Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Rodger Finlay, Chairman of PGG Wrightson Limited, and I'd like to welcome you to our 2021 annual shareholders meeting. I'm pleased to host our first virtual annual shareholders meeting after we unfortunately had to postpone our in-person meeting in Napier in October due to the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and alert level restrictions. As always, the board's main concern was keeping shareholders, guests, and our employees safe. We look forward to hosting future meetings in the Hawke's Bay, and I'd like to thank you for your understanding and patience with the change of arrangements for our meeting. Today's meeting is being held via Computershare's online meetings platform, which allows shareholders, proxies, and guests to attend the meeting virtually. All attendees can watch this live webcast of the meeting and read the company's documents associated with the meeting.
Like our normal in-person meetings, shareholders and proxies can submit questions and cast votes. If you have a question to submit during the live meeting, please select the Q&A tab on the right half of your screen anytime. Type your question into the field and press Send. Your question will be immediately submitted. Should you require any assistance, you can type your query and one of the Computershare team will assist with the chat function and reply to your query. Alternatively, you can call Computershare on 0800 650 034. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, they may be amalgamated together.
Finally, due to time constraints today, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, we will answer them in due course via email. Accordingly, I encourage you to ask your questions early to ensure we can answer them at the end. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open the voting for all resolutions. At that time, if you are eligible to vote at this meeting, you will be able to cast your vote under the Vote tab. Once the voting has opened, the resolutions will allow votes to be cast. To vote, simply select your voting direction from the options shown on the screen. You can vote for all resolutions at once or by each resolution.
Your vote has been cast when the tick appears. To change your vote, simply select Change Your Vote. You have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed, which will be at the close of the meeting. I can confirm that we have a quorum, and accordingly, I declare the 2021 annual shareholders meeting open and voting is open on all items of business. The resolutions will now be available in the Vote tab, and please submit your votes at any time. For the benefit of those who are unable to attend today, I note that we are recording this meeting, and this will be posted on our website later today. Before we begin the formal business of the meeting, I'd like to introduce the board of directors who are attending our meeting today online.
We have our Deputy Chairman, Joo Hai Lee, Independent Director and Chair of our Audit Committee, Sarah Brown, Director, U Kean Seng, and Independent Director, Dr Charlotte Severne. A number of members of the executive team are joining the meeting online, but will not be actively participating in the call. I'd like to acknowledge also that we have Bruce Loader from our auditors, Ernst & Young, joining online. No apologies have been received. The Company Secretary has confirmed that the notice of meeting was sent on 15 November 2021 to all registered shareholders and to other persons entitled to receive that notice. I confirm the minutes of the company's previous annual shareholders meeting, held on 20 October 2020 in Blenheim, were approved as a true and correct record at the board meeting on 7 December 2020.
The minutes of the meeting are posted on the shareholder information section of our website. The financial statements and the reports of the directors and auditors for the year ending 30th of June 2021 are set out in the company's annual report. On the 28th of September 2021, the annual report was posted on the company's website and on our NZX page, and a copy of the report has been sent to shareholders who had requested one. GAAP and non-GAAP performance measures. Please note that we will refer to both GAAP and non-GAAP performance measures. We use operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, or operating EBITDA, as a key measure of performance, and I encourage you to refer to our full accounts for details of how this relates to GAAP measures.
I can confirm that 192 shareholders have appointed proxies for the purposes of this meeting in respect of approximately 36 million shares. I've covered the opening formalities, and I'll now move to the general business of the meeting. I will begin by providing an overview of the highlights of 2021 financial year, and then I will hand over to our Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Guerin. Stephen will provide the financial and operational overview of individual businesses, and he will also summarize how our business is trading for the current financial year to date. I will conclude our presentation by discussing our forecast guidance, which we announced on the nineteenth of October and updated again this morning. Opportunities to respond to questions will follow before we move to the formal business of re-resolutions that will be put to the meeting for voting.
As outlined in the notice of meeting, the business of the meeting comprises three ordinary resolutions relating to the election of Dr. Charlotte Severne as an independent director, the re-election of U Kean Seng as director, and confirming the appointment of Ernst & Young as auditor and also authorizing your board to determine our auditor's fees. Stephen and I will refer to PGG Wrightson as PGW throughout our presentation today. Our team and the business have again proved that they are leaders in the field in supporting our customers, the agri sector, and rural communities to deliver an excellent result. The financial year started and finished strongly with year-end operating EBITDA at NZD 56 million, which was up NZD 13.8 million or 32.8% on last year's COVID-19 impacted result.
