Latest / Best of Business / Don Braid: Mainfreight CEO on the company's full-year net profit taking a hit

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Don Braid: Mainfreight CEO on the company's full-year net profit taking a hit · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: Twenty three away from seven Now. Main Freight has reported
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  Speaker 2: and its full year net profit is down. It's full
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  Speaker 2: to eight and a half percent, down to two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty one million dollars. But despite the Middle East disruptions,
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  Speaker 2: they're pretty optimistic about their mid year report and they
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  Speaker 2: think it's going to paint a better picture. And Don Braid,
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  Speaker 2: the Main Freight Group managing director, is with us.
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  Speaker 3: Hey John, Hey, Heather, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Now, given what you're saying about business in the last
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  Speaker 2: couple of months, it sounds like this is already largely
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  Speaker 2: behind you. What you're reporting today, Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Great, second half in the momentum we got in that
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  Speaker 3: second half is rolled through April and May. So we're optimistic,
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  Speaker 3: we're courtious, we're not silly about things. We're not making
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  Speaker 3: sure the sugar rush doesn't go to our head, but
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  Speaker 3: happy about what trading we've seen post the year end.
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  Speaker 2: Why is it doing so well? Because I would have
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  Speaker 2: thought that given what's going on in the Middle East,
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  Speaker 2: it should be a really hard time.
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  Speaker 3: World trades in freight all around the world, not just
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  Speaker 3: in the Middle East, and I guess for us, you know,
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  Speaker 3: good importers and exporters have found ways around the Middle
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  Speaker 3: East disruption and we've seen our own stocks improved by
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  Speaker 3: winning new business, both particularly in New Zealand and Australia.
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  Speaker 3: So that's helped us.
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  Speaker 2: What is the Middle East doing to your business?
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  Speaker 1: If anything?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, fuel more than anything, and it disrupted air freight.
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  Speaker 3: You know, thirty percent of the world's air freight comes
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  Speaker 3: out of the Middle East. But you know we found
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  Speaker 3: answers to that for our customers, and you know the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the air freight network has stepped up to
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  Speaker 3: albeit at an increased price, to take over and for us,
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  Speaker 3: really trade just continues. This is not COVID. The logistics
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  Speaker 3: world finds other ways around to move freight other than
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  Speaker 3: what the Middle East might be throwing us.
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  Speaker 2: The fact that I mean you mentioned that you're getting
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  Speaker 2: new business in New Zealand? Is that the phrase? But
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  Speaker 2: is that the green shoots? Are you seeing it?
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  Speaker 3: There's a little bit of that. We've seen an increase
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  Speaker 3: in imported building products, which surprised us, but we move
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  Speaker 3: a lot of food a lot of beverage and we've
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  Speaker 3: managed to secure after a lot of hard works and
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  Speaker 3: market share, so maybe our competitors are hurting as a
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  Speaker 3: consequence and that's helped us. We have a good share
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  Speaker 3: of the New Zealand market, but likewise in Australia, I
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  Speaker 3: mean we've got grown market share there too, so we're
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  Speaker 3: pretty happy with what we've got both New Zealand and
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  Speaker 3: Australia in terms of the supply chain.
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  Speaker 2: Right, what are your thoughts on the budget?
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  Speaker 3: Well, who listened to the budget? We were worried about
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  Speaker 3: mainfree today. I couldn't believe you took exchange Jones before
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  Speaker 3: you took Mainfree. I don't know from what i've seen.
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  Speaker 3: You know, health, education, infrastructure. That's good, that's what we'd
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  Speaker 3: expect from a government. But in detail, I'll be really
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  Speaker 3: honest with you, and all due respect to the politicians,
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  Speaker 3: haven't really bothered to look too much.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's probably much of what you would expect. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I'm thinking from your point of view, the thing that
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  Speaker 2: you'll be most interested in as a trucking company is
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  Speaker 2: the extension of the White Couple Expressway and the completion
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  Speaker 2: of that Golden Triangle which has got to be a
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  Speaker 2: good thing, right, Well.
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  Speaker 3: Don't forget were We use rail a lot and coastal shipping,
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  Speaker 3: so we're not just a trucking company. We're a logistics
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  Speaker 3: company here. But yes, of course, better roading infrastructure helps us.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I think the better we can get
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  Speaker 3: the roading infrastructure here, the better we are being able
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  Speaker 3: to service our customers.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a good thing money for you know, our
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  Speaker 2: he keeps the money for rail because wind does.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think he has railed at heart like
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  Speaker 3: we do. We believe rail has a role to play
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  Speaker 3: and transport infrastructure in this country. I mean, we're nervous
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  Speaker 3: with the infrastructure going through to twenty thirty and the
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  Speaker 3: fragility of that, and we're trying to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: we've got plenty of cover for our customers. We're housing
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  Speaker 3: closer to our customers in the South Island just to
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  Speaker 3: make sure. But rail road and coastal shipping have a
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  Speaker 3: role to play in this country, There's no doubt about that.
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  Speaker 2: I was going to ask you about the ferry situation.
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  Speaker 2: I mean that is now so unreliable. Are you guys
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  Speaker 2: making contingencies to basically I mean surely you must be
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  Speaker 2: thinking about how do you actually get it from one
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  Speaker 2: island to the other without relying on the ferries at all?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, every day, and our teams worry about that and
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  Speaker 3: they do a marvelous job circling, circuling around what options
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  Speaker 3: there are, and we're using more coastal shipping and the
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  Speaker 3: good thing I think both fuel and the ferry situation
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  Speaker 3: has got us closer to Kei we Rail. We're getting
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  Speaker 3: better services from key we Rail, more options to use
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  Speaker 3: rail where we want to use them, so that's a
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  Speaker 3: good thing. But certainly it's a worry and you know,
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  Speaker 3: one goes away to the dry dock and we get
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  Speaker 3: one having a problem and suddenly we're down to two.
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  Speaker 3: So we're trying to cover our bases. We've got great
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  Speaker 3: support from both players and that's been good for our teams.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff, Don, it's always lovely to talk to
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  Speaker 2: you and congratulations on the results and the fact it's
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  Speaker 2: all turning around. That's Don Braid, the Main Freight Group
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  Speaker 2: Managing director. Eighteen away from seven.
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