Page 34 - Food & Drink Magazine May 2021

REAR VIEW
We ask industry
leaders five questions
about th5eir working life. This month we
talk to Birol Akdogan
from Murray River
Organics.
The fast
1TELL US ABOUT YOUR lead the turnaround of a paper/ CURRENT ROLE. printing equipment business, In March, I became the CEO which had around $500 million
and managing director of in turnover .
✷ ADVERTISER LIST
Murray River Organics (MRO) after joining the company as CFO in September last year.
MRO is an ASX listed organic food company that is evolving from a farming dried vine fruit company to an organic and better-for- you FMCG food business.
Each year, our Sunraysia facility, which utilises biomass energy, processes thousands of tonnes of dried vine fruit for export and domestic markets.
A strong point of difference for us is our strategic procurement team, which sources organic ingredients from global suppliers.
Our Dandenong plant is an agile and modern facility that manufactures a variety of MRO branded FMCG products including our award winning organicmueslirange.
MRO represents an amazing opportunity for those of us who believe that food sourced from sustainable and regenerative farming is the future.
2WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? Early in my career as a CFO,
I was incredibly fortunate to
The company was more than $100 million in debt. I was able to work with the management team to reduce that through a combination of improved working capital management, investment in higher returning products, and innovative financing solutions.
3
Once you achieve buy in and the requisite trust that flows with it, then you can be absolutely sure that your leadership team will risetoanyoccasion.
TELL YOUR 25-YEAR- OLD SELF?
Believe in yourself more – it’s going to be ok.
Change is a constant, and you can’t plan for everything, but you can learn to be flexible, adaptable and most of all resilient.
Everyone is far stronger than what they really know.
I see MRO as having a huge potential to grow, and it is my absolute privilege to lead MRO’s dynamic and enormously talented team. My goal is to grow the company into a $200 million a year turnover business within five years. As such, I want us to be a destination choice for people wanting to join the organic and better-for-youfoodsector. ✷
49 Inside back cover 55 53 92 21 Gold Peg International Pty Ltd 31
WHAT WAS YOUR
YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE?
GS1 Australia
HACCP Australia
Hally Labels
Hanna Instruments Hawkins Watts Australia Heat and Control
BIGGEST MISTAKE AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN? Not achieving buy in – it’s a tough and at times judgement based approach, but if you don’t have buy in from your key leadership, then it’s very hard for everyone to pull in the same direction.
IMCD
ITW Zip Pak Australia Matthews Australasia MTA Australasia
Nord Drivesystems Ozcor Pty Ltd
Roxset Australia Sunny Queen Australia
4
WHAT WOULD YOU
A S Harrison & Co 23 ADM Australia Pty Ltd 15 AMS Instrumentation & Calibration
5
WHAT IS ONE GOAL
5 45 33 29 41 7 Cover 25 10 Back cover 27 11 17 13 SWA Water Australia Pty Ltd 2 Thermaflo NZ 51 Wellman Packaging 19
APPMA E-Plas Eriez Foodbank GNT Group
34 | Food&Drink business | May 2021 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au