Latest / Best of Business / David Mair: Sanford Managing Director on the company's half-year profit more than doubling

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David Mair: Sanford Managing Director on the company's half-year profit more than doubling · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Well, and we spend quite a bit of time in
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  Speaker 2: the old Smoke Salmond issue. Are having discovered you're paying
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  Speaker 2: well in excess of one hundred dollars a kilo. Sandford
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  Speaker 2: come to the party, as you heard before, having more
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  Speaker 2: than double their half year profits. They're making big gains
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  Speaker 2: sales wise and places like China and the States, which
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  Speaker 2: is good. David Mary, Sandford's managing director, and is with us, David.
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  Speaker 3: Morning, Good morning, Mike. How are you very well?
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  Speaker 2: And as Andrew alluded to a couple of moments ago,
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  Speaker 2: you newish to the company? Are you enjoying it? And
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  Speaker 2: is it a good company?
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  Speaker 3: I'm enjoying it. I've been there just over twelve months,
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  Speaker 3: and yes, I am enjoying it. And is it a
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  Speaker 3: good company? It will become a great company soon.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, what are you doing?
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  Speaker 3: What am I doing? I'm reviewer. I'm reviewing almost every
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  Speaker 3: process within the business. So I think it's fear that,
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  Speaker 3: like a lot of New Zealand companies, centered went down
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  Speaker 3: a path of trying to add value, and that's interesting,
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  Speaker 3: but you have to be very clear that you're adding
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  Speaker 3: more value than you're adding cost. So for many, many years,
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  Speaker 3: more than probably nine years, I think, and many companies
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  Speaker 3: have done this, particularly in the meat industry and things
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  Speaker 3: like that. We're told we have to add value. It's near.
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  Speaker 3: It's I think centered's products. They're great products, like you
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  Speaker 3: mentioned salmon. Our products are fantastic when you see them.
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  Speaker 3: But the reality is it's near commodity. We're price takers.
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  Speaker 3: People don't like to hear. That is, if there's something
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  Speaker 3: wrong with a commodity business. Run well, they can be
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  Speaker 3: very profitable, they can be very good for employees, they
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  Speaker 3: can be very good for shieholders.
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  Speaker 2: How competitive is the market, Well.
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  Speaker 3: If you're a price, the market decides your price, and
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  Speaker 3: price drucks straight through to EBIT. So price is incredibly important.
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  Speaker 3: So often as I go through these processes with teams,
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  Speaker 3: I remind them that really there's no such thing as revenue.
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  Speaker 3: This price times the volume for each for each fighting
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  Speaker 3: that you sell, So it's really important to understand. You know,
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  Speaker 3: if there's a five percent change up or down in price,
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  Speaker 3: it drops through as soon as the invoices go out.
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  Speaker 3: A plus one is five percent on volume. You don't know.
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  Speaker 3: It depends on your cost structure. Most companies do not
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  Speaker 3: have a sorry pologies. Most companies do not have a
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  Speaker 3: plan to improve productivity. Yet we argue about what we
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  Speaker 3: should be paying. We've got this living wage stuff and
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  Speaker 3: everything going on. If you pay people more money but
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  Speaker 3: there's no productivity, there's a natural into.
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  Speaker 2: That, correct, right? Is there a story to be told
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  Speaker 2: around one New Zealand as the producer of this product
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  Speaker 2: and two the health bit to fish?
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  Speaker 3: I think there is so again, you know, I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: you know. I worked at scalar Up for a number
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  Speaker 3: of years since twenty eleven. I was managing director there.
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  Speaker 3: So my sort of view is New Zealand's tiny in
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  Speaker 3: the scheme of things, and there's one thing they want
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  Speaker 3: from us, and it's high quality protein. And so when
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  Speaker 3: I was at scaler Up, I thought a lot about milk.
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  Speaker 3: I was on the board of A two milk from
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  Speaker 3: two thousand and eight to two one five. To me,
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  Speaker 3: that's something we just need to get our head around.
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  Speaker 3: It's not about branding our fish necessarily. I mean, the
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  Speaker 3: King salmon is fantastic product, but it's compete the volumes
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  Speaker 3: of Atlantic salmon. It's almost nothing. You're talking about health benefits.
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  Speaker 3: I think there are health benefits, but you can't rush
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  Speaker 3: and spend a lot of money and suddenly think you're
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  Speaker 3: going to sell the benefits of health products into China.
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  Speaker 3: It's just wherever. It's just very, very difficult. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: a game with health products, you've got to be careful
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  Speaker 3: about claims. So, you know, BA two experience was good,
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  Speaker 3: good learning there. But I think one thing I should
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  Speaker 3: say is I when I took on this role, I
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  Speaker 3: agreed with sirob the year and one other director that
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  Speaker 3: this is at least a two year turnaround. So the
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  Speaker 3: results are pleasing, and I hope our team feel proud
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  Speaker 3: of what they've achieved. But at the same time, this
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  Speaker 3: is just the start. That's what I meant that soon
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  Speaker 3: good well.
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  Speaker 2: I wish you well and we'll talk more about it
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  Speaker 2: as the turnaround continues. Appreciate your time. Congratulations David Mea,
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  Speaker 2: who's the same Ford Managing Director.
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