Are we seeing vast amounts of pride, hubris, and generalised w*nkspeak at odds with commercial success?
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/meat-...-creating-buzz
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Are we seeing vast amounts of pride, hubris, and generalised w*nkspeak at odds with commercial success?
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/meat-...-creating-buzz
The SFF agm was held at the Distinction Hotel,and the afternoon tea was held at SFF head office which was unfinished on 11th May..
I thought both were fantastic.Really impressed with the modern interiors while the historic character was retained.
Thanks for the link GTM 3442.
I don’t think so. Times are changing and primary products producers have to change with the times to survive, whether in meat, fish or fruit.
I like what I’m seeing from SFF in this regard, well supporter by very healthy annual dividends.
A very happy holder with SFF being nearly 25% of my NZ shares portfolio. It certainly has been pleasing during the market volatility in the last few months, while SFF has continued to perform very well indeed :-)
SFF are trying to transition from a "meat" company to be seen as a "food" company, with a larger consumer focus. Times have certainly changed, but they needed to - and certianly the furtherest down this track of the larger competitors - ie Alliance, Affco, ANZCO.
They've long tried to engender pride in the brand/company. In the past, very few would come from elsewhere to work in the meat industry, or in Dunedin. Now they have talent coming from other industries - as with most of their exec team. Part of this is culture, brand and workplace.
However........IMO there absolutely does become a tipping-point. My understanding is that Head office numbers have expanded hugely - and have to question how much all of those add-value to the company, and cover their salary and then some. They are doing some good things, but can definitely get to a stage where they believe too much of your own PR and marketing dept spin (and sometimes HR dept), and this has been seen in the past in NZ in the meat industry, and in lots of other industries and companies.
The thing is, profits have been good/increasing so it increases such "hubris". I know a director of another meat company who said the SFF result last year was "good, not great". Other companies have been making very good/record profits, albeit limited public info. Eg Blue Skies was forecast to make $25m EBITDA for the current FY, ANZCO made their best profit for several years/ever and Alliance made a decent profit despite a few issues.
In short, everyone has made very good profits, at least in the least year or so. Procurement tension has eased signifcantly - and probably one of the big changes.
The question really is how much of SFF profits have been from their own performance or market/procurement conditions. SFF have about 30-33% of beef processing, and hear beef margins remain "super". The big difference from SFF of old is the lack of LT debt - and simply not having to make decisions driven by need for cashflow, short-term focus and can now fund initiatives - some will be good, no doubt some won't be so good....
Back to the "hubris" etc, the test will really comes when things swing the other way, and have a bad year or two. Then might get more "back to basics".
Thanks SB. Great post
Free for all farmers and shareholders. Looks like a pretty good programme.
Plate to Pasture Farmer Conference 2022 | Silver Fern Farms
farmerconferenceagenda-externallink.pdf (clickdimensions.com)
While not optimising plant throughputs, no pricing pressure on procurement and also takes pressure off coldstorage and shipping in the meantime.
Definitely issues with Omicron and sickness still out there. One beef plant in the lower North Island canned their night shift last week due to absentism/illness and even had no day shift for a couple of days.
Staffing issues slow cow kill - Markets - Beef and Sheep, Trends - Farmers Weekly
Carnage elsewhere - but SFF (and the USX) sail on almost unaffected. The lack of liquidity can be frustrating at times....
But SFF actually finished about 2% UP for the week.....:cool: