Tag Archives: Greenlea Premier Meats

Greenlea scoops award for business excellence

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Business Excellence Awards for Greenlea Premier Meats.Congratulations to Waikato-based beef processor Greenlea Premier Meats, which scooped up the Supreme Award in the 2012 Westpac Waikato Business Excellence Awards, after winning the Tompkins Wake award for businesses employing more than 50 people.

Greenlea is a family-owned business that has grown over the last 20 years from humble beginnings to become a significant player in the New Zealand meat industry. It employs 370 staff at two beef processing plants in Hamilton and Morrinsville, with a turnover of more than $260 million and growing.

The company, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this season, procures over 185,000 prime steers, heifers, manufacturing bulls and cows each year and also, in a new move last season, now also collects bobby calves. The product range includes 425 different specifications, with around 200 in production at any one time, and supplies over 40 countries with New Zealand beef.

Introducing Marel Streamline boning-room technology from Europe to its Hamilton prime-boning room in 2009 and its Morrinsville plant in 2010 was a first for a New Zealand meat company and using this technology for hot-boned beef a first, globally.

Tony Egan' Greenlea Premier Meats new managing director

Tony Egan’ Greenlea Premier Meats’ managing director

The modern and ergonomically designed system has helped to reduce the hard manual work found in traditional beef boning rooms, which means less strain injuries for staff, explains managing director Tony Egan.

The computer-based tracking system provides for more efficient monitoring of yields, quality, throughput and orders at the boning room floor. Supervisors now have the ability to provide data-based feedback to staff on their performance. The company also uses a locally developed tailor-made freezing technology.

According to Egan, Greenlea’s international reputation for reliable service and consistent high quality product has been a key factor in making it the processor of choice in many markets not only in manufacturing beef, but also for high quality prime beef table cuts.

He has a simple answer to how this has all been achieved. “Quite simply, it’s the people that make our company so special and our success comes from creating a great team and encouraging them to do great things.”

This article has appeared in Food NZ magazine (February/March 2013) and is reproduced here with permission.

Is this the year for a sheepmeat strategy, asks Barber?

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Allan BarberIs this the year for a sheepmeat strategy, asks meat industry commentator Allan Barber in his latest column. The key question for the meat industry this year is whether anybody will make any money, he writes.

After last season when farmers enjoyed unprecedented procurement prices and the meat companies lost millions of dollars as a result, prices have headed south and look set to remain there for the foreseeable future.

Sheepmeat is the product most under threat with the traditional markets all showing serious signs of indigestion. As an example, a US importer has been reported as saying he has a year’s worth of inventory and can’t buy any more and neither is anyone else. This signals a major problem for middle cuts like lamb racks, while Europe isn’t exactly rushing to buy any product either.

This explains the amount of cheap sheepmeat available on our domestic market, although unfortunately local consumers have been turned off buying lamb as a standard part of their diet by last year’s high prices – no different from the rest of the world; and expecting New Zealand’s minute population to absorb any significant part of the oversupply is a bit like expecting Fiji to win the World Cup or the Black Caps to win the series in South Africa for that matter.

Beef may resist the worst of the price downturn because US demand remains steady against a backdrop of falling domestic cow numbers and consequently an increased share for imported beef. Asian demand will also remain firm, while New Zealand exporters may be able to pick up some of Australia’s market share, as Australian supply to the USA is anticipated to take the lion’s share of the increase there.

But even beef will continue to struggle under the impact of our dollar which is set obstinately at about 84 US cents with the greenback unlikely to strengthen at all, unless Congress can agree on a fiscal solution to the enormous American debt problem. In spite of averting the fall over the fiscal cliff, the US really hasn’t solved its long-term problem, merely postponed a decision.

The main difficulty for sheepmeat is the amount of inventory held by wholesalers and exporters which is waiting to be sold into a market which doesn’t need it and, even if it did, can’t afford to pay a price for it which will compensate for our exchange rate sitting at 52p and 0.63 Euro. This inventory problem will only be exacerbated by another season’s production which will hit its peak in less than three months.

If my pessimistic assessment is even only half correct, 2013 bears all the signs of an extremely difficult season for all participants in the sector. MPI’s forecast for farm incomes, down on last year, is still reasonably positive at least in historical terms, but it must come under pressure from any further price drops or cost increases. There is most unlikely to be any spare cash around.

After the beating taken last season by the processors, shown factually in the annual accounts of Silver Fern Farms, Alliance and Blue Sky Meats, and by implication in the results of the others, all the meat companies will be under pressure to get back into the black. The only way they can achieve this is to reduce procurement costs, increase operational efficiencies and sell inventory into the market, preferably with a profit margin on what it cost them.