PGW also delivered an NPAT of NZD 22.7 million, which was up NZD 15 million on the prior year. These results further substantiate the decision taken to divest the seed and grain business some years ago, allowing us to recalibrate our cost base and our systems and extend our core technical service offering and product range. Our total shareholder return was a positive 30% for the financial year ended 30th of June 2021. This represents impressive value creation for shareholders and reflects well on the health of the business and our trading performance. The directors are particularly pleased that the business backed up the strong first half result and continued to trade well over the second half. This result reflects the collective efforts of our dedicated team who are passionate about the rural sector, supporting our customers and the role they and the sector plays for New Zealand.
We've seen just how important to New Zealand's success the primary sector is, and this has come into stark focus during the global pandemic. As a business, PGW is clear about our strategy of driving for growth by providing our customers with sector leading expertise and innovative solutions for their farming and production needs. We look to lead the market through the specialist knowledge and technical expertise of our people, which we foster through investing in their leadership and capability and in identifying and bringing to market new products we source and trial in New Zealand conditions. Our customers value PGW's technical offering and see this as a distinguishing strength that we will continue to develop. Our strong balance sheet also allows us to contemplate earnings accretive growth ambitions. The PGW board had two changes to its membership during the year.
David Cushing retired from the board on the 30th of April, 2021, having served as a director and chair of the audit committee for two years. The board has previously acknowledged and thanked David for his excellent contributions as a director during that period. Dr. Charlotte Severne joined the board as an independent director on the 18th of June, 2021, and we will talk more about Charlotte's experience and what strengths she brings to this board later in this meeting. I'll now discuss our financial performance highlights. Our operating EBITDA was NZD 56 million, which was up 13.8% or 33%. Our net profit after tax was NZD 22.7 million, up NZD 15 million. Operating revenue of NZD 847.8 million, an increase of 7.6%.
Our gross profit was NZD 223.2 million, which is an increase of 9.4%. Our net cash flow from operating activities of NZD 57.7 million, which was up an impressive 83.4%. As I mentioned earlier, the total shareholder return was a positive 30%. Fully imputed dividends for the year of $0.28 Per share, which was supported by the strong full year earnings. I will now ask Stephen Guerin, our Chief Executive Officer, to provide an operational overview.
Thank you, Rodger, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm delighted to be with you today to update you on the performance of the business. We did indeed deliver an impressive result for the financial year. There were periods during the year where our stores and operations in the Greater Auckland area were impacted by COVID-19 restrictions due to various official pandemic alert levels, which also continues into the current financial year. Some of our business units were deemed essential services during these periods, and were able to continue to supply the services to our customers. Our teams were outstanding in their response to these disruptions as they adapted to the required protocols and continued to serve our customers in safe and innovative ways. The outlook for the rural sector is positive, and farmer and grower confidence is encouraging. Pricing for New Zealand's key agricultural exports were held up.
has held up well and is expected to remain strong as exports are predicted to reach new highs next year. Continued strong demand is expected for lamb and sheep meat, with cattle prices also expected to remain high. Dairy farmer sentiment is positive, with solid payout predicted next year, as we've seen in the recent announcements from Fonterra. The rural sector and farmer sentiment continues to see some challenges. Labor shortages remain a concern, with growers struggling to harvest all their fruit and crops in the past season. The uncertainty in the workforce has also seen some growers put development plans on hold until they could get some surety around access to labor. Farmers, particularly dairy skilled labor. The processors are also continuing to see fewer workers. Shipping delays continue to cause a disruption in the supply chain.
Though there continues to be demand for New Zealand primary products, farmers and growers are conscious of the challenges in getting their products to market. These constraints are also adding cost pressures on imported inputs. Our supply chain is doing a magnificent job focusing on how we mitigate these issues for our customers. Regulatory change and compliance are increasing costs and putting pressure on the sector as farmers and growers grapple with how to respond and assess the lower level of investments needed to achieve the required compliance. Land use changes across the country are progressively altering regional landscapes. An increase in horticultural and arable costs has seen a number of growers diversify their portfolios, invest in these areas, which creates significant sales opportunities for our Fruitfed Supplies business. It is also evident that farmland is being lost to forestry.
Sheep and beef farms being converted at a rate that is causing concern in some regions. As is generally the case, some of our customers and their growing operations were impacted by a range of climatic conditions. Hailstorms across the Christmas new year period last year caused severe damage in parts of the South Island, with a number of crops written off. While drought conditions were experienced in the first half of the financial year, with much of the East Coast experiencing low soil moisture levels. However, these conditions were abruptly ended in Canterbury, West Coast of Marlborough and Tasman following several significant flooding events. Turning to our cash flow and debt positions. PGW experienced strong operating cash flows during the year, which benefited from excellent operating EBITDA performances and a focus on working capital management, including receivables in particular.
