Agrisea a family business

At the recent NZI National Sustainable Business Network Awards, Jill Bradley accepted the Community Impact award on behalf of her family owned business, AgriSea New Zealand Seaweed Ltd.
The company works to turn seaweed into fertiliser and soil-conditioning products, while practicing a staff-friendly policy.
Its processing plants are located in Gisborne and Paeroa, and their operations place an emphasis not just on environmentally (and waterway) friendly products, but on the importance of family and community.
AgriSea provides work for some of the country's poorest and most remote communities, and pays a living wage, as opposed to minimum wage. The company also sponsors young people at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the Enviroschools Maori liason person.
In Jill Bradley's acceptance speech, she introduced her son Tane Bradley, now the general manager for the company, and daughter-in-law Clare Bradley, the business development manager, to represent the future of the company.
Jill, along with husband and co-founder Keith Atwood, had been planning the process of succession for 15 years, recognising it as a long-term priority for a sustainable family business.
In order for the company to continue to play its strong community role, the senior Bradleys realised that succession planning was vital so that all company stakeholders enjoyed future security - from employment, to its community mentoring role, to the reduction of the impacts of traditional farming practices.
Succession has proven itself the world over to be a tricky process, and often the last gasp for family owned businesses if not done correctly.
Ms Bradley notes research in the USA has shown about 30 per cent of family businesses survive into the second generation, while only 12 per cent make into their third generation, and then a mere three per cent are viable into the fourth generation and beyond. The studies concluded that failures in family business succession can usually be traced back directly to a lack of planning, and revealed a disconnect between the optimistic belief of family business owners and the reality of the task at hand.
AgriSea looked to European cases of long-term sustainable, inter-generational family businesses to devise their succession strategy.
Bradley and Atwood took note of a German family company that had been crafting wooden combs for 150 years, as well as their Italian clients whose family owned winery had been operating for more than 200 years, understanding that these businesses had taken the right approaches to succession planning.
They also read widely and gathered the support of experts including lawyers, strategic accountants and business mentors.
"The most important lesson I have learned is that succession is a process - not an event. Although our gut reaction was to 'get out of the way' of the next generation, this may not be what they want," says Bradley. "Listen to them."
Taking control of the family business is a big responsibility, as Tane Bradley knows well.
"Succession for me has been a long-planned and long-held reality," he says. "That being said, taking over the responsibility of New Zealand's biggest biological farming inputs company is a huge challenge, but an amazing opportunity for both myself and my family."
Tane says he's always been in awe of his parents' devotion to AgriSea. "It is this dedication, commitment and passion which I will take with me into the future, and never forget the reason this company was founded 20 years ago."
He also explains that AgriSea staff have regular strategic meetings, allowing access to the founders' business expertise.
"They have given me the confidence to carry the business forward, but are always there to bounce ideas off when I need to."
Jill Bradley says that the transition has gone very well. "The positive changes in the short time that Tane has been general manager and Clare has been business development manager have been stunning - simply stunning."