Page 30 - Food & Drink Business Nov-Dec 2019

AUSTRALIA’S TOP 100 FOOD & DRINK COMPANIES 2019
SPONSORED BY
ABBREVIATIONS
O Overseas NL Non-listed P Publicly listed Pty Proprietary/private C Co-operative ▼ Revenue down ▲ Revenue up
FONTERRA
Fonterra’s “incredibly tough” year
1
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OPC
19353
07/19
19766
Miles Hurrell
2
FONTERRA is a New Zealand- based multinational dairy company owned by New Zealand dairy farmers with operations in Australia. It sources most of its revenue from the collection, manufacture, and distribution of milk and dairy products, and exports to 140 countries.
The company recorded a net loss of NZ$605 million, only its second loss in its seventeen-year history.
CEO Miles Hurrell said 2019 was “incredibly tough” for the co- operative, but it was also the year decisions were made to set the company up for future successes.
He was pleased with the progress of the three-point plan hatched after the company’s first ever loss in FY18 of NZ$196 million.
“You can see it in our improved cashflow, reduced debt and significant cost savings,” he said.
In August, Fonterra confirmed it would sell a portion of its 18.8 per cent share in Chinese infant formula manufacturer Beingmate for less than a third of what it originally paid. It couldn’t find
a buyer for its whole stake so its remaining shareholding would be “a financial investment only”.
Hurrell said China was one
of Fonterra’s most important markets and it was still “very much focused on the areas in China where we can succeed”.
In May, it sold Tip Top ice cream to Froneri in a deal worth NZ$380 million and in June, the purchase by Mars of a majority shareholding in German active nutrition business, foodspring, resulted in a $64 million windfall for Fonterra.
It recently announced it would sell its 50 per cent share in DFE Pharma, a joint venture with Royal Friesland Campina, as part of a strategy to gain more than $1 billion for debt reduction.
JBS
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O Pty
6066
12/18
5768
Brent Eastwood
JBS soaks up the sun
JBS Australia, a subsidiary of foreign-owned private company Industry Park, has kept its place at number two for the third year in a row. The company makes its revenue from the operation of meatworks and marketing of beef and small stock, by-products and cattle feed lotting, and is also involved in commodity trading and the production of smallgoods.
The ultimate parent company of JBS Australia is Brazil-based meat processing company JBS SA.
In January, its meat processing
business Primo Smallgoods covered 75 per cent of its Brisbane facility rooftop – 25,000 square metres – with 9700 solar panels. The completed 3.2-megawatt system will generate 4869 MWh of power in its first year and save 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 over 20 years, the equivalent of powering 20,032 homes for one year.
In March, JBS business Andrews Meat Industries (AMI) acquired a majority stake
in premium meat supplier White Stripe Foods to expand the company’s distribution
capabilities into new and existing export markets.
In October, AMI announced it would cut its energy consumption by 20 per cent with a 6000 square metre solar installation at
its Lidcombe facility in
western Sydney. The
836KW, 2300 panel
installation will
cover around 90 per
cent of the facility’s
roof and will generate
1202 Megawatt hours per year.
It will lower its emissions by more than 19,000 tonnes a year.
30 | Food&Drink business | November-December 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au