Latest / Best of Business / Don Braid: Mainfreight General Manager on the company's full year net profit going up a third on the previous year

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Don Braid: Mainfreight General Manager on the company's full year net profit going up a third on the previous year · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Logistics company Mainfreight has posted a pretty solid result, but
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  Speaker 3: it's facing the headwinds of international uncertainty. Annual net profit
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  Speaker 3: was up nearly a third on the previous year. Profits
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  Speaker 3: were down in Asia, America and New Zealand. On the upside, though,
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  Speaker 3: Australia is turning out to be a bit of a winner.
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  Speaker 3: Don Braid is the general manager of main Freight with us.
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  Speaker 4: Now, Hey Don, Hey, Heather, who are you very well?
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  Speaker 4: Thank you? What is going on in Australia?
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  Speaker 2: I was taking us twenty eight years to get there,
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  Speaker 2: and some of the media and some of the analyst
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  Speaker 2: community thought that we'd bought a dog back in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: ninety eight. Well, the dog's barking. It's good.
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  Speaker 4: It hasn't taken you that long to turn it around, though,
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  Speaker 4: has it?
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  Speaker 2: No, not at all, But you know, it's come of
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  Speaker 2: age and it's now. Even though New Zealand continues to
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  Speaker 2: produce a really good profit for us, and at higher margin,
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  Speaker 2: just as a consequence of the size of the market
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  Speaker 2: and our presence and the great job that our people
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  Speaker 2: have done in Australia where it's now our biggest revenue
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  Speaker 2: and profit maker.
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  Speaker 4: Fantastic stuff. Now, have you had a chance to look
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  Speaker 4: at what this court ruling means for the tariffs?
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  Speaker 5: Oh, I'm the same as the court ruling about the
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  Speaker 5: migrants that have been re exported or whatever I suggest,
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  Speaker 5: and the Harvard rules.
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  Speaker 2: Who knows what would happen. The key for us is
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  Speaker 2: that we focus on business and what that means for
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  Speaker 2: our customers and we'll do whatever we can to keep
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  Speaker 2: the supply chains open for them.
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  Speaker 3: What do you think, I mean, do your customers just
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  Speaker 3: act as if like do they just assume the tariffs
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  Speaker 3: are still on and keep going in the same kind
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  Speaker 3: of vein? Oh?
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  Speaker 2: No, interesting. I've just come back from a week of
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  Speaker 2: sales up there into the US and Canada, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's a really a lot of question marks, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of indecision for both importers, particularly in America, and certainly
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  Speaker 2: a bit of anger and independence forming in the Canadian
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  Speaker 2: business market. But I think they'll take advantage, or they
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  Speaker 2: are taking advantage of the pores in tariffs. We're seeing
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  Speaker 2: bookings for June, you know, up fifty to eighty odd percent,
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  Speaker 2: and as a consequence, the shipping rates are moving up
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  Speaker 2: as well. But they are moving as much stock as
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  Speaker 2: they possibly can get their hands on because they are
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  Speaker 2: uncertain as to what will happen when the you know,
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  Speaker 2: moratorium on the tariffs is up.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, so what just trying to fill up those warehouses.
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  Speaker 4: Well they've got the chance.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well whatever, Well, they've got the small tariff in place,
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  Speaker 2: they're better to bring the product in. But there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of indecision as to what will happen post the
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  Speaker 2: tariff deadline.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this could backfire, couldn't it, because they might
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  Speaker 3: have been they might be moving really fast to try
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  Speaker 3: to fill the warehouses up at the moment, and then
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  Speaker 3: all of a sudden the tariffs are off.
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  Speaker 4: Altogether potent, Yeah, but.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, in when the tariffs came on on whatever
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  Speaker 2: you call it, Liberation Day, April and May saw a
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  Speaker 2: lot of bookings halted. So you know, nothing moved during April.
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  Speaker 2: Well it's wrong for me to say nothing, but reduced
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  Speaker 2: tonnage has moved in April and May, and they're trying
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  Speaker 2: to make up ground during June and July.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, don listen, I always appreciate your thoughts on politics
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  Speaker 3: here in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 4: What did you make Why are you laughing?
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  Speaker 2: Don Oh?
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  Speaker 4: Because not much?
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  Speaker 2: It was all good. I mean, we had some innane
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  Speaker 2: questions from analysts today as we presented our year end,
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  Speaker 2: asking if the twenty percent was an encouragement to open
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  Speaker 2: more cross stocks and warehouses, and you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's a mistake. I mean, let's not forget that the government,
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  Speaker 2: through it took the text the depreciation on buildings off
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  Speaker 2: in March of last year, which actually cost us a
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  Speaker 2: lot of money in terms of that net profit. And
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  Speaker 2: just for your records, you know that was an increase
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  Speaker 2: in net profit, but that was after abnormals of last year.
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  Speaker 2: It's the profit before text that really matters. So I
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  Speaker 2: don't know that twenty percent didn't mean much for us.
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  Speaker 2: We'll get on and do what we've got to do anyway. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. There wasn't much other highlights in it,
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  Speaker 2: was it?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, look, I don't want to be I don't
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  Speaker 3: always want to be bummed out about these guys and
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  Speaker 3: bumming people out about them.
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  Speaker 4: But I can't see a vision. Do you see a
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  Speaker 4: vision for the economy? From this coalition government.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they keep talking about that growth vision and that's
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  Speaker 2: a good thing and I think that as us in
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  Speaker 2: business have got to continue to do that. We've i mean,
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  Speaker 2: you know, talking about an export lead recovery, and maybe
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  Speaker 2: that is, but it's at the big end of towns,
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  Speaker 2: in the apples, it's in the dairy and it's in
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  Speaker 2: the kiwi fruit. It's not in the normal everyday export
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  Speaker 2: who is working hard to get their products off shore.
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  Speaker 2: We're not seeing those people benefiting at all. So there
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  Speaker 2: is some indecision around that global economy. I just like
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  Speaker 2: them to get things done. I mean, come back to
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  Speaker 2: your comment about the road cones earlier. I mean, why
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  Speaker 2: don't they just get that sorted? What doesn't Sidey and
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  Speaker 2: Brown make your decision and get them bad? But that
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  Speaker 2: hasn't happened, is it?
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  Speaker 3: No?
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  Speaker 4: Exactly? Thank you.
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  Speaker 3: There's too much announcing and re announcing and rennouncing and
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  Speaker 3: re announcing, and we're sitting here waiting.
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  Speaker 4: For the thing to happen.
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  Speaker 3: Don as always love chatting to you. Look after yourself.
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  Speaker 3: Don Braid, main Freight General Manager.
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