WELLINGTON - Dairy Board chairman John Storey has warned farmers to accept their proposed mega-merger as a package deal - or not at all.
In a last hurrah before stepping down from his leadership of the $8 billion industry, Mr Storey told the board's annual meeting in Wellington that the structure
which had been recommended was a complete package, "not a wish list to be cherry-picked, based on political acceptability."
He warned the sector's 14,000 farmers against believing the proposed mega-co-operative was an end in itself.
"What we are talking about here is not simply a merged company. It's a new company, a new structure, and a new way of doing business.
"We are talking about the biggest restructuring exercise in New Zealand corporate history. The status quo is not an option for this industry." - NZPA