This focus has seen PGW's overdue debt balance track at historically low levels. Capital expenditure of NZD 6.8 million was NZD 2.3 million lower than FY 2020, and was impacted by slowing of the implementation of projects as a consequence of COVID-related disruptions. Net interest-bearing debt was NZD 6.5 million as at 30 June 2021, and is the lowest recorded at 30 June in over a decade. Apart from 30 June 2019, we had cash on hand from the sale of the PGG Wrightson Seeds business before the capital distribution to shareholders in August 2019. Taking us to our operational highlights.
Some of the operational highlights we achieved over the year include the following. Our Fruitfed Supplies technical R&D team conducted more than 70 product trials and facilitated over 50 grower meetings nationwide. Revenue for our independent wholesale business, Agritrade, grew by 8% in the financial year. Our real estate business sold 31% more properties compared to FY 2020. Our people completed over 9,000 online learning modules. Our health and safety total recordable injury frequency rate, or TRIFR as we refer to it internally, has reduced by 51% since 2018 financial year baseline. Turning to our business unit financial results. I want to focus on the two operating groups, being the retail and water, and then the agency business.
The Retail and Water business incorporates Rural Supplies, Fruitfed Supplies, Agritrade, and Water. Retail and Water's operating EBITDA was a pleasing NZD 37.5 million, and was up NZD 4.3 million on the prior year's result, an increase of 13%. Both our Rural Supplies and Fruitfed Supplies businesses traded very well off it this year. We continued to increase market share. Much of this growth was attributed to the superior technical ability of our staff. We have a very stable rep force who are well supported by our specialist technical and research and development teams. A challenge that we are managing, like many other businesses, is the disruption to international supply chains. This disruption will continue to have an impact on the timeliness of sourcing the product and grower inputs, as well as exports to offshore markets.
Our team continues to work proactively to minimize the supply chain disruption. Our teams have been working collaboratively with key suppliers, securing and taking product into stock earlier, and working with customers to lock in their seasonal requirements 3-6 months earlier than would ordinarily be the case. Following the launch of our e-commerce website, June 2020, we are focused on improving our user experience and expanding our product range online. We are pleased with the way the new e-commerce channel has complemented our existing store. During the year, we relocated 3 new stores in Taupō, Feilding and Alexandra, and we've also undertaken a major store refurbishment in Mayfield in our continual program to improve our store network. This has enhanced the retail experience for our customers and improved the working environment for our staff in those locations.
Our Rural Supplies business experienced particularly strong growth this year with an excellent result in a highly competitive market. The success is attributed to both new customers who have brought their business to PGW, and also growth in market share as customers respond positively to our value-added technical offering and advice. We have employed some great new talent in our business. They have brought fresh ideas and in some instances, new business. Our sales culture has grown through continued investment in our people and by providing more training opportunities across all levels of our business with a focus on sales and service. We are promoting Rural Supplies more actively by showcasing our expertise in the field and promoting our store network. In support of the New Zealand wool industry, our retail
Our PGW retail and wool teams collaborated with Norsewear on a new apparel range. Manufactured from a blend of South Island Merino and North Island lambswool, the Boundless range includes wool from the Wool Integrity NZ programme. Our Fruitfed Supplies business has gained registration for another year. Our Fruitfed Supplies business has again registered another record year of both operating EBITDA and revenue. The business has diversified across a number of ranges of crops, and we continue to adapt to customer and market needs. The horticultural sector is growing with increased investment and development. We enjoy impressive market share across a broad range of horticultural crops, with particular strengths in the grape, pip fruit, stone fruit and kiwifruit sectors. We continue to grow share in avocados, cherries and vegetable sectors.
Our core focus remains to add value to our customer's business through the technical ability of our technical horticulture representatives by supplying specialist products and services. Our technical expertise offering is differentiated by our expert technical R&D teams to support our field and store staff. This team conducts a number of product trials in New Zealand conditions across the industry, investigating new products and chemistry to assist our growers and suppliers to engage with industry bodies. The industry remains buoyant, which is driving investment and development in the horticultural industry. New developments across several different crops continue throughout the country. Large grower businesses are investing in the horticultural sector, as they look to invest, diversify their portfolios, which had previously focused on dairy, beef and dairy operations. These developments continue to create sales growth opportunities for the Fruitfed Supplies business.
