Meet Matt Bolger, Fonterra’s new Managing Director for Co-operative Affairs

Managing Director for Co-operative Affairs Matt Bolger has been with Fonterra around a month and already feels at home. Photo / Fonterra

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The Country Sport Breakfast catches up with the team at Fonterra. Today, host Brian Kelly is joined by Matt Bolger, Managing Director for Co-operative Affairs.

Kelly asks Bolger, “It’s your first time on the show. Tell us a bit about yourself and the journey you’ve taken to now be part of Fonterra’s management team.”

“I first joined the co-operative in 2002 and worked for the co-operative for several years, and for the last 4 or 5 years, I have been doing something else,” Bolger said.

“I have been Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Waikato and chairing the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand.

“So, I’m only about a month into my new role at Fonterra, but already feel at home.”

Kelly asked, “What do you hope to achieve in your new role as MD Co-op Affairs?”

“People might wonder what Co-operative Affairs means; there are a couple of parts to it,” Bolger said.

Listen below:

“The largest part of that portfolio is the farm source team and group, and that is the retail stores around the country, our field team who work with farmers, through to those looking after government affairs, trade strategy, sustainability, and legal affairs.”

Recently, out on the road chatting to farmers about the half-yearly results, Bolger found that the tone was mostly positive.

Weather events had been challenging in both the North and South, but the largest number of questions he was asked were about the potential consumer divestment.

“When you have a chance to chat with a group of farmer shareholders, whether from a return on capital point of view or a long-term strategy point of view, people were supportive of the divestment strategy and option,” he said.

“There is also a lot of excitement around the ingredients and food service business.

“It is always easy to imagine and visualise a brand of products, but when people get a chance to see the high value ingredients and the food service channels, they realise this isn’t pulling back from growth, it’s actually allocating us our resources into areas that we can grow further and faster.”