Zespri chief gets hands on a 'fantastic' asset

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agriculture editor

New Zespri chief executive Tim Goodacre may not have eaten many kiwifruit, but he has a strong taste for the style of company he joined last month.

Goodacre, an Australian, said that from his former Melbourne vantage point at wheat giant AWB he became well aware Zespri and the kiwifruit industry were an international success story.

While working with AWB he even sent a staff member to New Zealand to talk to kiwifruit industry people about single desk selling, the Zespri brand and the reasons for its success.

The issues facing the two grower-owned bodies were scarily similar, he said at temporary offices in Mt Maunganui where the company is renovating its building to accommodate head office staff previously housed in Auckland.

Like Zespri, AWB is a former producer board which was restructured as a grower-controlled company.

"That to me is a unique opportunity for an industry," said Goodacre, 48, who began his new job six weeks ago after moving to the Mount with his wife and 10-year-old son.

"There are not many industries in either Australia or New Zealand where the growers actually own and control their national marketing arm. For growers that is a great opportunity."

The two companies also had successful brands and products that sold at premiums because of a high standing in the world market, based on quality and reliability.

Only the scale was different, Goodacre said. AWB serves 42,000 grain growers compared with Zespri's 2500 kiwifruit growers.

But Goodacre, a country lad who grew up on a grain, cattle and sheep farm in central New South Wales and was a Government policy adviser for 15 years before joining AWB in 1990, is pleased by the more intimate size of his new industry.

"You can get your hands around it." He believes he got the job because Zespri wanted someone who understood and had experience of its type of industry structure.

"I think one of my strengths is [in] building strong relationships with the key industry participants - the growers, suppliers and the marketplace."

He was not talking warm and fuzzy, he said, but "building strong relationships based on good commercial outcomes and in ensuring that, particularly, growers feel it is their company, that they have an involvement in it, that they are listened to".

That is a key point for Zespri chairman Craig Greenlees, who took up his new position on the same day Goodacre started after being appointed to succeed long-serving Doug Voss last October.

Greenlees said a priority for his chairmanship was stronger relationships with growers and post-harvest operators. Surveys showed they were happy with Zespri's results, including five consecutive record years, but not with relationships with the company.

The 20-year industry veteran is a co-founder of Direct Management Services, a major kiwifruit orchard management and post-harvest service provider.

Greenlees finds the industry fascinating. "New Zealand kiwifruit is unique. What other product from New Zealand is a world leader? We have over 20 per cent market share of total kiwifruit in the world. The next biggest guy is 2 per cent," he said.

"We are not just the biggest, we have the best kiwifruit, the new variety in Zespri Gold. That gives great opportunity."

During a quick tour to meet Zespri's overseas staff since starting on January 13, Goodacre's view of the Zespri brand has been reinforced.

"That's a fantastic asset but you've got to back that up with an efficient business to continue to deliver the quality and reliability."

His first tasks would be to ensure Zespri's board and management were comfortable with the company's direction and then talk to grower shareholders about the future. Within 12 months he hoped to identify how well parts of the business were running and make necessary adjustments.