Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Helen Nash, the Chair of Inghams Group Limited. On behalf of the Board, management team and all our staff, I'd like to welcome all shareholders and guests to the 2022 Annual General Meeting. It is now 10 am and there being a quorum present, I declare the 2022 Annual General Meeting of Inghams Group Limited open. If you haven't already done so, please could you put your phones on silent.
On behalf of Inghams, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on whose land we meet today. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. The agenda for today's meeting will be as follows: I will give my Chair's address your Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Andrew Reeves, will then give his address and I will then move to the formal items of business and resolutions as set out in our notice of meeting. Once concluded, we will open the meeting to general business Tims. We are pleased to be able to hold this meeting as a hybrid meeting with shareholders and their proxies present here at the physical venue and also joining us remotely.
To provide shareholders with flexibility and to ensure that all shareholders and their proxies enjoy a similar opportunity to participate today, whether they are here at this venue or participating remotely, the meeting is also being hosted using the Computershare platform. Those attendees joining us virtually can hear a live webcast of the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies attending virtually will also have the ability to ask questions and submit their votes via the Computershare platform. A guide to the online meeting has been made available on the Investor Center on our website. If you experience any issues with the system during the meeting, please call the number at the top of the screen.
Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. To ensure you have enough time to vote, I will shortly open the voting for the resolution items 2 through 6. For our shareholders attending virtually, if you are eligible to vote and once voting opens, select the vote icon and all resolutions will be activated with options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options and your vote will be automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation to the occasion on your screen.
You have the ability to amend your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. For those attending the meeting in person, if you are eligible to vote, you would have received a blue voting card at registration. If you believe you are entitled to vote and you've not received the correct voting card, please see the Computershare staff at the registration table. To cast your vote, simply complete and sign the back of your card. A Computershare representative will collect your voting card at the end of the meeting.
I now declare voting open on the resolutions in items 2 to 6. For our online shareholders, the voting options will soon be activated, so please submit your votes at any time. I will give you time and a warning at the end of all items of business before I move to close the voting. The final results will be released to the market and Ingham's website later today. If we experience technical difficulties in broadcasting the AGM to shareholders, we will pause the meeting and aim to recommence at the earliest opportunity.
If these difficulties persist, I will assess the circumstances and then communicate further with you. If we take steps to adjourn the meeting, we will make an announcement to the ASX with all relevant details. Computershare is the returning officer for this meeting. Virtual attendees can submit questions at any time. To do so, please select the Q and A icon at the top of the Computershare platform.
Select the topic your question relates to from the drop down list and then type your question into the text box. Once finished, please press the Send button. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will address them at the time when the relevant item of businesses discussed. Please also note that your questions may be moderated. Or if we receive multiple questions on the same topic, similar questions may be amalgamated.
For those shareholders who wish to ask a verbal question via the telephone line, please follow the instructions below the broadcast. For our shareholders attending in person, those in possession of either a blue voting card or yellow nonvoting card are welcome to ask questions, while those with a white visitor card are kindly requested to only observe during the meeting. If you believe you've not received the right card, then please go to the registration desk where a Computershare representative will assist you. I would like to thank shareholders who took the opportunity to submit questions in advance of today's AGM. These questions have been reviewed and will be responded at the appropriate point during the course of the meeting, we will make every attempt to answer all questions today.
If time constraints prevent us from doing these responses to unanswered questions will be posted in the Investor Center of the Inghams website after the meeting. I would like to say it's a privilege to step into the role of Chair of Inghams. My transition has be made easier by the prudent governance and collegiate approach established by Peter Busch. I look forward to working with my Board colleagues, the management team and our external stakeholders for the benefit of our company as we move through the next stages of growth and performance. I would also like to introduce you to the other Board members here with us today.
Starting from my immediate left, we have Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Andrew Reeves Non Executive Director and Chair of the Risk and Sustainability Committee, Jackie McArthur Non Executive Chief Director and Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, Mike Eileen Non Executive Director, Tim Longstaff, who is standing for election at today's meeting: Non Executive Director, Rob Gordon, who is standing for reelection today Non Executive Director, Lindo Bardo Nichols, AO then we have our company secretary, David Matthews and at the end of the table, we also have Non Executive Director and Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee, Robin Stubbs, who is standing for reelection today. We also have our executive leadership team with us seated in the 1st row. Joining us also today representing our Exome Auditor is KPMG partner, Julie Clary. When we move to the formal and business of the meeting, Julie will be available to respond to questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent auditors' report. Turning now to my presentation, which was released to the ASX earlier this morning.
I would like to commence my presentation today by taking the opportunity on behalf of the board and the management team to extend my most sincere thanks and appreciation to the recently retired long serving Chairman, Peter Busch, in recognition of the immense contribution he has made to the Inghams business during his time as Chairman. Peter, who I'm very happy to say is here with us today, has enjoyed a long and successful career across a variety of sectors, notably in the fast moving consumer goods industry in both executive and Board roles. He has applied the great depth of knowledge and experience gained over many years to great effect at Ingham's. Peter has been instrumental in Ingham's transition from private family owned business to becoming an established listed company and building a Board and helping guide the establishment of a strong leadership team that we have in the business today. As the Chairman of the business throughout its life to date as a listed company, Peter was a calm, experienced and steadying hand, particularly during the tumultuous times that we have been through at the height of the COVID-nineteen pandemic, Peter leaves the business in a sound position with solid foundations and underlying fundamentals, Peter, we thank you and wish you all the best for the next chapter and whatever it holds for you.
This time last year, we spoke of the COVID related challenges that we faced in Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, the last 12 months has continued to challenge us all. Ingham's FY 'twenty two financial results were delivered against the backdrop of a volatile operating environment driven by the ongoing COVID-nineteen pandemic, labor challenges and floods in New South Wales and Queensland that placed further pressure on the operating environment. It also included the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which has had a significant impact on global fuel and feed prices. While the first half of F 'twenty two was a challenging period for the business as a result of prolonged lockdowns and COVID related operational disruptions, our headline results were broadly in line or ahead of the same period in FY 'twenty one.
