It's no secret that we went through some pretty tough times to go back to twenty seventeen eighteen nineteen, and we had to sort of do things differently.
And we've talked a bit about that.
Ninety five percent her business is exportant and always has been. And you know, there wouldn't be a day go by where we don't have some of you we're dealing with in some corner of the world somewhere. And what does that breakthrough teenology is what is the next you know, protein, amino mascid that is this, and milk that we haven't yet developed.
Jodore, Welcome to Shed Lunch, brought to you by Chasy's. I'm Helen Madison. Today we look at one of New Zealand's largest companies, Dairy co Op Fonterra, and in a moment I'll be going upstairs to speak with CEO Miles Huddle. But before we get started, here's some important.
Information investing and involves the risk you might lose the money you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. We also recommend breeding product disclosure documents before deciding to invest. Everything you're about to see and here is current at the time of Recording.
Welcome Miles, thank you for having us at HQ here with Fontier and Auckland.
Please are nice to have you here.
Helen.
Let's start at the beginning. I know you've been with Fontierra I think nearly twenty five years, is that right.
November six, two thousand.
Now you've had a number of roles, it would be fair to say in that time, which you'd expect. I think you've even been in Russia and Africa, all sorts of exotic places. Tell us a little bit about that journey to where you are today, and twenty eighteen is when you took the helm.
Yeah, what's been varied?
As you say, I've lived in a few places around the globe, heap of experience and exciting times. A few times that I remember fondly that have been a bit hairy at times as well, when you're get into some places that you may not wish to be in it again. But that said, you know that the experience that's given me been offshore with our customers, some of our key customers, some of our key markets, has been invaluable for me.
Coming back to New Zealand in twenty fourteen and was fortunate enough to sort of lead up the farm Sohols business it was, and getting close engaged with the farmer shareholders and ultimately given me the opportunity, I think in twenty eighteen to step into this role. So yeah, I mean it's been at a great career, as I say, as you say, twenty five years come this November.
So if we go back even further, were you brought up on a farm or did you have an inkling that you would be the CEO of Fterira one day?
Far from it?
No, I certainly wasn't born up in rural New Zealand. I was brought up in christ Church and got introduced to the dairy industry as I say, sort of late nineties and moved across in the year two thousand so, and my involvement with farming at that point was limited to the role you should expect in a corporate role within the dairy industry. And it wasn't, as I said, until twenty fourteen where I got back and was heavily
involved in a shareholder interface. Of course, been in a cooperative plenty of times, certainly those times and you're offshore, will you come back to New Zealand for workshops? Or meetings as what it may be, and there are opportunities at that point in time be going and spend some time on farm and I enjoyed those times actually, and I have fond memories and still keep in touch with with some of those farmers now that actually hosted me and at those times. And so that was I guess
my first for anto farming. But you know, how can you grow up in New Zealand without knowing the impact that rural New Zealand has on the economy anyway, So that was my involvement.
It's been quite a journey though, hasn't it. I mean, Fonterra today in twenty twenty five is probably quite a different company to what you knew right through that tenure, I imagine, and if we look at today, it feels like the change is more to a business to business relationship in terms of your customers. If we look at that compared to where it was, it had you know, more consumer focus in some ways explort obviously, always how would you describe that transition?
Yeah, but even if I go back to my early days in the industry, you have to remember that New Zealand went through through significant milk growth. You know, the early part of the two thousand and twenty ten, New Zealand was growing significant milk through that period, and so you know, I was involved at a time where you know, the phrase was any any.
Sale was a good sale.
And by that what we meant was we had so much milk coming at us in the international market. We were out there finding new homes with this milk all the time. And of course that meant you had you were in all channels, you're in all categories, you're in all markets, because as I say, every sale it was
a good sale. We're now you're in a situation where milk is no longer in that growth phase, and so therefore you can be a bit more selective around who you play with, where you play, what categories, and which channels, which is also brought about the change in our recent strategy around we're going to be more focused to you to the point you say, around our business to business because we believe that's where our future lies. It's where a competitive advantage has always been. We've also had just
had to be beyond that. When you think about that significant milk growth through those through those really part of the two thousands, so you know, it's evolving with both the dynamics of the company, the dynamic of the industry. You play in some of the geopolitical situation that we see ourselves in. You know, if you're not focused and targeted around where you think you're going to have the advantage, you know, you run the risk of being you know,
running a market if you like. And so from our perspective, all those things have played into our new strategy, which we launched late last.