This last one will be by far the hardest. There is already plenty of evidence of product being offered at very competitive, or silly, prices in spite of Keith Cooper’s claim before Christmas that working capital tied up in inventory is ‘good’ debt because it restrains companies from dumping product. Now if that isn’t a case of making a virtue out of necessity, I don’t know what is.

Logically if there is an inventory problem, it makes sense to quit it at the going rate rather than waiting for the market to recover by which time there will be more inventory in the freezer tying up more working capital.

The meat industry is becoming increasingly a division between sheep (very hard to make a consistent profit) and beef (quite or extremely profitable, mostly because of the livestock sourced from the dairy industry). Those companies which specialise in beef from dairy regions, notably Greenlea and Universal, appear to be very profitable without interference from the volatility of sheepmeat pricing.

Alliance has traditionally been the outstanding performer among the processors with a commitment to the sheep industry. Silver Fern Farms has reinvented itself as a company with a significant beef business which has reduced its vulnerability. But as last season’s results showed, the sheepmeat business placed serious pressure on their balance sheets which will inevitably continue throughout this year.

This may be the year when some serious strategic thinking is applied to finding a viable industry model for sheepmeat alone, instead of trying to find a single solution for the meat industry as a whole.

This column has appeared in NZ Farmers Weekly and interest.co.nz and is reproduced here with permission. Allan also has his own blog Barber’s Meaty Issues.

 

Meat industry leaders support TPP negotiations

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Heads of various meat industry organisations  have shown their public support for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiations underway in Auckland this week between eleven APEC economies.

They are amongst more than 50 business leaders from some of New Zealand’s largest and most successful companies and business organisations to have signed an open letter to Prime Minister John Key, underlining the importance of international trade and investment for New Zealand.

Among the signatories are Alliance chief executive Grant Cuff, ANZCO Foods’ managing director Mark Clarkson, Silver Fern Farms’ Keith Cooper, Greenlea Premier Meats’ Tony Egan and Sir James Wallace chairman of Wallace Corporation alongside Meat Industry Association chairman Bill Falconer and Beef + Lamb NZ Ltd’s chairman Mike Pedersen and chief executive Scott Champion.

“The signatories to the open letter represent a cross section across all major export sectors in New Zealand, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, horticulture, wine, manufacturing, technology and Maori business. Together they either directly employ, or their members employ, an enormous number of Kiwis,” says the chairman of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF), Sir Graeme Harrison.

“These business leaders welcome the TPP round taking place in Auckland this week and commend negotiators from the TPP economies for their efforts to conclude a future agreement which should bring benefits for all member economies”.

“The group is aware the negotiation poses challenges for New Zealand policy settings in a number of areas and that the negotiation is complex. We have confidence that Trade Minister Tim Groser and his officials will seek solutions that meet New Zealand’s national interests.”

“We see great advantages for New Zealand arising from a future agreement that is high quality, comprehensive and ambitious, one that eliminates trade barriers, lowers the cost of doing business and makes improvements to the way regional supply chains can link producers and consumers in the region.”

The open letter coincides with the launch of a new business-led initiative, Trade Works, a website (www.tradeworks.org.nz) to help Kiwis better understand the benefits of trade and investment for New Zealand, and understand the potential benefits of TPP.  Funding for the website has been provided by the NZ US Council and the website has been built with the support of thirteen business organisations representing the main export sectors.

“The Council and its partners see value from an effort to create a TPP which meets business and wider needs and reflects the way business is being done today and will be done in the future.  This will assist economic growth and job creation in New Zealand.  Our new website signals that we are also ready to participate with other members of civil society in a dialogue about how TPP can contribute to what it is best for New Zealand,” says the chairman of the NZ US Council, Rt Hon James Bolger.

 

Evolving halal

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Tony Egan' Greenlea Premier Meats new managing director

Greenlea Premier Meat’s new managing director Tony Egan spoke at the Fifth World Halal Research Summit in Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the NZ meat industry – the first time a New Zealander has been invited to do so. He talks to Food NZ about his return to the Egan family company and the New Zealand message he took to the Summit.

Egan is enjoying returning to the company he originally joined  in 1993, starting on day one working on the beef chain.

“It’s great to be back,” he says, after his 11 years since he left his role as managing director (marketing and finance) in 2001. Not that he’s been exactly idle in between: he spent five years as chief executive for AFFCO New Zealand, which had a turnover of $1.5 billion and 3,500 staff, before moving on to head up 1,700 staff and 130 locations of New Zealand’s largest quality assurance organisation AsureQuality for another five years.