However, as the first half came to a close, the impacts the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-nineteen variant began to be felt, resulting in a significant increase in employee absenteeism in the second half, which negatively impacted our processing capabilities during this period. We also had to contend with an unprecedented level of supply chain disruption caused by COVID-nineteen, which resulted in delays in key packaging and ingredients, transport issues arising from growth, both truck and driver shortages, fuel levy increases due to global price growth and carbon dioxide supply constraints in both Australia and New Zealand, which impacted our processing capabilities. Reflecting these challenging business conditions, principally those experienced during the second half of the year, our FY 'twenty two results included: core poultry volume growth 4.2%, driving revenue of £2,700,000,000 an increase of 1.7 percent a decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 16.6 percent to £370,400,000 a reduction in net profit after tax of 57.9 percent to €35,100,000 a decline in earnings per share of 57.9 percent to 0.09 dollars 0.4 $0.05 per share and fully franked dividends declared or paid totaling $0.07 per share. The small final dividend that was declared reflected the significantly reduced profitability in the second half.
We would expect dividends to improve as the recovery in operations and earnings that we are currently experiencing continues. Despite the market conditions that we've experienced and the interruptions we continue to manage through, Ingham's underlying business remains solid, supported by 3 key factors. 1st, the poultry sector remains a growing sector and enjoys significant affordability advantage over alternatives, this is a factor that we believe will provide important support to the sector and the Inghams business underpinning future demand. Secondly, the health and versatility benefits of poultry are well established, which aligns very well with the established trends and consumer preferences for healthier lifestyle options. And 3rd, Chicken has significant sustainability benefits, which I will comment on in a little bit more detail shortly.
Against this backdrop, Ingham's core business is well positioned for future growth with its geographically diverse network and integrated operating model. While we have faced many challenges during the past year, our leadership team has demonstrated an enduring commitment to leading with care. We focused on keeping our people safe and being agile in our operations to continue to deliver quality products to our customers. We want our people to go home safely to their families every day. Our Safety for Life program provides an important foundation, improving our safety performance and achieving a vision of 0 harm for our people.
I am very pleased to report that our company wide safety performance improved for the 3rd consecutive year in FY 'twenty two. When compared to our FY 'twenty one results, our lost time injury frequency rate measured per 1,000,000 hours worked declined 3% to 2.8 with the total recordable injury frequency rate declining 16% to 5.1%. Importantly, these results were achieved during one of the most challenging operating environments many of us can remember and are a credit to the relentless work on a focus on safe work practices by our entire team. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the hard work of our entire workforce and thank them for their resilience and unwavering commitment to our customers despite the many challenges the business faced during the year. As you will have read, there have been a number of changes at the Board level this year.
From time to time, the membership of the Board is refreshed, ensuring that its members possess an appropriate range of skills, knowledge and experience across the various areas relevant to Ingham's core capabilities and strategic objectives to deal with current and emerging business issues. The Board currently comprises 8 independent nonexecutive directors and one Executive Director being the CEO and Managing Director, Andrew Reeves. The performance and effectiveness of the Board, its committees and individual directors, it's regularly reviewed to ensure the Board as a whole is working effectively and meeting its responsibilities. During the reporting period as announced to the ASX, Robin Stubbs and Tim Longstaff were appointed as Non Executive Directors. Robin was appointed to both the People and Remuneration Committee, which he now chairs, and to the Risk and Sustainability Committee, while Tim was appointed to both the Risk and Sustainability Committee and to the Finance and Audit Committee.
At this year's AGM, pursuant to the ASX listing rules and the company's constitution, Robin and Tim both retire and being eligible have nominated for election as Directors. You will hear from both Robin and Tim when we move to the formal business of the meeting. This year, we also have Rob Gordon seeking reelection to the Board. Rob was last elected by the to the Board by shareholders in October 2019, and you will also hear from Rob a little later. Turning now to a review of remuneration, starting with remuneration outcomes for F 'twenty two and our plans for FY 'twenty three.
Based on the reduced performance of the company in FY 'twenty two, short term incentives were not awarded. While the company's performance in the key non financial factors of core poultry sales volume growth, people safety and food safety was strong with scores that were at or above the maximum level set, the short term incentive balance scorecard outcome for FY 'twenty two was not achieved due to the financial hurdles not being met. As a result and in line with our remuneration framework and policies, the final FY 'twenty two short term incentive outcomes for Executive KNP was 0. To quantify this outcome, it reflects a forfeited incentive value equivalent to approximately €1,400,000 at target and approximately €2,100,000 at maximum for the CEO and CFO combined. Similar to the short term plan, the long term incentive plan covering FY 'twenty to FY 'twenty 2 did not vest.
Of the earnings per share hurdle, 0% vested. For the total shareholder return element, as Inghams was positioned at the 20th percentile against its comparator group, none of the relative TSR measure vested. The lapsed face value of the long term incentive for the CFO was approximately $500,000 while the CEO did not participate in this planned tranche. In FY 'twenty two, we undertook a thorough benchmarking process to assess KMP remuneration. The Board determined no increases to total fixed remuneration for the CEO and MD and the CEO of New Zealand.
The total fixed remuneration for the CFO was increased by 6.6% to create a better alignment with the benchmarking data for the role. Our overall approach when undertaking such reviews is to ensure that we set remuneration at an appropriate level that reflects the skills, knowledge and experience of the individual that the company can compete effectively in the market talented and experienced executives and that remuneration outcomes are based on comparable market rates. Overall, we believe that we've achieved the right balance between these various elements. In the 2020 financial year, Inghams adopted the lease accounting standard, AASB 16, in the reporting of its statutory financial results. Since that time, the company's financial results have been provided in both pre- and post AASV 16 formats to satisfy the various requests we've received at the time from investors and sell side analysts.
Consistent with previous years, both the Y22 short term incentive plan and the FY22 to 2024 long term incentive plan included financial measures based on a pre AASB 16 Financial Outcome. You will recall that the Board has had previously committed to changing the return on invested capital for future incentive plans to a measure calculated by reference to post AASB 16 financial performance. Due to the complexity of selecting the most appropriate financial measures, it has taken us a little longer to implement this change, with the Board reviewing a thorough analysis of propose changes to ensure that any changes to performance measures are aligned with company and shareholder value creation. In FY 'twenty three, the short term incentive financial measure and performance gate will move from EBITDA pre pre ASV 16 to EBIT post ASV 16. While the core volume sales growth measure remains unchanged for FY 'twenty 3 will be removed in FY 'twenty four.
You will have noted there is no resolution being tabled this year at the AGM for the approval of a long term incentive scheme for the CEO. A key performance element of the long term plan is the return on invested capital measure. And this measure is significantly impacted by the application of AASB 16. Following a review by the Board of the proposed LTI plan and budgeted post AASV 16 return on invested capital target, the Board determined that it did not provide management with the appropriate incentives for making optimal long term decisions in the best interest of the business and all shareholders. Accordingly, the Board resolved to undertake a detailed review of an alternative LTI incentive structure with the aim of formulating a plan that aligns with shareholders' interest and provides management with the appropriate incentives for long term decision making.