Our reinvigorated fruit and supplies marketing plan was implemented and delivered during the year. This has been a purposeful shift for fruit and supplies as we move to increase the profile of the business and put more of a spotlight on our specialist expertise. Our focus of this campaign has been to increase the brand awareness and also demonstrating our R&D capability and highlighting the value we add to our customers' businesses. Wholesale division, Agritrade, which manufactures, sells, and distributes a range, a variety of products, continues to demonstrate positive momentum. Maintaining inventory during the whole worldwide supply chain disruption created by COVID-19 has presented challenges and caused Agritrade to place orders and receive stock earlier than usual.
While the inability to travel internationally has hampered new product sourcing and development opportunities, it was nevertheless pleasing to note that 5 new products were registered by Agritrade for the New Zealand market during the year, which are being commercialized. We have reshaped the water business to align with market conditions. This has resulted in an improvement in EBITDA compared to the previous year. Our full service water and irrigation packages offered through Rural Water has seen improved sales. However, shipping delays will likely push out some of the delivery timelines in the short- to medium-term. Turning to our agency business. Our agency group incorporates livestock, wool, and real estate businesses. Operating EBITDA was NZD 25.2 million, which was up NZD 9.5 million on the prior year's result, an increase of 61%.
Our livestock business has maintained market share throughout the country, with South Island achieving a very solid result. During the year, strong values were achieved by sheep and beef. Sheep farmers and dairy farmers also received increased payouts, which in turn underpinned the market fundamentals of our livestock business. Our deer business experienced a good velvet season, where values offset low venison prices. We expanded our Go Beef, Go Lamb product offering, and launched Go Deer. Next year, we have expected to add to our GO-STOCK range with Go Dairy, which we anticipate will be well-received and grow the GO-STOCK offering further. bidr our virtual saleyards has run over 400 auctions and sold more than NZD 50 million worth of livestock since its launch in 2019.
Bidr continues its software development and live streaming from our Feilding Stortford Lodge, Frankton, and Frankton Sale Yards has been launched with others to follow as we roll out this technology. Excellent livestock genetics results throughout the year have culminated in a bull auction series where bidr's hybrid platform came to the fore. bidr ran a number of charity auctions, raising money for causes such as New Zealand Land Search and Rescue, Cystic Fibrosis New Zealand, and Rural Support Trust. PGW Wool has done a good job at navigating the ongoing challenges that have been accentuated by COVID-19. Our team worked closely with growers to reduce their stockpiles of crossbred wool, and we did see some benefit from improving pricing in the second half of the financial year.
PGW Wool sold an additional 46,700 bales as compared to the previous year. Our export subsidiary, Bloch & Behrens Wool (NZ) Ltd, worked diligently with overseas customers to ensure contracted obligations to our growers were fulfilled. We are passionate about supporting the wool industry, and we're working closely with industry bodies on initiative to tell the wool story to the world. Our commitment is recognized by our investment in the Wool Industry Project Action Group, becoming a founding wool member of the New Zealand Farm Assurance Program. We continue to grow our PGW Wool Integrity Program, which is a quality standard providing assurance to international marketplaces around important consumer expectations. Our global consumers are increasingly recognizing the positive attributes of wool and its associated products, and they have become more discerning in their purchases.
We anticipate an increasing shift from synthetics to natural fibers, which will ultimately result in stronger returns for wool growers. Our rural real estate business has been particularly strong, has seen particularly strong demand across all sectors of the rural property market, which has been bolstered by low interest rates. This resulted in the real estate business experiencing its best returns in over a decade at both operating EBITDA and gross commissions income levels. During the year, we acquired the REID AND WILSON LIMITED real estate business in Timaru and opened a new office in Lincoln, in Canterbury. We've seen early signs of a positive spring for rural sales, with more appraisals than usual taking place into the large number of listings coming to market, which we expect to turn to continuing solid demand.
Strong commodity values in the rural sector. We anticipate a number of retirement and succession-initiated listings coming to market. We are experiencing strong buyer inquiry for rural properties. The shortage of residential lifestyle listings is expected to continue. During the year, we had a new joint venture insurance [audio distortion] relationship with BrokerWeb Risk Services Limited, or BWRS, as we refer to them internally, which was launched in February 2021. The insurance referral relationship was struck given the strong strategic fit for both BWRS already holding presence and capability in the rural insurance market. Many of BWRS's dedicated brokers have either been raised or live rurally. They have local knowledge and access to market-leading insurance products and risk advice. To demonstrate the confidence that PGW has in the new insurance provider, BWRS has been appointed as PGW's corporate insurance broker.