Year thinking of geopolitical Donald Trump, now the president of the US, has talked a lot about tariff. So obviously we do and I think Fonterra sends product to the US. Any idea what impact that might have or is it too early.
Well, he's been vocal, i think, right through his campaign around what he's going to do with with tariff, and you've seen that play out recently with with Canada and Mexico and China. Some of the numbers that he's talked about different from what he talked about in the election and the election campaign that said, we always expected there would be some some changes to what we've probably experienced in the past in the past few years. So making
sure you understand and be prepared for. That is what we've been focused on as an organization. But also you've got to go back and realize, ninety five percent our business is exportant and always has been.
And you know, there.
Wouldn't be a day go by where we don't have some issue we're dealing with in some corner of the world somewhere. And so while this is on a larger scale than what we've ever seen probably for quite some time, Yeah, we know how to deal with these things. And so it's about being diversified and how you go to market diversified in your custom relationships globally, making sure you're agile enough, you've got a strong balance sheet to withstand things that may be throw it at you. So so you know,
not a great outcome. And what he talks about around twis ultimately our perspective is you know that the American consumer is probably going to be the loser and all of this, you know that the cost will clearly be passed on. Already I've seen that play out in the last couple of days with Canada and Mexico.
So not ideal.
If everyone's in the same boat, I mean, it doesn't change our position globally but it's certainly something that we need to think about and be concerned about as we head into I think a different world era than what we've been in previously.
Thinking of markets, I know, China has always been I think your largest. We've just talked about the US, but there must be other opportunities Southeast Asia. What would you say are the emerging markets and your core markets?
At the moment, China sort of speaks for itself, and it's been roughly a third of our book for quite some time, and that comes and goes a little bit, and the economy hasn't been great there the last couple of years, but we're seeing that re emerged and so so again talk about that roughly a third of our book. You know, we see you free trading group with the likes of the United Kingdom starting to really sort of come into its own and we're making some great progress there.
North America, we've talked about that, but that is a good market for us. But remember, you know, the large developed economies of Europe, North America, you know, India are very protected when it comes to the to dairy access and we don't get we don't get free access into these countries from a commodity perspective, so it means we've got to think differently anyway, and we have done for
quite some time. So it's around where what is the nutritional value of the products we're trying to send, and what are the customer relationships where they wanted something unique that we have, whether it be from an intellectual property, from a nutrition perspective, or even from the wavy farm. And so bringing those three things together around and using
that to access markets outside of the commodity sphere. But then you talk about Southeast Asia minutes our backyard, it's you know, we see huge prospects through there and continue to see prospects. We've been those markets again for for a number of years. In it they don't get a lot of mention. I think, you know, places like Vietnam. It's one of the largest growth stories for us in the last couple of years. There's one hundred million people
in Vietnam. People sort of lose sight of that, and it's just around the corner from Olpispeitre.
So they've got a rising birth rate still and like say.
The West, yeah, more than the West, but certainly slowed down from what you would have seen in the past decade. So not not not China stats or Japan or the weird, but not also the growth rates that you see in the likes of Africa. We still see significant growth. Middle East and Africa birth rates are still continued to grow a significant rates. So it's slowing down from where they have been, but still off a very high base.
Is it infant formula or the whole spectrum? What what sort of ingredients and the like are we thinking?
So, you know, our focus around the ingredient space is mainly in that sports and active lifestyles and the adult nutrition. We're not on the pediatric I mean, we supplied some pediatric ingredients, but we decided quite some time ago that we weren't going to focus on pediatrics and our focus was, as I say, the sports and active lifestyles, the medical nutrition, and the healthy aging. And so we see those as
growth categories as those populations. To you to the point you made, as those populations start to well, birth rates start to decline, you know, the population is moving into the into the I guess the middle aged categories. That what we call it, and so you know, developing products to suit the lifestyles of those people.
What is the future you think for the dairy broadly for New z not just Fonterra. We were always known as a pretty hefty dairy producer. The world has changed. Where do you see things going? I mean, will we be known as we were previously as a dairy producer? Well, how do you see that changing with you know, alternative milks, tariffs? Yeah, the world's a different place.
Well, the world is a different place. But I think what we've seen even in the last two or three years and even go back through through COVID, you know, the importance of the rural sector plays in New Zealand, the importance of the dairy sector that plays in New Zealand. Will I think we'll continue to play out well into the future. And we've seen that play out now with
pretty healthy pricing. And so while there is you know that the tariff position, you talk about geopolitics and play you know, the rise of alternative products despite that, you know, we've seen the milk price, our forecast milk pricess you'll
be the highest that will ever pay. And so the future is and that's against the backdrop of I think a growing population globally, a rising middle class, throughout some of those Asian economies that we refer to, which is, as I say, as our backyard, and people wanting to know where their product comes from and how it's farmed.
