Six former Farmlands directors have banded together to declare their support for the proposed merger with South Island farm-supply counterpart CRT.
"We have all read and considered the proposed merger documents sent to all shareholders and reviewed the supporting documents on the Farmlands website," the directors said in a statement.
"We all strongly believe that this is a sound proposal with good commercial merits and each one of us will be voting in favour of the merger.
"Five of us were members of the Farmlands board when it considered a potential merger with CRT six years ago. At that time, Farmlands' market share of the rural supplies business was 12 per cent and we believed then it was in the best interests of Farmlands shareholders to instead concentrate on the gains that could be had in the North Island first. "With a change in strategic positioning and an excellent management team, within five years this market share grew from 12 per cent to 27 per cent and sales went from $360 million to $773m.
The directors said the landscape has changed with further industry rationalisation and the growth in the size of suppliers. "We believe that the company is now positioned very well to consider an option such as the proposed merger," they said.