Meet Chris Rowe, Fonterra's acting chief financial officer

File photo / Christine Cornege

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Chris Rowe may be Fonterra's acting chief financial officer but that doesn't mean he's just starting out at the co-op.

In fact, Rowe has been with Fonterra since 1988.

"I've been in the business for a long time," he told The Country Sport Breakfast's, Brian Kelly.

While Rowe's roles have been mainly financial, he was also involved in the manufacturing side of Fonterra early in his career.

"It's a really fascinating part of our industry. I really got to learn about what co-ops are all about."

Rowe moved his family to Australia with Fonterra not long after the co-op formed and was there through a period of significant change.

"I was part of the brands business there when it was growing really strongly, which was a really exciting place to learn about that side of our business."

When he returned to New Zealand seven years later, Rowe's family had also grown.

"One of my children was born over there."

He soon settled into a commercial director role in Fonterra's global ingredients business.

Rowe was the group finance director before becoming acting chief financial officer, replacing Marc Rivers.

He said he had a "lot on" over the next four months with his new role, making progress towards Fonterra's long-term aspirations.

"We recently upgraded our earnings guidance to 45-60 cents per share and we're in a strong forecast milk price environment at the same time, as we're seeing market conditions give us really strong earnings.

"So, both aspects of the business are forecast at this point to go really well, which is very important for shareholders and unitholders."

Fonterra had been financially disciplined over the last few years which had given the co-op options around the business, Rowe said.

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"We had a very good result last year, but we made the choice to hold more than our normal levels of inventory at year-end.

"So, maintaining our financial discipline and converting that inventory to cash is a short-term priority and that's really for this calendar year."

Fonterra was focusing on New Zealand milk and was committed to targeting a significant capital return to shareholders and unitholders, Rowe said.

The amount would ultimately depend on the success of the co-op's divestments, as well as its debt and earnings levels at the time, he said.

"So, the successful sale of our Chilean business is really important to underpin that – and that process is well underway."

Change can be a bit tricky in business but Rowe reckoned Fonterra would take it in its stride.

"We have a great team of people and it's important that we don't lose any of the momentum we have built as we go through a bit of change with Marc Rivers moving on."

Also in today's interview: Rowe discusses the co-op's annual results which were announced last month.