By GEOFF SENESCALL
A bumper season for Kiwi Co-operative Dairies boosted farmers' gross income in the last financial year by $40,000 each.
And Kiwi chief executive Craig Norgate said the payout would improve further this year for the group's 8000 shareholders.
This was on the back of further exchange-rate effects and better market
conditions.
The payout for the season was 382c a kilogram of milk solids, which included a margin of 47c. Mr Norgate said the expectation this year was for a payout of 405c a kilogram.
Kiwi handled 4.48 billion litres of milk, processing 22.7 million litres a day at the peak, a 12.8 per cent increase on the company's previous record production season in 1997/98.
This produced revenue for the group of $2.6 billion, which was up 47 per cent on the previous year. The past season saw the merger with Northland.
Kiwi subsidiary Mainland recorded an 18 per cent lift in turnover to just over $637 million.
The last season was the first full year Mainland benefited from savings through the rationalisation of South Island Dairy Farmers, which merged with Kiwi in May 1998.
Company margins more than doubled to $177 million. Total milk payments were up 23 per cent to $1.44 billion on the combined figures for Kiwi and Northland for the previous year.
The group's total assets are now above $2 billion, up from $1.63 billion the previous year.
Kiwi chairman Greg Gent said the group's performance was against a background where staff had "spent a year under a cloud of uncertainty with MergeCo."
