KEY POINTS:
As co-chair of the Food & Beverage Taskforce, Tony Nowell last year urged big co-operatives to look at how they might "reinvent themselves for growth".
But yesterday - as his appointment as chief executive of kiwifruit grower-controlled Zespri was announced - Nowell was stressing some of his key concerns back then didn't apply to his new employer.
Nowell said last August the way co-operatives tended to maximise supplier returns could restrain investment in activities such as overseas parts of a product's supply chain.
But Nowell said yesterday these investment-related comments were not really relevant to Zespri, the $1 billion, single-desk exporter he will head from March.
The need for capital investment in the kiwifruit industry sat with grower-owners and packhouses in this country and with Zespri contract growers overseas, so the company's present business model did not suffer from a capital shortage, he said.
In the short to medium term he would not be looking to facilitate any change around ownership or operations to try to encourage growth or secure greater Zespri access to capital.
Nowell, whose last role was managing director of Griffin's Foods, said he would defend "with a passion" Zespri's export marketing monopoly to countries other than Australia.
Noting the recent Foodstuffs and Woolworths interest in The Warehouse, and the comparatively small size of the New Zealand food industry, he said: "Wherever I look in the world today the consumer products industry is consolidating rapidly."
If Zespri did not maintain "critical mass, and critical mass that is strongly supported by a power brand ... then I think that there is a very real danger for the [kiwifruit] industry in New Zealand".
Nowell said maintaining year-round supply of Zespri kiwifruit through contract growing overseas was an important operational issue, and he expected there would be "teething issues and learning" as this was honed into a "sharp" model.
"The 12-month supply arrangements are in relative infancy."
Zespri chairman Craig Greenlees said Nowell's extensive business experience in Asia and Europe would help the company better understand customer needs.
New Zespri boss
* Tony Nowell, former managing director of Griffin's Foods.
* Co-chair of the Government's Food & Beverage Taskforce.
* NZ rep on Apec Business Advisory Council; chair of Asean New Zealand Combined Business Council.