And I think we have a unique proposition here in New Zealand where predominantly cows are outside, they're grazing on the pasture, they're taking advantage of the sun on the rain we get in this country, and that's something that is I think is quite unique on a global scale at scale.
And that's the other point.
There are always pastor of farming systems around the world, but it's scale. Very few people can do that, and so when you sort of marry those things up together, it's a unique proposition that very few of anyone can do and so that I think has a great future for the industry as a whole.
We're really good at producing milk products, if you like. But then it's as you sort of said before, it's a secret source of what we do with the oos ingredients and the value adds stuff. How good are we extracting the science and the formulas all that sort of thing. Is that something that I mean, obviously Frontier has pursued that, but I mean in New Zealand, will that change, you know, our focus from being a producer to someone who's got a more value add in there.
I think there'll always be a combination of both. And you know there's a lot of new I say new, but you know the last sort of five to ten years, a lot of new entrance to the dear industry here in New Zealand through through the deregulation of.
The industry back twenty odd years ago.
And so you know a lot of those people come in the early days and make commodities and that would probably make sense to get to get a foothold. But as things evolve and you get stronger customer partnerships that you know, they play on the same position that we do around the pasta system and put some effort in time and effort into things like innovation. I can see that continue to evolve in New Zealand holding quite a strong position when it comes to innovative dairy products.
Let's look then at the new strategy and the ingredients business first. I mean there's the food services which I think is more restaurant around the world ingredients and so what are we talking how would you describe what that business starts.
Yeah, so I refer to that that aging population and and you know, you go, you go to a country such as Japan, you know, and you know that their population is age and I think that's that's well documented and and they're relatively well off by global standards, and so you know, consumers are looking for something that can
can make their life healthier, life goes longer. So so of course they get out and they do a bit of exercise, and we see that in the Japanese population, but they complement that with also their their their diet and so they also have a wonderful diet around seafood and those sort of things. But they're starting to add things like additional protein into their diets and and that's
exactly where we play. How can we support them by adding more protein, more calcium into their diet that may they may not get by consuming the general products that they that they consume. And so you know that for us is right in our wheelhouse around you know, healthy, aging, sports and active. Last then you get into the other end of the spectrum where you know people are consuming you know, medical foods. They can't they can't take anything
through their mouth. Andy may have some issues with swallowing or and so you know, how do they ingest something that is good on the gut, but it gives them the high protein content that they need to sustain a longer life. And so developing products at a very high top of the pyramid, if you like that. The it's a it's a niche area, but it's a growing area
again with aging populations. You know, health issues globally, and you think about something like North America that have got a few health issues in certain areas, and you know, we can come up with products to support them, working with those multinationals that have very strong relationships with maybe the medical or the hospital areas in the North America.
So that's that's certainly one area. And then at the commodity and we'll always have some commodity products to support, you know, underpinning their milk price that we need to pay a farmer, our farmercyelders. But you know, volatility, which didn't exist fifteen twenty years ago in this industry is here and it's rife. I mean, prices will go up and down quite significantly. And so how is there an
opportunity for us to take advantage? If you like of making some cash out of that volatility to support again as you older, so's there's a financial play in that in that in that position as well. And then the last piece when you talk when you talk about ingredients is around how we make the products, and it's it's you know, a truck goes on farm and collects the milk and drives down the road, dump dumps at at a factory, it goes in as white milk, and it
turns up as a product anywhere along that spectrum. We believe there's some significant technologies that we can start to bring to a manufacturing process that both reduce costs but also think about new products that you may be able to develop. So all of that encompassing into what we believe is a strong ingredients proposition that that really I think we just scratching the surface of it. If I look through history, how the potentials as ends.
Just thinking we'll we'll jump to food service in a moment, but just thinking about R and D. That's what it sounds a lot like. And as you say there's lots of potential, does that mean that the company would be spending more in that area? Given you know what you're trying to achieve.
Yeah, we've wrapped up our R and D spend quite significantly in the last few years. And so again there's a spectrum of that. There's sort of the near term, you know, how do we adapt a product that's been developed in Palms and North at a research center many years ago. How did that get adapted into to suit the palette or the consumer and say China or the or the consumer in South Korea. And so there's there's this sort of short term application work that we do.
