Latest / Best of Business / Karl Gradon: Comvita CEO on the company returning to profit in half-year result

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Karl Gradon: Comvita CEO on the company returning to profit in half-year result · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Now Minooka honey company. Com Vita is back in profit.
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  Speaker 2: It's turned around a loss of six point four million
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  Speaker 2: dollars last year now into a net profit of four
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  Speaker 2: point six million and it's half year results. Carl Grayden
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  Speaker 2: is the chief executive.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, Carl, Hi, thank you for having very much having me.
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  Speaker 2: You're more than welcome. Now do you reckon You're on
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  Speaker 2: the other side of the trouble yet or is this
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  Speaker 2: just the start of being on the other side?
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  Speaker 3: Our turnaround continues. I'm really proud of the way that
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  Speaker 3: the team has responded to focusing on the basics and
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  Speaker 3: there's a result. I'm pretty confident that we've had the
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  Speaker 3: worst behind us, but you never know. So we're little
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  Speaker 3: all uns.
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  Speaker 2: What does that mean? Car, That's the kind of thing
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  Speaker 2: that freaks people out. What don't we know?
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  Speaker 3: No, we're just focusing on execution into H two and
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  Speaker 3: the turnarounds ongoing. We've got some real momentum behind us,
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  Speaker 3: and the beautiful thing is that we've got got some
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  Speaker 3: wonderful distribution agreements against with a great brand, So once again,
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  Speaker 3: just really proud of the team.
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  Speaker 2: What is it that you're actually doing to turn it
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  Speaker 2: around at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: We've been really disciplined against how we put that discretionary
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  Speaker 3: capital to use, so we've focused on the key markets
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  Speaker 3: and the key customers that we wanted to see improvements
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  Speaker 3: with and we've delivered. So we've now got our control
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  Speaker 3: in China around the way that we go to market,
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  Speaker 3: and in North America we've focused heavily on the club
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  Speaker 3: channel of retail partnerships, so they've both performed very well
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  Speaker 3: for us.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I see that you've said that you are rebuilding
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  Speaker 2: your leadership capability. How are you doing that? Is that
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  Speaker 2: bringing new people in?
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  Speaker 3: It's a bit of both. We've promoted from within and
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  Speaker 3: we've also brought in others from outside. So we've got
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  Speaker 3: a couple of final sluts to announce with the likes
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  Speaker 3: of the chief marketing officer still open and we're hoping
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  Speaker 3: to that one into the family over the course the
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  Speaker 3: next few weeks, which is great for us.
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  Speaker 2: Where do you reckon you are in terms of rebuilding
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  Speaker 2: trust out there in the world about what Convi says
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  Speaker 2: is going on.
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  Speaker 3: My very first statement when I came into this role
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  Speaker 3: was that the only way to build trust is to
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  Speaker 3: do what you say you're going to do. And I'm
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  Speaker 3: really proud that we've delivered exactly what we said we
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  Speaker 3: were going to do, and I think that is the
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  Speaker 3: key for us going forward. So we're well through that process. Now.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I see that you've got some offshore interest. How
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  Speaker 2: much is this particular party interested in buying of Conveter.
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  Speaker 3: That's still very early days to work through the details
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  Speaker 3: of this, and a lot really at liberty to talk
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  Speaker 3: about it. But it's just great to see that these
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  Speaker 3: global organizations that have a commitment to health and wellness
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  Speaker 3: see the value of working together with Conveter, and it's
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  Speaker 3: great that we continue to attract that strong interest as
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  Speaker 3: we tend this business around.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, is it a significant shareholding that they would
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  Speaker 2: end up taking it the value that they're prepared to
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  Speaker 2: put in, like, are we talking five percent, fifteen percent.
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  Speaker 1: Forty five?
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  Speaker 3: Ultimately it would be up to our shareholders to vote
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  Speaker 3: on any proposal like this, so it's too early for
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  Speaker 3: me to speculate as to what it could look like.
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  Speaker 2: I see happily to you guys that the share share
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  Speaker 2: price took a significant bump this afternoon once you reported.
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  Speaker 2: Do you and you're still sitting, I mean where you're
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  Speaker 2: sitting must be disappointing historically, do you reckon that you'll
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  Speaker 2: ever be able to get back up there into the
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  Speaker 2: three dollars full dollar mark?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we would hope that with continued discipline of our
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  Speaker 3: commercial imperatives, we would continue to return value to our shareholders,
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  Speaker 3: and that includes paying a dividend long term, and that
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  Speaker 3: includes building the brand into something that every shareholder is
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  Speaker 3: proud of. So long term, we we'd certainly like to
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  Speaker 3: expect that our share price continues to mature and improve.
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  Speaker 3: How whoever, really comes down to executing, and that's what
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  Speaker 3: the management is solely focused on delivering.
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  Speaker 2: On good stuff and best of luck with it, Carl.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Carl graydon com visa Chief executive.
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