Thanks for sharing BP :)Quote:
Been there, listened to the presentation and had as well a chat with the chair, the new CEO (Leon Clement) and some of the directors.
First impression of the new CEO: He is tall, speaks Maori (at least he introduced himself in Te Reo) is rather soft spoken and seems to have some of the "softer" traits John Penno potentially was lacking a bit (like focus on brand, logo, mission and lots of fluffy big picture stuff).
What did I learn? Well, pink is the new blue ... the new logo - white "milky" letters on a pink background. That's what new CEO's do - change the logo, right?
They do have a new motto as well: "Doing milk differently for a healthier world". Shareholders are encouraged to share this motto to others (Tick - done)
Leon talked a lot about soft(-er) subjects like health and safety, environmental impact, diversity (in relation to Maori, but as well looking at gender). Some of them obviously important and others good for the soul.
Still - great that Nigel (the CFO) had a wee intermezzo talking about boring old revenue, margins and inceasing the profits per metric ton. More my type of man ;); Love this stuff ... and good as well to learn (more from the discussions afterwards) that they are still thinking about ways to improve the margin: Ready to drink infant formula might be in the wings ...
The cynics in me says that if the CEO is introducing himself in Te Reo and talking mainly about safety, environmental impact, diversity, a new motto and a new logo, than this might be his most important priorities. To be fair - he talked as well about diversification of customers and products.
And hey - the company did need a bit more of some of the above - and this is just the catalyst to turn a great team into an outstanding team?
Hard to say at this stage ... but we certainly can't blame the board for looking for a copy of John Penno. Synlait is a great and high performing team ... and I do hope that they found the right CEO to continue their success story, but yes, maybe I can see why they picked him. Time will tell.
Not too many difficult questions.
They did acknowledged that the newly purchased cheese factory (did I hear the word opportunistic?) as well as the deal with Foodstuffs is unlikely to add new margins, but both are considered as a good fit - diversification and reliable base load.
Last years numbers seemed to have made most (all) shareholders happy and content with themselves and life ...
Catering (after the meeting) was healthy and tasty (though cookies in the new Synlait colour pink looked a bit odd, but tasted much better than they looked) ... and numbers - I'd say something like 70 ot 80 shareholders.