But then there's also what does that breakthrough technology? Is what is the next protein or amino acid that is this and milk that we haven't yet developed, And there's a lot of work that goes on and pumps the North every day around our researchers that start to think about that, and so we'll continue to invest in that. And you referred before around fermented boks and some of these sort of things. You know, we you know, we believe that will play a part in the future. We're
in the spectrum of of consumers. Is it going to be at the at the you know, the consumers of white white milk end of you know, putting on their sereal in the.
Morning or is it or is it going to be those.
At the medical nutrition And we probably think more towards the medical nutrition. And therefore, you know, how do we understand how that technology plays out? So, yeah, we are investing heavily in those areas. In addition to as I say, you know, how do how do we make sure that the that the next pizza, cheese, you browns consistently and stretches consistently, things things that the consumer just expects.
So food service, then as I understand that that's more like restaurants around the world, and maybe cream mozzarella tell me, is that the key things that they're after?
Yeah, predominantly and and so cream is sort of the hero product, if you like, in in the Chinese market.
I the eleven varieties of.
Cream, right, yeah, there are and and so you know, maybe for you and I you look at it and taste it, and and they may seem the same, but but the applications are different. And so you know, you might you might use a cream to make a past the sauce, or you might use a creams that goes on on a on a on a sponge cake, and they are different creams. And then there are creams that go into tea and into coffees, which scones which I used differently, And so making sure you've got the right
product for the right application. Of course, if you think about you know, a large bakery chain, you know, you know, for them, it's around through put, it's around usability of that product, it's around yield. You know, they make a cake, how do they ensure that the cake stays a big if that's the big in the cabinet and doesn't sink over time, over a couple of hours. And so you're
developing creams to support that. And China has been a wonderful market for us probably in the last seven or eight years in the main but but it's but it's doing very well. But how do we then replicate that throughout Southeast Asia? But but we're planned it sort of
the again the top of the perimid. We're playing with consumers that have got a little bit of disposable income, mainly in that eastern seaboard, and so how do you make sure you can replicate that with consumers that may not have that cash and so coming up with cheaper products if you like that can go maybe into sort of more rural or inland China, or into some of those Southeast Asian economies that haven't quite got the GDPP capital that China has and that top end. So again
it's it's it's evolving the products to suit. Then then of course you talk about pizza cheese again it's similar markets, the western style dies that you see starting to emerge through throughout Southeast Asia and into China. But again what why not into the United Kingdom again with with with our free trade agreement and we've got you know, very similar sort of taste profiles the way that the British consumer consumes as we do, so we think we've got
something to offer there and in that regard. So it's around just identifying your markets and identifying the categories in which you want to play some miles.
If we think about where you're going with the consumer business, it's been well documented that it's possibly an IPO or a trade sale, and we're also talking consumer in Fontira, Oceania and spread Lanka businesses. Once that's all done and dusted at the moment, it's a bit of market sensors, so we can't go into the detail. But once that has happened, what sort of aspects are you thinking you'll divest that money into.
As you say, we're in the process and the team are running fast on that process around the dual track now. But an IPO or a trade sale, of course, the outcome of that will determine what the proceeds look like and what we do that. But we set our strategy last year. We set our strategy last year and focused on as we've talked about the ingredients business and our food service business, you know, digitizing or or upgrading our
operations facility. We've also talked about sustainability, so there's some significant care will spend that is already peaked for those.
Things that aside, it'd be nice.
I think there's some some proceeds that are that are remaining and the decision will.
Have to be made.
It's too early to talk about what that looks like yet.
But we've also said and we're required to seek a shoeholder vote at the point in time when we are at a stage of IPO or trade sale or something a variant thereof, and at that point in time we'll have to give some indications to a shoeholder around what those devestment proteins may or may not do so, So it's too early to talk about that in any detail other than you know, we do have a strong strategy now that that's clearly focused on what we're going to be good at, where we are good at, and what
we're going to focus focus on going forward. That'll need some capital as will allow sustainability initiatives, but but we'll talk to our farmer sholders at that point in time.