This work is currently underway, and the Board will seek shareholder approval for both the FY 'twenty three to 'twenty five and FY 'twenty four to 'twenty six long term incentive schemes for the CEO and Managing Director at the Next AGM. The Board is committed to retaining our executive leadership talent. Today, the market for executive talent is highly competitive and our high performing people are being approached by other organizations with increasing frequency. Recognizing the importance of retaining the CEO and CFO in delivering improved returns to shareholders as the business cycles out of these challenging times, at this year's meeting, we are seeking approval for a one off grant of performance rights. Besting of the award will be subject to performance conditions measured against absolute total shareholder return over 3 years and held for 1 further year and will be subject to additional individual performance clawbacks.
The minimum absolute total shareholder return performance hurdle has been set at 10% per annum. At this level, 30% of the award would vest and a straight line vesting between 30% 100% of the award applies up to the stretched performance of 20% per annum or greater. The Board remains committed to ensuring the remuneration strategy reflects good governance, consultation with key stakeholders and is transparent in its design to support the business strategy and drive sustainable outperformance shareholders over the short, medium and long term. For those who wish to read more, you will find the remuneration report starting on Page 83 of the 2022 annual report. Our purpose and values are aligned with our to deliver consistent and reliable returns to our stakeholders.
We believe this is only possible in a future where sustainability and climate change risks have been identified and mitigated. An important factor underpinning our approach and the future of the industry is the sustainability aspect of chicken. With a carbon footprint that is estimated to be around 5 times smaller than red meat, chicken is the green animal protein, and this will continue to be an important part an important addition additional underpinning for the sector as we move forward. We are well positioned to leverage this benefit and to make a positive difference by addressing sustainability challenges and opportunities through our focus on embedding sustainability best practice into everything that we do. With sustainability position as a core element of our strategy, we are embedding sustainable decision making across our business with 3 key areas of focus: people and consumers.
Our team of approximately 8,000 people are at the forefront of our purpose and are the most important asset in driving sustainability at Inghams. We are committed to providing a safe and empowering workplace for our teams as well as ensuring compliance across the supply chain, continuing to provide sustainable and nutritious products to our consumers and supporting the communities where we work. Animals, we are committed to being leaders in animal welfare by protecting and improving the health, welfare and comfort of our birds through monitoring, accountability and innovative solutions and technology. And planet, protecting and preserving the land on which we operate is core to delivering sustainable and quality products. We are committed to adapting and responding to the impacts of climate change by minimizing any negative environmental impacts through sustainable procurement, water stewardship, innovative waste solutions and sustainable agriculture.
We have made strong progress over the last year across a range of sustainability initiatives, which Andrew will detail during his presentation. In line with our commitment to transparently report on our progress, our sustainability report has been updated and expanded, outlining our progress towards our 2,030 planet targets and focusing on those key areas where we are making a positive difference. This year's report also continues our transparent reporting in alignment with the task force for climate related financial disclosures. Last year, we made a commitment to deliver on Phase 2 of Ingham's TCFD road map. I am pleased to report that this year we have followed through with that commitment, undertaking a series of workshops to identify the key physical risks, transition risks and opportunities facing us now and into the future.
This information has guided this year's disclosure and the work we are doing to further develop our TCFD reporting going forward. We recognize that sustainability and business performance are linked and that to continue being leaders in sustainable poultry, we must challenge ourselves to make change, invest in the work required and collaborate with our partners and customers to make a difference. Over the next 12 months, more detail will be shared about Ingham's sustainability strategy and the journey to achieve our goals. While the challenges of the global landscape and ongoing pandemic continue into FY 'twenty three, I remain optimistic and confident in the prospects for the company and our future. The poultry sector remains an attractive and growing one, underpinned by a number of significant advantages, including a large price advantage and well established health benefits over red meat and a meaningful sustainability advantage with a carbon footprint that is 5 times smaller than red meat.
We have a highly experienced team of leaders a capable and committed passionate team of 8,000 people striving to deliver our customers with the highest quality products and services. Our journey will continue to focus on creating a safe, inclusive and engaging environment for our people, taking care of our animals, protecting our planet, creating innovative and exciting products and building strong relationships with our customers, all of which are essential as we look to build stronger and more stable returns for our shareholders. I will now hand you over to your Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Andrew Reeves, to take you through further operational highlights and more of the details that underpin our business and our performance. Thank you, Andrew.
Thanks, Helen, and good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to be presenting at today's Annual General Meeting and would like to add my welcome to all of you who are joining us today. As many of you know, Engiums is the largest integrated protein producer across Australia and New Zealand, providing chicken, turkey and plant based protein products to major retail, quick service restaurants, food service distributors and wholesalers. Our diverse network provides us with a number of important advantages, including no poultry products can be imported into Australia, with the exceptions of certain poorly cooked items from New Zealand ensuring local supply through a network of regional operating facilities, fully servicing our national and local customer requirements, mitigating agricultural risk and managing feed volatility and managing biosecurity and operational risks. It also gives us the opportunity the optionality, sorry, and flexibility for future growth.
Ingham's operations are vertically integrated and hard to replicate. Aside from the obvious barriers to entry this creates, there are other important benefits that we derive from this model. By controlling all elements of the production process, we're able to realize efficiencies across all aspects of our supply chain, which you can see being realized through throughout the years through our continuous improvement strategies and processes. Following on from this, we're able to ensure that we achieve the appropriate production balance across our operations with combined which combined with operational excellence are keys to growing margin over time. I'd like now to make a few comments regarding our financial performance in FY 'twenty two.
As Helen has already noted, our financial performance in FY 'twenty two reflected what was a very challenging period for our business, which was characterized by the impact of a number of significant events outside our control. The broad operational disruption we experienced during the year as a result of COVID-nineteen pandemic compounded by the spread of the omicron variant and the strict isolation rules put in place by government, resulted in a sharp increase in employee absenteeism in the second half of the first half of this calendar year. The material impact of labor shortages on our processing capabilities during Q3, combined with the effect of softer demand across other channels in the first half, saw a progressive industry wide volume shift to the wholesale channel during the year, which depressed wholesale prices for much of this period. To put the issues of labor shortages in perspective, at points in time, our processing plants experienced absentee ISM rates as high as 50%, which had wide ranging effects on our ability to produce our full range of products. One example of this would be our packaging processes, where the shortage of labor meant we could not place products into tray packs that you find in your local supermarket, which meant we had to stop making certain products until we had sufficient people return to complete these important steps in the process.
