Coutts appointed chair-elect of Mainland Group
Fonterra has named Elizabeth (Liz) Coutts the chair of Mainland Group, the proposed divestment entity of the co-operative’s consumer business.
Fonterra's market share could fall from 84% to 79% over the next five years, says TDB Advisory, financial and economic advisors.
The ‘New Zealand Dairy Companies Review’ published in April says it seems likely that Fonterra’s competitors, with well-established relationships with farmer-suppliers and offshore customers and profitable operations, will have access to capital to permit them to continue growing at rates of about 10% per annum.
“If, as we assume to be the case, Fonterra grows by 2.5% per annum, Fonterra’s market share will fall from 84% to 79% over the next five years.”
It says the market share of NZ milk processing companies in 2016 was Fonterra 84%, Open Country Dairy 6%, Westland 3%, Synlait 3%, Miraka 1%, Oceania 1% and Tatua 1%.
“The NZ milk processing industry remains predominantly low risk with the large majority of volumes in commodities,” the report says.
“Competitors to Fonterra have improved the transparency of the sector’s risks and returns. The higher-risk strategies (Tatua and Synlait) are being adequately rewarded while at the other end of the spectrum OCD is generating returns materially above its (low-risk) cost of capital.”
Earlier the report says Fonterra’s NZ milk-processing competitors are now well established.
“The competitors’ milk volumes have grown from 600 million litres when Fonterra was established in 2002 to 2.9 billion litres in 2016.
“They now have a combined profitability (EBIT) of over $200m. Interestingly, Fonterra has grown its Australian milk processing volumes to 1.7b litres over the same period and in 2016 delivered a normalised EBIT on its Australian operations of $63m.”
Open Country Dairy is the benchmark commodity processor and Tatua the benchmark value-added processor.
“Both are focussed on their core businesses and delivering higher than expected risk-weighted returns to their shareholders and farmers. Both are paying some of the excess return to farmer-suppliers. When we normalise their cost of milk to Fonterra’s FGMP, their returns on assets in 2016 were 22% (Tatua) and 17% (OCD).
“Synlait is successfully shifting more of its milk into higher margin returns and has the access to capital and confidence from recent returns on assets of above 10% to invest in higher-value manufacturing assets that will continue its growth in volume and margin.
“Westland is the underperforming Fonterra competitor, and it is difficult to see that it could get shareholder support to invest more capital in higher-value processing assets.
“Westland has acknowledged its underperformance and we would expect little milk volume growth until it reduces its costs and regains the confidence of its shareholders.
“The balance sheets of Tatua and OCD show how significantly different their investment in long-term fixed-processing assets is.”
Tatua invests 250% more than OCD for every unit of milk processed, the report says.
“This additional investment is an indicator of the increased risk attached to a value-add strategy and underscores that a higher value-add strategy is not as simple as it sounds. It takes investment in long-term trusted customer relationships and investment in manufacturing assets that cost a lot more than is required for a commodity processor.
“If Tatua’s investment in manufacturing per unit of milk is applied to the other NZ dairy processors (including Fonterra’s NZ milk volumes), an additional $8b in capital would be required across the sector.”
The TBD Advisory report says given comments from the companies “we think it is reasonable to assume the current strategic positioning of the companies will remain the same over the coming few years”.
Rural retailer Farmlands has launched a new casual clothing range available across 42 stores nationwide and through its online store.
Federated Farmers says the health and safety changes announced this week by the Government represent the start of overdue reforms.
The Government is calling on rural New Zealanders to share their views on proposed regulations designed to improve the management of farm plastic waste.
For many urban New Zealanders, stepping into Pāmu’s Pinta dairy farm near Taupo last month was the first time they had had the chance to experience farm life up close.
After tasting 240 New Zealand made cheeses, judges have bestowed medals upon 199 of the entries.
Bay of Plenty’s top share farmers Andre and Natalie Meier are no strangers to the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards winning circle.
OPINION: At last, a serious effort to better connect farmers and scientists.
OPINION: If you believe Maori Party president John Tamihere’s claim that “nothing dodgy” occurred at Manurewa Marae during the last…