Yeah, sustainability is a big one, and it's taking a bit of a back seat with what's happening in the US and the like. But I think for Scope three and all the things, being a multinational, it's something obviously you know you've got to keep up with. I know that you've got the pilot farm in Taranaki, you're looking to get to zero. But also I think you announced only a few days ago a sort of electrification program
one hundred and fifty million I think it was. So we're talking chiling EV tankers and we're talking about boilers that were cold going to electrode. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Yes, So that you made a comment there that things are gone on the back border with what's happening internationally, and while that may or may not be the case, these decisions for us are long term and take a long time to come to fruition. And so you know one hundred and fifty odd million that we announced last week, you know they're going to take three four five years to really be fully implemented. By the time you procure, you you can only pull a site down in the
off season, all these sort of things. So if we were going to run a political cycle or you know, run with the political sentiment of the day, you would be going to know where we're actually going to get on with this stuff. But there's also another factor that's often missed through this is there's a security supply.
Piece in there.
So sustainability certainly is a key driver and a key part of it, but security of supply, and what I mean by that is that we may run the risk of actually not actually having cold to put in our drives and into our boilers at some point in time if there is no cold, because there's no resource consents to do it. Things like we've also seen the natural gas issues that we've seen and he's in in the last couple of years. I mean, it's been very tough to try and manage our business in the last year
or two through that situation. So how do you try and reduce the risk or reliance on some of those other things that that may not be on the ticket or may not have been on the ticket to replace immediately. So we need to continue to focus on that, I
think irrespective. But again we talk about scope one and two, which is predominantly our boilers and our ev fleet, sorry, our tanker fleet, which we are making some plays there, but the vast majority of our missions is a cooperative are behind farm gate one percent I think are behind
gate farm gate and predominantly it's methane me saying. And so we've got a partnership there with the government, the AGRA zero in Z partnership, and we've got to see that move at pace to move from ideas and concepts businesses they're investing in, and they've invested in a number
of businesses already globally in the early startups phase. How do we move that into mitigants, How do we move that into into adaptation and getting to it getting our shareholders to a point where they've got some tools they can use now or in the relatively near term to actually go about get on top of some of this methane issues. So that's where the focus on on agrazera and Z will be. And and please with the progress that that's making already.
Are we going fast enough? Though it so hard nut to crack.
It is a hard nut to crack, but I think we are. And the reason I say that is because you want to get this thing right, and you're playing with the bol logical system of a car, you get ahead of yourself and start to cut corners and not
do the things properly and do the trials correctly. And the implications on the on the animal, the implications on the milk, the implications on the on the on the land, the implications on the on the final consumer, all those things you really want to make sure you do properly because you only get one chance at it. So I think we are doing it right. You know, we could always go faster, but it's it's it's as I say, you need to, you need to raw that against the
risk of going too far. So I'm pleased with the progress that the team are making. But you know, twenty thirty is not that far away. Is the first stake in the ground. So I'm as I'm pleased with with where that where farmers are at as well, they're becoming more efficient without some of those those tools, and so I think we should also acknowledge that.
Yeah, and it would it be that overseas someone might come up with something that would be helpful or is it really we are focused here because we have them, you know the biggest.
Well, methane is a global issue. Agricultural methane emissions as a global issue. We have a unique parts of system, which we talked about before, and so some of the tools that are being developed have not been developed to support a farming system that cows are outside. And so making sure that we can adapt if there are some technologies that have developed overseas for different farmsism, how can we adapt to New Zealand systems so that egg zero are also tasked worth.
Doing that also?
And so I see that is another way hopefully to solve in the big issue.
Looking ahead, there's always challenges and businesses you've said, you know, COVID, energy, geopolitical, whatever it might be. What do you see for twenty twenty five anyway, the main challenges are head forth on.
Terra you know, I think the geopolitical landscape that we see ourselves, and you know, we've been dealing with us, as I say, for a long long time. But yeah, the situations planning out in Ghars, of the situation that's been playing out in Ukraine, you know, the elections that we've seen in North America. All these things you know, have have seen more come to light, I guess in
a relatively short period of time. So making sure we're nimble enough for that, having a strong balance sheet to withstand any shocks that come our way, really strong customer partnerships, and so despite all these things that going around us, you know, people still need to eat, people still need to consume, and if things get hard, you know, having the wrong relationships and place globally could sit you back.
But if you've got these partnerships, the custom partnerships that have been around for a long long time, they will stand us in good stead. We believe to get us through. And then you know, it sounds simple, but the diversification of our markets. You know, as you know, while there's some markets that we may struggle to deal with sometimes because it can be a little bit tough and getting cash out of them or they may speak a different language,
whatever it may be. You know, just having that the boots on the ground to be able to deal with those markets and those customers because at certain times you need them. And so that's important for us and something that's helped us to date.