Importantly, however, as these pressures abated in the final quarter, we saw the wholesale channel pricing recover. And I'm very pleased to say that we've seen a sustained strong recovery in pricing as processing activities have normalized. I am confident given the reduction in the COVID infection levels and the change in government isolation rules, the risk of such high absenteeism is now behind us. The cost environment is a challenging one for all businesses and our costs remain elevated, mainly driven by feed and transport. Our operational efficiency programs have helped offset some of these inflationary impacts.
However, they alone are not sufficient to fully offset the cost pressures experienced by the business. That said, the overall program continues to deliver strong results and is expected to be an important ongoing contributor to our future financial results. We achieved good price increases across all channels and customers during the period. With the increases we have achieved in New Zealand contributing to FY 'twenty two, while Australian price increases will make a meaningful contribution in FY2023. In terms of our pricing, our average selling price or ASP has recovered strongly since its low point in mid January, increasing 6.6% to the end of June as a result of improvements in channel mix and significant price recovery in wholesale and price increases achieved with customers.
Broadly, we have been seeking to achieve price increases that offset our cost inflation environment, and discussions remain ongoing with all customers should we need to seek further increases. Over the last year, I've talked at length in different forums about the importance Inghams places on sustainability and our long track record of embedding sustainability practices into our business. This sustained effort and focus has resulted in us becoming recognized industry leaders in water stewardship, sustainable agriculture and sustainable food production. Importantly, we continue to make great progress on advancing our sustainability agenda as evidenced by our performance across a wide range of indicators covering our 3 principal areas of focus. In the area of our people, we are committed to a vision of 0 harm for our people by supporting their health, safety and well-being.
And I'm pleased to report a firm improvement in our safety performance underpinned by our Safety for Life program, which is aimed at reducing injuries identified in high risk activities. We aim to provide a safe, inclusive and supportive workplace, and it is a priority for FY 2022 and FY2023 to establish foundations that will accelerate these goals. The key element within that is our commitment to improving gender equality. Currently, women comprise 28% of our senior leadership team, up from 20% last year. And we are working towards achieving a minimum 40% of women in senior leadership roles by 2025.
We are recognized as a leader in animal welfare throughout our innovative and transparent animal welfare practices and accountable leadership. Our animal welfare policy, objectives and measures are based on the traditional five freedoms. They also go further than that, promoting positive experiences and quality of life. We published our inaugural animal welfare report in the financial year of 2021 and continue to build on these outlined commitments to animal welfare. We have also invested to improve animal welfare, implementing the hatch care system at 2 hatcheries, which ensures our newly hatched chicks get light, food and water from the moment they hatch.
On the environment side, we have established commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by our operations and supply chain and respond to the impacts of climate change. I'm very pleased to report that we have achieved further improvements across our key indicators in FY 'twenty two. And you can read more about our ESG achievements in our annual report for 2022. So moving now to an update on our strategy. Since I became CEO last year, we have been reviewing and updating Ingham's strategy, culminating in the Strategy Day with our Board and leadership team in mid October.
The poultry sector has a number of important structural underpinnings, which both we and our major customers see us providing the opportunity for growth both in the size and the value of the category relative to other proteins. The long standing affordability of poultry is an important factor that will underpin future demand growth for the sector. Chicken consumption has been steadily growing for the better part of the last 60 years and with significant pricing that continues to be observed versus other land based proteins, we believe the poultry sector is world based, well placed to deliver future growth. Additionally, the health and versatility benefits of poultry are well established, which aligns very well with the ongoing trends and consumer preferences for healthier lifestyle options. The opportunity exists for us to partner with key customers and create shared value beyond the traditional transactional relationship model.
We see significant opportunities for innovation across the product range and customer experience of poultry. And Inghams is uniquely placed to have the kind of closer and more integrated relationship with our key customers, and we believe this is going to be necessary to create these outcomes. We are clearer on our strengths that will help create value within these partnerships, such as insight and innovation, our network and production capabilities that support our customers' growth and a commitment to sustainability and the concept of raised right, which is only growing in importance to our consumers' food choices. Underlying this, we will also continue to consider opportunities to improve the structure and efficiency of the network through various means, including continuous improvement, automation and plant specialization. And finally, we'll continue to develop and transform the culture of our business and reinforce the capabilities required to create value through a continuous focus on leadership and people development.
We believe this will create a platform for sustainable Long term growth through cocreating product and ranges for and with customers that are worth more and grow the profit pool, increase the distinctiveness of these products and making ourselves an indispensable partner, Supporting the growth of our customers who are the leading players in their markets to support above market volume and value growth for Inghams, create the organization and workforce that can deliver this value better than any other and ultimately, improving the returns on capital required to continue to grow our business. I am pleased to say that the business recovery that commenced during the final quarter of FY 'twenty two has been ongoing. While we continue to manage some variability in our operational tempo due to ongoing supply chain disruptions and labor availability issues, our operations remain on path to full recovery, report returning to normal operating levels and product range availability. Our sales volumes in the 1st quarter are slightly lower than prior corresponding period, reflecting a slight softening in demand and some variability in customer service levels, which we continue to expect to return to normal in due course. As we outlined at the FY 'twenty two results, we have achieved good price increases across our entire customer base, the benefits of which are now being seen.
The significant recovery in wholesale price that was underway in the last quarter of the last financial year has been maintained. We have observed something of a stabilization in fee costs since our results in mid August with small declines in both wheat and soy mill pricing. Despite this, feed prices remain elevated due to tight global as a result of the continuing uncertainty surrounding production in the Ukraine and related trade flows, poor growing conditions in North and South America and elevated transport costs. While the stabilization is a welcome relief, we do not expect any benefit from reduced pricing to be felt until later in FY 'twenty three and into FY 'twenty four. We remain in active discussions to secure further price increases to offset ongoing feed cost and other inflationary pressures should this be necessary.
While we continue to experience operational disruptions in some shape Farming and plant operations remain on path to recovery, supporting in turn an ongoing improvement in customer service levels. Supply chain disruptions remain a feature of our operating environment, with New Zealand experiencing more pronounced effects, including ongoing labor shortages and a countrywide shortage of CO2 carbon dioxide, which is mainly used in our further processing facilities. We have now completed the conversion of our Auckland processing from CO2 to nitrogen based cooling to mitigate this operational challenge. I'm pleased to report that we have opened a new distribution center located in Traganina, west of the Melbourne CBD and are working through the commissioning process for this facility. We're also making good progress on a new rearing farm in Northern New South Wales.
