Reuben Casey: We are now going down the route of integrating our sustainability report with our financial results.
It’s been more than just a change of scenery for former Kathmandu CEO Reuben Casey, who has been appointed chief operating officer at agriculture investment company Craigmore Sustainables.
Casey, who started with Craigmore in late January, quickly went from pacing the shop floor at the Australasian outdoor goods retailer to surveying the damage to Craigmore’s East Coast properties in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.
He says it was a baptism of fire, although Craigmore was let off lightly relative to other farmers and orchardists in the area who suffered serious cyclone damage.
Casey has been getting around as many sites and meeting as many of the 250 or so staff as he can to familiarise himself at Craigmore - a large and mostly foreign-owned investment company with about $1 billion in assets.
“I’ve been on a steep learning curve, as you do when you start a new job,” he told the Herald.
The leap from retail to agriculture has not been as big as it may seem, he says.
“Having teams distributed all over the country is not dissimilar to having stores over New Zealand and Australia.
“Retail is very different from agriculture but I still get to worry about the weather,” he says. “That hasn’t changed.”
Craigmore gets its name from the Elworthy family’s 4200ha Craigmore Station in the foothills of the Southern Alps.
The company is the brainchild of Forbes Elworthy, who was brought up on the station.
Elworthy went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1985. After some time at Goldman Sachs, he completed an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1992.
He then worked as a credit trader at Merrill Lynch from 1992 to 1999.
Elworthy launched Craigmore Sustainables in 2012 and is its current chairman.
Casey says the company’s aim was to create an opportunity for people to invest in New Zealand agriculture - farming, forestry, horticulture and viticulture.
“But also to do it in a way that tries to lead the industry in a sustainable way while building up communities and creating jobs,” he says.
“A lot of our investment has been in the development and conversion of sheep and beef farms into orchards - Springhill in Hawke’s Bay for example - to get more productive use of land.
“Our ethos is kaitiakitanga [guardianship or protection] regarding the use of the capital that we have from our investors, but also of the land, water, animals, people and the communities in which we operate.”
Craigmore has some big backers.
It has family, office and high net-worth individual investors along with some very big guns - Munich Re’s global asset manager, MEAG, and Munich General Insurance.
About $400 million of its assets are in South Island dairy farms, $400m in horticulture and about $200m in forestry.
Its 54 properties cover 25,000 hectares, with orchards in Northland, Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay.
Its dairy assets are in the South Island - mostly Canterbury - while the forestry assets are in the Wairarapa.
Casey said Craigmore had suffered cyclone damage at its Gisborne apple and grape property, which it is working through.
At Springhill the harvest of 200 hectares of apples has started and Casey says he is happy with progress.
In dairy, he says there are challenges with cost inflation, and a slightly softer milk price.
“But on the whole, we feel like we are in a good spot there.”
Casey says Craigmore has ambitious plans for future growth.
“We are still quite early in a lot of our developments so there are significant improvements to be made in the next few years as those properties come to maturity, particularly in horticulture.
“Dairy is a stable operation so we will look to optimise those operations with a focus on sustainability.”
Casey expects the big opportunities for future growth will come from horticulture.
“There are a lot of orchards that are due for redevelopment and that’s something that we can deploy our steam on.”
Craigmore’s focus is on apples, kiwifruit and grapes.
“Agriculture is a long game where you need to ride the ups and downs and make sure you deliver over the long term.
“There is volatility caused by natural events, which can’t be avoided, so you need to find ways to be as resilient as possible to spread your risk.
“For us, [it] is a little easier with scale.”
Casey spent 12 years in various roles at Kathmandu, ending up as chief executive of brand operations.
Before Kathmandu he was with TaylorMade adidas Golf, based in the UK as its financial director.
Gong back further still, Casey worked for Meridan and for KMPG as an auditor.
Casey says Craigmore wants more local investors.
“Up until now we have largely attracted offshore investment but we are looking to develop a New Zealand investor base.
“We have not really chased New Zealand investors yet so that’s another exciting opportunity.
“We would like some local ownership to balance things out.”
Casey is not the only new face at Craigmore.
Former MyFarm executive and ANZ economist Con Williams joined the company in January as general manager, horticulture.