In terms of investors, for Cheesys and investors anyway. I mean, I probably should explain that there are the two types of Fonterra shares. Is the co op sheares if CG I think it is, and then you've got the Fonterra sha hold a fund with the if S if threct fund, which is probably what most shares these investors will be thinking about. Obviously, investors always look at the outlook and where a company is going. China obviously being talked about a lot. You've got the farm gate price, those sorts
of things. The outlook. I think you gave some guidance back in December and it would seem fairly, as you say, record highs for that farm gate price. Is there anything else that's helpful for investors to understand in terms of you know, where a company might be headed.
I mean, look, it's no secret that we went through some pretty tough times. You go back to twenty seventeen, eighteen nineteen and we had to sort of do things differently, and we've talked a bit about that, and you know, as a result, our shear for us took a hit and probably right rightly so.
But but hopefully in the last two.
Or three years, you know, we're showing our investors, we're shown our shearholders, we're shown that the unit holders that you know we stand up and say we're going to do something, we get on and do it.
We are delivering.
Our performance has shown that we're delivering and despite a record high milk price, you know, earnings and the earnings persh year guidance that we've got out there is also pretty good. We've we've increased our dividend policy, which also shows that that there's a there's a half decent yield there as well. So all those things hopefully give some confidence to to to the sharholder community that we're here for all our stakeholder groups, which includes farmers, unit holders.
Clearly the New Zeald public have an interest in what we do and Wellington obviously like to take a bit of interest from time to time. So you know, we understand the role that we play. But but you know, hopefully the foremanths to date, the clarity of our strategy and where we're heading gives that confidence that UNI holders and shoolders have in their business.
So your March results are coming soon, and who knows, we can't expect too many surprises, but you're pretty confident that things are steady in tracking along.
Yeah, so that finished over the weekend the thirty. The end of January was the end of the half years, and so yeah, we're expected to come out in mid March with what those results look like. And so yeah, there's nothing to get away from our guidance that we've got out there at the moment of forty to sixty cents and a milk price of ten dollars mid point.
I think farmers are a bit happier now from what from all accounts, as you know, as you say, you're sort of a public farmer. Everybody's got an interest in Fontierra kind of thing, I know, with the partnership with Cheeseys has with Fontira obviously, now farmers can trade their years on Cheesya's and do it on their mobile and have a more going there. Have you had any feedback about how that's been going and it has changed for for how to think about their business.
Yeah, you know there's a broad spectrum. When you got eight or nine thousand year old that there is a broad spectrum. And I suspect they one or two farms out there that still don't have a mobile device, but we'll put them aside for the moment. But but you know, the feedback I've had is that the simplicity of it, the visibility, I think, the visibility without them to sort of get back at home at night and open their
their their laptop or their PC. And so the visibility and the flexibility I think is something that that they're that that that that they're enjoying. And so you know, they've been asking for for more of these things. Their shareholders have been asking for for you know, how do they become more mobile? How do they do two things
at once? How do they walk around the farm? Because that's you know a lot of these a lot of these farmers they got into farming for a reason for the lifestyle of actually getting out there doing been out there with their cows and been out there on the on on the land.
But how do they do.
That and actually keep keeping touch and so that the more we can come up with tools and ideas like this for them are the better. So yeah, world done to shares, He's for doing it.
Miles will end it there. But I've got one last question for you. And you've been in the top job, if you like, for probably more than five years now, it's coming up seven.
Is that right close to in August?
Yeah, you're obviously sticking around. You've got more to achieve. It does sound like what excites you about the future.
Yeah.
I mean there are very few jobs i think in New Zealand that had the span that Fontira does. And so you know, I'll go to a barbecue in the weekend and someone's got a view on Fontier and that's that's that's great. You know, the role we play in rural New Zealand and the decisions that we make in this building around around the world every day have an impact on rural New Zealand. That's something that that I'm
quite excited about. And while it doesn't say we have a a lot of influence in Wellington, you know that a lot of the decisions we make will so can have an outcome also from a political standpoint, So how do we try and influence some of the decision making for the right outcome for we believe in New Zealand, but also from our farmer's shielders. So you know, those things do excite me. And as I say, seven years
come August and I'm silly, I'm still enjoying it. And until my wife will my cheirmen tell me otherwise.
I'll stick around.
Thanks Myles, I really appreciate you giving us the time today, and thanks everyone for tuning in. You can listen to Shared Lunch on whatever podcast apps you favor, and you can also see us on YouTube. Thanks for joining us, and leave us a rating and tell us what you'd like to hear next. Ma TWA