Thanks to the hard work of the project team. The project is on time, on budget and expected to commence operations in the middle of this month. More broadly, as I mentioned earlier, we are busy working through a strategy, network and capital plan update. And in closing and on behalf of our management team, I would like to thank you for your continued support and for joining us today. I'll now hand back to Helen to conduct the formal items of business.
Thanks, Helen.
Thank you, Andrew. I will now move to the formal items of business. The notice of meeting was lodged with the ASX on the 7th October 2022 and is also available on the Inghams website in the Investor Center, I propose the notice of meeting be taken as read. Each resolution set out in the notice of meeting is to be considered as an ordinary resolution and to be approved by a simple majority of votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote. For all items of business and in accordance with any voting exclusions that apply to each resolution, undirected proxies that have been given to the Chair or my fellow directors will be voted in favor of those items.
The results of today's meeting will we released to the ASX and published on the Inghams Group Limited website later today. The first item of business is to receive and consider the financial report of the company and its controlled entities and the reports of the directors and auditor for the year ended 25th June 2022. The annual financial report, Director's report and auditors report are contained in the company's 2022 annual report, which was released to the market on the 7th October and can be found on the Inghams Group website. As I noted earlier, KPMG partner Julie Cleary is with us today and available to respond to questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent auditors' report and the independence declaration. This item of business is for discussion only, and the Corporation directs that there is no vote required.
I will now take questions on this item of business, starting with any questions in the room.
That's covered easily. I raised the issue of the rainbow line within trade credits. Is it actually secured?
Thank you, Graham, for your question. We do actually have Gary Mallet, our group CFO so Gary, I think you handled this question last year. I'll ask you to respond to Graham. Thank you. Okay, 3 years ago.
We're all on line.
So yes.
Okay. Is it completed?
We counted this inventory. Okay.
Thanks for that. I still plan to see how the company inventory will be out in the company
for each house. It's been just bearing
low. So it's a it isn't just bearing? Yes. Thank you, Ewan. Because there's
not a problem, but it's short term. Okay, Brian. My other question basically is on leases. Can you give any comments on how rising interest rates may or may not affect the leasing
liabilities of the company.
Gary, I think that's another question right up your street. Thank goodness you're here.
So with the leases there, They will not adjust with the changing interest rates. So they're on long term lease arrangements And they've got yearly escalations either for fixed announced or related to CPI and generally the lower So that's on the payment side, then obviously the liability is done as they're present value. So that does have some impact on the liability side, but on the cash side, it's a rate that was negotiated at the inception of the lease.
It's The weighted average, right, of the leases of our 5 years?
We show that in our full year results. So There's 2 elements. There's the grower contracts, so they're generally shorter. They're about 4 years. And then the property leases, which is the other element, I think
it was 12 years, but I'd
need to just double check what we said at the full year.
Yes. Was you in the public post sanctions for them?
Yes. I just
noticed the breaking permits balance is We're about 16.6 million up, we've got the payment we've got 16.3. So if the company's returning to normal And if I took a guess at a particular level of dividend activities, it would not be fully franked.
Barry, would you like to make a comment?
So it totally depends on how much taxes is paid Is the answer to that question. But yes, we do pay it regularly.
Thank you.
Thank you, Graham. Do we have any other questions in relation to the audit or the accounts in the room. Brett, do we have any questions online or on the phone?
We've got one question online from Mr. And Mrs. Crowley. As the company claims to be the largest poultry producer, why hasn't it passed on some of the increased costs? The rival companies must also be under cost pressure and would be unlikely to try and undercut prices.
If the answer is that the company has locked in prices with no escape clauses, who was responsible And what steps are being taken?
I'm happy to do it. Yes.
Thank you, Mr. And Mrs. Crowley, for your question. As you will have heard from Andrew's presentation earlier, we have had good success in passing along price increases to all customers. These increases have been taking effect progressively over the past year with increases in New Zealand reflected in our FY 'twenty two results, while Australian price increases will have a more meaningful impact in FY 'twenty three, as Andrew said, importantly, we maintain an open dialogue with all of our customers and will seek further increases as required.
Brett, do we have any more questions?
Sure. There are no further questions online.
Thank you. Are there any questions on the telephone line?
There are no Questions on the telephone lines.
Okay. Thank you, Brett. As there are no further questions, I will now move to the resolutions. Item 2, the first resolution today is for the election of Robin Stubbs as Non Executive Director of the company, Robin was appointed a Non Executive Director of the company on the 20th January 2022. Pursuant to the ASX listing rules and the company's constitution, Robin will retire at the conclusion of the meeting and being eligible, is nominated for election as a Director of the meeting.
Robin is currently Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee and a member of the Risk and Sustainability Committee of the company. Robin is a Board Director and Executive Coach working across the commercial and government sectors and draws on a successful career with more than 25 years as a senior executive in large complex organizations. With her experience on Board committees at the Adventus Group, Brickworks Limited and Invocare, she brings strong Board level perspective on culture and people as well as remuneration. She also brings great knowledge in digitalization. The Board believes Robin provides a valuable contribution to the Board with her expertise and experience across other major listed companies across diverse sectors and accordingly unanimously supports Robin's election.
I would now like to invite Robin to say a few words in support of her election. Robin?
Thank you, Chair, and good morning, everyone. It's a great pleasure to be here with you today and to be considered for election to the Ingham's Board, since my appointment to the Board in January, I've been both a member and more recently Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee and a member of the Risk and Sustainability Committee. A little bit about my professional background, building on Helen's comments. During the course of my executive career, which spanned 25 years, I held senior roles with multinational and ASX listed organizations, and these involved financial accountability in business units for household names, companies like Stockland, Lendlease, Fairfax, Network 10 and Unilever. A significant part of my time as an executive was spent in customer facing roles, including market research, brand strategy, product development, sales, leasing and communicators.
As a senior executive, I successfully built and led geographically dispersed teams, including through periods of significant volatility and change, perhaps most notably throughout the GFC in 2,008. These periods taught me a great deal and required significant flexibility, responsiveness and rethinking of both business models and structures. Following my transition to Board Director role 7 years ago with a successful IPO of Aventis Property, I gained significant ASX listed experience through independent non executive director roles at Brickworks, Aventis and InvoCare Limited. I have previously chaired people remuneration and culture committees on other boards, including Aventus and InvoCare. And during that time, I led substantial remuneration to review.
