Craig Norgate possessed large measures of vision, energy and skill. Photo / File
Opinion
The man behind Taranaki's Kiwi Co-op and Waikato's Dairy Group merger is owed much recognition.
The many tributes paid to Craig Norgate, who died this week in London aged 50, reflected his impressive achievements in the world of business and sport. But the debt owed to him extends beyond the shareholders of companies he led or his work as a director of New Zealand Rugby.
Every person in this country has benefited considerably from his achievements as the first chief executive of Fonterra.
It is easy to forget the tensions and teething problems that accompanied the birth of the dairying giant in 2001. As much was always going to be the case given the deep-seated rivalry and different cultures of Mr Norgate's Taranaki-based Kiwi Co-operative and the Waikato-based Dairy Group. Such mergers are always frustratingly difficult whatever the logic underpinning them. This country needed the dairy merger and the subsequent integration with the New Zealand Dairy Board to work. In his two years at the helm, Mr Norgate oversaw the rationalisation of resources and implementation of a far more effective marketing strategy.
If the hand guiding Fonterra had not possessed large measures of vision, energy and skill, it was always possible the merger would have been dissolved. The ramifications would have been substantial, especially in times, as now, of crumbling global dairy prices. Kiwi and the Dairy Group would have been cutting each others' throats in the scrap for a share of overseas markets. Dairy farmers would have suffered more than is now the case. And the impact would have been felt throughout the economy, to the detriment of everyone.
