transformational pieces of legislation in a generation have finally begun their journey into the statute books.
Effective from 1 January 2026, there will be three new grower directors on the board of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR).