Meanings spring eternal for new GlobalCo name

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agricultural editor

Pity the poor receptionist - only a weekend between "Global Dairy Company" and "Fonterrier".

But should the name of New Zealand's biggest company sound like a bit of a dog, or should it be Fonterra?

The telephonist giggled. "Yes, Fonterra. I'm trying not to say Global Dairy." Now, so are the rest of us.

The $12 billion dairy company aiming to be New Zealand's flagship enterprise will have a name with no hint of cow, Kiwi or country.

October's merger of the Dairy Board, New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Dairies will give rise to Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd.

The "fon" is derived from the Latin fontanus, for fountain or spring, and "terra" from the word for earth.

In explanation, the company told its 14,000 farmer shareholders that the task was "to design a word and then give it meaning by world-class performance".

But Fonterra will not appear on any product, just on the company's Auckland airport head office. The business end of exporting and selling dairy products will still be done by New Zealand Milk for consumer goods and NZMP for ingredients products. Brands such as Tararua and Anchor will live on.

Yesterday in Hamilton, at the heart of dairy country, explanations were needed.

Teacher aide Denise McBride, aged 49, saw "font" in the name and thought it suggested desktop publishing. Computer network engineer Kurt Sayer, 35, thought the name was groovy and international-sounding, but for mother-to-be Sarah Commons, 36, it suggested nothing at all.

Senior citizen Sheila Hollinger thought that because the name said nothing about dairy or New Zealand the company "wouldn't know where it was going".

But dairy shed builder Jeff Moore, 37, believed Fonterra sounded international and modern.

"When they sit down to talk business they'll know who it is," he said.

Dairy factory worker union representative Ray Potroz was "flabbergasted" by the name and thought the company had made its first blunder.

Dairy farmers were happy with it.

South Waikato farmer Christina Baldwin rated it A-plus, and Dairy Farmers of NZ chairman Charlie Pedersen thought it "absolutely marvellous". The former schoolteacher was delighted at the name's roots in Latin, "the mother of all language".

One farmer had less scholarly pursuits in mind. Fonterra, he thought, sounded like an Italian brothel.