Sugar hit
OPINION: Winston Peters has described the decision to sell its brand to Lactalis and disperse the profit to its farmer shareholders as a 'short sighted sugar hit'.
To be fair, about the same time he resigned, advisory firm TDB had calculated that the 'mega merger' that formed Fonterra delivered dairy farmers less than 2.5% annual compound growth in revenue - well short of the 15% industry leaders had pitched to cockies pre-2001.
However, when Spierings departed, with nary a word, but with full pockets, the co-op faced a 20% drop in share value and a $196m loss for 2018, plus a forecast loss for 2019 that turned out to be a massive $605m loss.