I currently serve on 2 other ASX listed companies, ASX200 listed companies, HomeCo Daily Needs, REIT and Rick Wirtz, I believe I bring deep skills and highly relevant experience to Inghams across a number of important disciplines, including product development and marketing, digitalization, people and remuneration. My experience reflects my deep interest in leadership development, working with Stevenson Mantle Group as a qualified executive coach and mentor to a diverse range of senior clients across Telco, Retail, Financial Services, Property, Legal and Government sectors. Thank you so much for your time and for considering my reelection for the Board.
Thank you, Robin. I'll now take questions on this item, starting with questions in the room. Yes, Graham?
I'd like to make a comment, Matthew, on the structure of the Board. Simple fact that why I think there's too many that we've learned a scoop of the profit and cash flow there. They are some superb. Simple fact, if you take a random book through the market, a company capitalized at $1,000,000,000 Plus that 5 plus 1, being at 6 plus 1. This company has got 2,000,000 independent directors.
I mean, the fabulous invest our management team to drive the business. Having been on Boards myself in my career, despite several $1,000,000,000 Thank you.
Thank you, Graham. Your comment is noted. And I think as I said in my address, we review the construct and skills and the makeup of the Board regularly, this Board is actually 1 Director less than it was a year ago. But your comment is noted, and we review it on a going basis. Are there any more questions in the room?
Brett, do we have any online questions?
Sure. We have one question online from Mr. Robert Krone. Have you directed to Robin, have you or do you intend to have a role in Kingham's executive coaching?
Thank you, Mr. Krone. No, I don't have a role in Ingham's executive coaching and at this Point has no intention of doing so.
Thank you, Robin. Brett, do we have any further questions online or on the phone? Okay. Moving to the proxy results. The proxy results are now shown on the screen.
I will pause briefly while you cast your vote. Moving to item number 3. Item 3 is the election of Tim Longstaff as a Non Executive Director of the company. Tim was appointed as a Non Executive Director of the company on the 20th January 2022. Pursuant to the ASX listing rules and the company's constitution, Tim will retire at the conclusion of the meeting and being eligible, Tushin, Tim will retire at the conclusion of the meeting and being eligible is nominated for election as a Director at the meeting.
Tim is a member of the Finance and Audit Committee and the Risk and Sustainability Committee of the company. Tim had a a 25 year career in Investment Banking with many years in Managing Director and Senior Executive roles at Top Tier Global Investment Banking Firms. More recently, Tim served as a Senior Advisor to the Federal Minister for Finance and Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Federal Minister For Trade, Tourism and Investment, he is also a Non Executive Director of Snowy Hydro Limited, Perenti Global Limited and the George Institute For Global Health and a member of the Takeovers Panel. The Board believes that Tim provides a valuable contribution to the Board with expertise in financial management and analysis, sources, structure and allocation of capital and strategy development and execution. In addition, he brings experience across a range of other organizations operating in different sectors of the Board, the Board unanimously supports Tim's election.
I'd now like to invite Tim to say a few words in support of his election.
Tim?
Thank you, Helen, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's an honor to have served as a Director of Ingham since January of this year. I thought I might share with you some of my initial impressions, which are all positive. Inghams does have, as has been covered, the leading market share. It leverages its diversified vertically integrated operating model.
It does have top tier customers across a range of market segments. It cares deeply. We care deeply for our people. We lead in animal welfare. We've got a skilled, dedicated and effective management team led by Andrew and an experienced and collegiate Board led by Helen.
Inghams really does reflect its purpose of deliciously good food in the best way. As a fellow shareholder, I'm conscious that external shocks meant that the 2022 financial year was tough for us and the cost environment remains challenging in FY 'twenty three As covered in the Chair and CEO's address. In this context, I want to emphasize 3 things a little bit that will be my focus. First, it's restoring EAM's financial performance and creating enduring shareholder value that reflects EAM's strong market position. Secondly, it's to do this sustainably, measured and assessed across a broad range of measures.
And lastly, it's to work collaboratively With the Board, management and indeed broader Ingham's colleagues, reflecting Ingham's values of care, courage, curiosity and commitment. I'm now pleased to put myself forward to you as fellow owners of Ingham's for reelection as a Director. Helen covered my background well and it's on the screen. I thought I'd touch though on 3 primary skills therefore that I bring to the AIMS Board. The first is the finance skill suite, including accounts and capital structure that were developed during my time as a qualified chartered accountant with Bryce Waterhouse and in banking.
The second is about strategy refined during 25 years in investment banking including M and A and investment generally across the business. And last, it's around stakeholder management and corporate affairs skills for fine tuned in my time in government. As Helen said, I'm now a Professional and Executive Director sitting on 3 boards outside Iams and also on the Takeovers Panel. So your support is appreciated and thank you very much.
Thank you, Tim. I'll now take questions on this item, starting with questions in the room. It appears we have no questions in the room. Brett, do we have questions online or on the phone?
Chair, there are no questions online or on the phone for these items.
Thank you, Brett. Moving to the proxy results. I will pause briefly while you cast your vote. Moving to Item 4. Item 4 is the reelection of Rob Gordon as a Non Executive Director of the company.
Rob was appointed as a Non Executive Director of the company on the 11th April 2019 and was last elected by shareholders on the 17th October 2019. Pursuant to the ASX listing rules and the company's constitution, Rob will retire at the conclusion of the meeting and being eligible is seeking reelection as a Non Executive Director at the meeting. Rob is a member of the Finance and Audit Committee and Risk and Sustainability Committee of the company. Rob has nearly 40 years' experience in fast moving consumer goods and agribusiness sectors. This includes over 20 years in Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director roles for companies, including Dairy Farmers Limited, Goodman Fielder Limited and Vatera Inc.
He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Barrick Service Limited and a Rabobank Agribusiness Advisory Board Member. The Board believes that he continues to provide valuable contribution to the Board with his expertise and extensive experience across a range of other major agribusiness, food and FMCG organizations and unanimously supports his election. I'd now like to invite Rob to say a few words in support of his reelection. Rob?
Thank you very much, Helen, and good morning to everybody in attendance today. It's been a privilege to have served the 1st term on the Ingham's Board as a Non Executive Director, and today I seek your support for a second term. Whilst the Chair has mentioned a number of the roles that I've held over 40 year career, I thought it may be helpful to just draw some parallels to the issues that are very relevant to a poultry business like Ingham's. During my time with Dairy Farmers and Goodman Fielder, I was involved personally in negotiating large private label supply contracts for white milk and packaged bread. I have been involved in building innovative brand portfolios, which add real value when looking after the Uncle Toby brand, Meadowlie, Dairy Farmers, Street's Ice Cream and Sunrise Consumer Brands, in my time with Viterra, I was responsible for a large grain trading operation that traded the very grains that are key components to the inputs of Inghams.
