ANZCO achieves a huge turnaround

ANZCO Foods’ 2019 pre-tax profit was $30.6 million on record sales revenue of $1.7 billion which admittedly represents a margin on sales of less than 2% and a return on assets of 3.74%, but it is a huge improvement on the pre-tax loss of $39.1 million in 2018. It is also the third highest profit the company has achieved and its best for 16 years, signalling the benefit of the restructuring programme carried out over the last 18 months which has simplified the business and made it more efficient across the entire operation. Replying to a question about the relative importance of a favourable market and trading environment as against these internal improvements, CEO Peter Conley accepts the market conditions certainly helped, but is adamant the main benefit came from the changes to the business.

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Steady progress with Primary Growth projects

It is eight years since the Primary Growth Partnership programme was announced by the then recently elected National Government. At the end of 2016 there were 20 projects under way and just two completed, but 30^th June sees the completion of FarmIQ, the largest of the red meat sector programmes. This seems to be an appropriate point to evaluate the success of PGP, in particular the six meat and two wool programmes which have been allocated total Crown and industry funding of $342 million.