He rejoined Waikato-based Greenlea Premier Meats in December 2011. The company these days has 360 staff, employed over two sites in Morrinsville and Hamilton, and a throughput of 180,300 animals last season. The loyal staff seem to be  happy with the family values promulgated by the company, which include personal touches such as Easter eggs, Christmas hams and a family open day at Morrinsville where families are invited to come in and see what their parents do at work. As one employee Zane Sayer puts it on the website, “Greenlea has a very pleasant work atmosphere and we take comfort in knowing we are able to work through the entire year.”

Having worked in private and public companies plus a State-Owned Enterprise, Egan reckons he’s covered off most of the business models now and is looking forward to putting his skills to work, both for the family company and also for the industry. He’s already a new council member of the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

His knowledge of the evolution of halal processing requirements for a variety of Muslim markets over the years, plus the fact that AsureQuality was involved in independent testing for porcine and alcohol traces on behalf of halal authorities in its 32 staff Singaporean office, made Egan the ideal contender to speak to the Fifth World Halal Research Summit in Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the industry.The Summit was held in conjunction with the Seventh World Halal Research Forum. With 1,000 delegates expected from 40 countries it was an important opportunity for New Zealand.

MAF: best halal service provider 2011

The invitation follows on from an award received by the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) for best service provider at the 2011 Forum – the first time a non-Muslim country had received the award and came a year after MAF implemented the Animal Products (Overseas Market Access Requirements for Halal Assurances) Notice, Egan explains.

“It’s a great credit to the work MAF’s director of market access Tony Zohrab and the rest of the MAF team have done in this area.”

Currently involving 48 certified processing plants, employing 214 qualified halal slaughtermen in this country, New Zealand’s market for exports of red meat and other edible products to Muslim markets was worth nearly $490 million to the year end June 2011, according to the MIA. With its diverse markets, and offering an outlet for reducing reliance on traditional trading partners, halal represents a sizeable cross-border sector for the meat industry to focus on to grow market share and value in line with the Red Meat Sector Strategy.

Evolution of thought

The message Egan will be taking to Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the industry is that the trade has moved away from the supply of frozen carcases to Iran in the 1970s and 80s towards newer markets in Asia.“There has been an evolution of thought and the New Zealand industry has taken the time, over the last 15-18 years, to better understand those Asian consumers,” Egan says, adding that the journey of understanding has led religion and science to come together.

The perfect example of that understanding is the innovative New Zealand-developed method of halal slaughter that through stunning livestock insensible before slaughter satisfies both Muslim religious requirements for live slaughter and New Zealand and other Western consumers’ requirements for humane slaughter. But that’s only part of the stringent processing standards in place here today as part of the accredited halal programme, which also include: segregation of halal product, supervision during processing, the training and certification of all halal slaughtermen and the commitment and urgency of the workforce to ensure compliance to halal standards.

The Halal Notice represents the evolution of thought and has formed a good foundation for the industry, giving customers an all-important government assurance that what they understand is happening is in fact occurring, Egan says.

“The paradigm has shifted from a one-dimensional process to a multi-dimensional one.”

What does the halal customer need?

The concept of halal, defined by the Qu’Ran as ‘allowed’, ‘permitted’ or lawful’ has slowly become accepted as a consumer lifestyle choice, not only encompassing religion and food, but also finance, non-food products and logistics. It provides a set of laws and guiding principles and separates out those animals that are prohibited ‘haram’ and those permitted ‘halal’, as well as outlining methods of slaughtering, prohibits consuming blood or blood products and intoxicants, such as alcohol).

Halal customer’s needs focus on the concept of ‘tayyib‘, Egan explains: “That food is wholesome, nutritional and safe. It brings in many concepts including environmental sustainability, safety and animal welfare and is not particularly onerous for New Zealand processors to provide.”

Although there are a number of other meat exporting countries servicing halal markets, he believes that New Zealand has the opportunity to take a unique approach, particularly in the innovation of processes in the wholesomeness and in the wholesomeness and food safety areas for which this country is renowned.

With an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe, halal markets are still growing. Indonesia alone, New Zealand’s largest halal market, was worth over $120 million last year and there is a growing range of other halal customers – Singapore, South Africa, China, France and the US (where there are over 10 million Muslims). Customers are interested not only in the meat itself, but also the by-products like offal. There is a growing halal market for raw materials for pharmaceutical and cosmetic use, where Egan says there is also a role for AsureQuality to play

Challenges ahead, however, include dealing with restrictive tariffs and quotas, limiting New Zealand’s access to various markets which the meat industry is working closely on with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade.

Another area is achieving a consistent understanding of what halal certification means across the many different markets.

“New Zealand’s approach is becoming increasingly accepted as the sensible approach,” Egan says, adding that his speaking opportunity outlined what New Zealand Inc is capable of and what’s possible for the future.

Tony Egan spoke at the Fifth World Halal Research Summit, 4-5 April 2012 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Reproduced with kind permission of Food NZ magazine.