Indeed, I have been also responsible for feed businesses, stock feed businesses in both Australia and New Zealand on 2 separate occasions. So with that experience on top of the last couple of years being responsible and leading the ESG framework for the Sunrise Group and early in my career modeling supply chain networks for Unilever in response to the European Common Market being instigated, I think you'll see that a number of the challenges currently facing Inghams are certainly relevant to the experience that I bring to the table. When first nominated 3 years ago, there was a question raised at this meeting about my capacity to both serve as a CEO of an ASX company as well as the Non Executive Director of another ASX listed company. And whilst the last three years has certainly shown that at Times, there are some there's a lot of reading to be done on certain weekends. How do I manage that capacity?
Well, I think it helps, 1st of all, that there are tremendous similarities between my executive role and non executive roles. The issues that are faced both of the businesses are very common and often insights from one business helped the other and therefore there's a complementary nature to the issues that are discussed around the Board table. I have a tremendous support from a very collegiate Ingham's Board and a very capable Board and management team. I have, on the personal side, grown up children and a very long suffering and Tolent wife, and they all expect me to disappear for weekends at a time to read copious quantities of Board Papers for both organizations and for that, I'm very, very grateful. It allows me to certainly dedicate myself to both organizations.
So I think there's some also, I'm in my 11th year as the Chief Executive of Rice Growers, and therefore the learning curve, I think is reasonably well behind me and it allows me to dedicate the time necessary to contribute to the Inghams Board. As has been mentioned a number of times today, I think the competence and skill base of the Inghams executive team is first rate. The collegial nature of the relationship between the Board and management and particularly the facilitation of that by a very experienced and competent CEO in Andrew, I think has really led to quite an exciting time ahead for Inghams Despite the current business circumstances that provide the headwinds that are being described this morning, I'm enormously Excited by the prospect of gaining your support for a second term and helping the management and the business to realize the full potential of this great Australian business. I very much appreciate your support in achieving that. Thank you.
Thank you, Rob. I will now take questions on this item, starting with questions in the room. Thank you, Graham. I do think Rob preemptively answered your question. I can just Rob is an incredibly diligent Director.
He is thorough in his pre reading, he thinks deeply about the meetings. He is always available. Of course, there's occasionally going to be a clash. He always reaches out to members of the committee or the Board ahead of the meeting, asks questions and provides us input. So We
recommend some good golf courses.
Thank you. Brett, do we have any questions online or on the phone?
Yes. We have one question online from Mr. Robert Krone. Please outline the contribution you made to solve Ingham's fee cost problems.
Thank you, Mr. Krone. Obviously, the executive team are responsible for solving the problems of FEED. What I can do is offer advice, insight and also from my experience in the ag sector, provide relevant contemporary insights to the direction of FEED was likely to be happening, but at the end of the day, the decisions are made by the management team with the advice and counsel of the Board, and hopefully, I've been able to provide that input.
Thank you, Rob. Brett, are there any further questions?
There are no further questions online or on the phone.
Thank you, Brett. Moving to the proxy results. I will now pause briefly whilst you cast your vote. Moving to item number 5. Item 5 deals with the adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended 25 June 2022.
The remuneration report is contained on Pages 83 to 106 of the annual report and sets out the remuneration policies of the company and reports on the remuneration arrangements in place for the company's KMP during the 2022 financial year. Earlier this year, Peter Busch and I met with a number of stakeholders to discuss the company's current remuneration plans and update ourselves on the key issues for investors. We remain committed to ensuring the remuneration strategy reflects good governance, consultation with key stakeholders and is transparent in its design to support the business strategy and drive sustainable outperformance for shareholders over the short, medium and long term. While the vote on the remuneration report is a nonbinding one, it is a valuable source of feedback, and the Board will take the following discussions on the outcome of the vote into account in setting remuneration policy for future years. I will now take questions on this item, starting with questions in the room.
Are there any questions on this item? No questions in the room. Brett, are there any questions online or via the phone?
Chair, we have no questions online or via the phone for this item.
Thank you, Brett. I will now move to the proxy results. The proxy results are now shown on the screen. I will pause briefly whilst you cast your vote. Moving to item number 6.
This is a resolution for a one off grant of performance rights to the CEO and Managing Director. Through this resolution, the company is seeking shareholder approval for a one the grant of performance rights to the CEO and Managing Director, Andrew Reeves, for the financial year ended 25th June 2022. The Board is aware of the competitive external labor market and the increasing frequency with which high performing people are being approached by other organizations. The Board is committed to retaining our executive leadership talent and recognize the importance of retaining the CEO and Managing Director to delivering improved returns to shareholders as the business cycles out of these challenging times. It is for these reasons that we seek a one off grant of performance rights.
The performance period for the proposed award is 3 years, commencing on the 19th August 2022. The performance rights will vest at the end of the relevant performance period, subject to the satisfaction of an absolute total shareholder return condition, which is outlined in the notice of meeting, performance will not be retested if the performance conditions are not satisfied at the end of the relevant performance period. Any performance rights that remain unvested at the end of the relevant performance period will lapse immediately. The Board, with Andrew abstaining, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the grant of 1 off performance rights to Andrew. I will now take questions on this item, starting with questions in the room.
Are there any questions on this item? Brett, it appears there's no questions in the room. Are there questions online or on the phone?
Okay. We've received a Couple of questions online for this item. The first question has been amalgamated from those received by Mr. And Mrs. Crowley and Mr.
And Mrs. McCarthy and is as follows: Why should the company even consider a remuneration payment to Mr. Reeves? Since his appointment to the Board in 2019 and subsequent appointment to the MD CEO position, the company's share price has fallen each year To its present low and someone wants to reward him. There are many talented operators in the country.
Further, why are you paying performance rights to the CEO when dividends are at their lowest?
Okay. Thank you to those shareholders for their questions. In terms of the performance of the business in FY 'twenty two, it has indeed been a very challenging year, and we acknowledge the impact external factors have had on Inghams as we've managed through the impacts of the pandemic and other relatively more recent external events. As you will have read in our remuneration report, neither the short term or the long term incentive plans paid out in FY 'twenty two, reflecting the lower corporate performance and thus ensuring strong alignment between Andrew's compensation and the performance of the business. The reason for presenting the one off structure to shareholders for consideration today is in recognition of the very competitive labor market we are faced with and the Board's desire to retain Andrew at Inghams and its confidence in his skill and ability to execute on our strategy to deliver improved performance for the benefit of all shareholders.
Brett, are there any more questions online or on the phone? Okay.
The next question online is from Devinder Chhabra. Hi. If the share price is down significantly, why should performance bonus be given to executives?
Thank you for your question. I think that question is relatively similar to the question that we've just answered. And it does reflect the fact that we're in a very challenging cycle at the moment, executives have, in line with shareholders forfeited a large amount of variable rem. And the reason for putting this scheme in place is to retain this key talent as we cycle out of this cycle and see our operations and earnings improve. Brett, are there any further questions?
Chair, there are no further questions for this item online or on the phone.
Okay, thank you. I will now move to the proxy results. The proxy results are now shown on the screen. I will pause briefly while you cast your vote. That concludes the resolutions.
As a reminder, voting will close once the general business part of the meeting has concluded. So if you've not yet completed your voting, I encourage you to do so now. I will now move to general business. Shareholders are now invited to ask general questions regarding the company. I will now take general questions, starting with questions in the room.
Are there any questions?
Just a quick question. In terms of price increases, how difficult is to get through with
thank you, Graham. A very important question. I might ask Andrew to make a comment on that, if I may.
So the fact is with each of those customers, we've achieved price increases this year. It's never easy. It's always a you always need to justify your position, you take your evidence in there. But the environment of those customers, We're not just asked, but we're experiencing a lot of demands on their supplies to increase prices. You may have noticed the Woolworths We've seen an announcement this week that they have sort of like a 7% inflationary outlook.
If you take the last 10 or 15 years, more worse than that, Nothing like that in their business. So there's clearly a recognition that we're all dealing with a very demanding cost environment and that cost's Got to be passed through. So it's not easy, but we're managing to get it through at the moment.
Thank you, Andrew. Brett, are there any questions online or on the phone?
Chair, we have a number of questions for General Business. The first question is from Mr. And Mrs. Crowley, not many companies prosper in the longer term where the Managing Director is also the CEO. The workload on an MD CEO is too demanding unless the appointee has total control of the so called independent board members Who are mainly puppets nominated by DMD, is it not the time to separate the two functions?
Okay, thank you, Mr. And Mrs. Crowley, for the question. I will answer this question, but then I'll also build on it just to make sure that I cover off what I think you might also be asking, it's very common practice, particularly in public companies, for the CEO to be a Board member and thus to hold the Managing Director title. It is our view that we have a strongly majority independent Board, that exercises a very high degree of oversight over the strategy and activities of the business.
And as you see from today's formal business, we've also refreshed that Board with 2 new highly experienced independent non executive directors. What is less common and against the good governance corporate principles is to have a Chair and a CEO fulfilled by the same person. That is something that is against the corporate governance guidelines and it's something that this Board would not support. But I just wanted to cover that off because that also may have been an angle attached to that question. Brett, are there any more questions online or on the phone?
Gerry, our next question is from Mr. Philip Dunlop. When will the organization achieve equality by gender, ethnicity, including indigenous and disability in CEO and Chairperson, Board, management and staff, how will you keep stakeholders advised of your plans, including recruitment, training and progress toward achieving the goals?
Thank you, Mr. Philip Dunlop, for your question. Like many organizations, Inghams has made good progress but has more work to do on diversity and inclusion, we have been focused on getting our foundations right, leadership and governance and also engaging and trialing different approaches in either specific locations or across the whole organization. Some of our standout achievements include, during FY 2022, 55% of all people manager promotions were women. We have increased women our female senior leaders from 20% to 28% over the last 18 months.
And we have made an overt commitment that by 2025, 40% of our senior leaders will be women. We're developing a reconciliation action plan known as a RAP for approval within this financial year. Our remuneration benchmarking process ensures 0 gender pay discrimination, helping us to close the gap year on year and maintain our 0 gender discrimination. We've undertaken many multicultural celebrations and events to develop stronger awareness, inclusion and engagement amongst our people. Moving forward, our key areas of focus are indigenous representation and disability, we will set our WRAP plan on our disability targets in this financial year and report our progress from 2024 onwards as part of our broader sustainability report.
I just wanted to underline that the Ingham's Board and Executive team are deeply committed to driving continuous improvement in diversity, equality and inclusion. Thank you for your question. Brett, do we have any more questions online or on the phone?
Gerry, our final question online is from Devinder Chhabra. What is the cybersecurity precautions being undertaken by INOMS?
A very pertinent and topical question and I think something that is occupying the minds of every Board, I might ask Andrew to make a couple of comments on how we're addressing that.
Thanks, Alan. So we undertook earlier this year a major independent review of our cyber security risk and profile. As a result of that, we recommended to the Board a program of improving our cybersecurity. And we've recently put in place new structures where we brought in a number of new roles into the business with cybersecurity experts, which we didn't have in the business before, and we're also undergoing a major business transformation project, Which with the upgrading of those systems will also enhance our cybersecurity protection. It's an ongoing issue.
It's on our risk register. It's reviewed constantly by the executive team and obviously with our Board, and we recognize it's a very high priority risk for us to be on top of.
Thank you, Andrew. Brett, do we have any final questions online or on the phone?
Chair, we have one final question from Mr. Robert Krone. What's your time frame to complete new joint partnering arrangements with major customers and what new products will emanate?
Thank you, Mr. Crone. Again, I might ask our Chief Executive to make a comment on that.
So I wouldn't today be talking about new products or things that we might be bringing to market in specific detail because I don't particularly want to give that away to our competitive environment, however, that's an ongoing issue. We're constantly introducing new products and new formats to the market, in the last financial year, we had a very successful introduction of a new upgraded frozen range of packs We have been incredibly successful in the marketplace. So that's an ongoing issue for the business. We review our trading terms, our supply agreements on an ongoing basis with all of our customers. They don't all come due at the same time.
Some customers we have informal relationship with. So it's quite a mixed bag. But there's nothing imminent Right now, in terms of those relationships, those partnerships are in place, those agreements are in place, and we're working through them Business as usual.
Thank you, Andrew. Brett, are there any further questions online or on the phone?
Chair, there are no further questions online or on the phone.
Thank you, Brett. As there are no further questions, voting is now closed, and I declare this Annual General Meeting of Inghams Group Limited closed. On behalf of the Board, thank you for joining us today.