BWRS offers comprehensive, flexible, and tailored insurance or rural insurance solutions to meet the unique requirements of our customers. BWRS has created 3 bespoke products for our customers, including rural, lifestyle, and bull insurance. An additional benefit of this referral arrangement to our customers is they have the convenient option of being able to pay their insurance policy premiums through their PGW customer account. Turning to the first quarter result for the FY 2022. Our rural supplies, Fruitfed Supplies, and water business has traded well over the first 5 months of the financial year. Spring is the peak season for our retail network, which has seen good trading activity as our customers gear up to meet the seasonal requirements. Stores operate in essential services during alert levels three and four.
Under alert level two, our stores outside Auckland have continued to trade well. Our staff are doing an amazing job as essential workers working under significant guidelines to protect themselves and the communities they live and work in. They have again adapted and implemented the appropriate protocols as we transition to the new COVID traffic light systems. During September, our Fruitfed Supplies Blenheim operations were audited by the British Retail Consortium Global Standards, which is a globally recognized acceptable food safety standard. The result of the audit was very pleasing, and it has confirmed now to our customers they can trust that our processes and products are of the highest standard. The site was awarded double A level certification, which is the highest grade achievable. By gaining certification, we are demonstrating our commitment to meeting and exceeding internationally recognized standards.
This provides customers with confidence and assists us in securing new business and clients. The Blenheim site is the first in our industry in New Zealand to achieve this certification, and we'll seek certification for other Fruitfed Supplies sites in the near future. The operations of our water business have been impacted by the pandemic trading restrictions. During quarter two of 2021, our water team completed 550 Valley Irrigation courses, and since then, we have completed and the team have achieved the number one spot. We've been informed the team have achieved the number one spot globally at the Valley University course completion events for the quarter. Valley Irrigation is a worldwide leader in precision irrigation and have dealers in more than 550 countries.
They place a lot of emphasis on keeping their dealers at the forefront of industry by their education and training programs. It's a significant achievement for our water team to get this accolade. It has come as a result of a lot of dedication towards their strategic goal to become the preferred on-farm service provider of pivot and linear irrigation systems. Livestock and wool were significantly impacted at Alert Level 4 lockdown in the latter half of August 2021. Saleyards were closed, and wool was unable to hold auctions, with subdued crossbred wool prices since then. Beef and sheep prices have been strong and are expected to remain positive for the season ahead, with demand exceeding supply, and grazing stock products have been trading well. Bidr-enabled livestock auctions have continued during lockdown.
As I previously mentioned, we've successfully launched live streaming of bidr livestock auctions at Feilding, Frankton, and Stortford Lodge. Reporoa, unfortunately, did not commence at the same time due to Auckland COVID alert level four restrictions impeding our ability to install fiber and cameras. However, we've been able to adopt. They operate their technology recently, and these yards, using the same platforms as were used for on-farm sales in the interim. bidr has the capability to go to any sale yard in New Zealand and live stream an auction on request for large cattle fairs, and we have featured sales at Tuakau and our Te Kuiti sale yards. The uptake and interest of hybrid live stream auctions from the Genetics community has been very, very positive.
At the beginning of September, bidr hosted New Zealand's first fully online bull semen sale, which attracted Trans-Tasman interest and achieved record prices at auction. The real estate team continues, and business continues to perform strongly, although behind last year's volumes and performance levels. Following the general trend, our e-commerce platform experienced a positive up sales through the lockdown periods. Our e-commerce presence has enabled us to grow the awareness of our product range in the lifestyle and residential markets and convert it to online purchases. Thank you for listening to my story today. On behalf of the PGW team, I'll hand you back to our chair, Rodger, to discuss our group strategy reset. Thank you, Rodger.
Thank you, Stephen, for providing an overview of the 2021 financial year and the first quarter of 2022. I will now briefly discuss the PGW's Group Strategy reset, which was launched internally to the business during August. As part of this exercise, the board and the executive team took stock of trends and developments in the agricultural sector, internationally and domestically, to determine PGW's why while reflecting upon and respecting our proud history, concentrating on the future and growth opportunities for PGW. We also considered customer insights gathered from external market research to better understand customer perceptions and expectations. This work provided very clear observations relating to the deep customer relationships that PGW staff hold, and the trust that our customers place in PGW came through strongly.
A key insight that was reinforced was the value associated with the technical expertise we provide to our customers, the advice we offer to the industry, and in turn, the creation of value for our shareholders. At a more targeted level, we've identified eight PGW group strategic priorities that will help direct our focus and the priorities where we wish to make progress and differentiate our offering while strengthening our position as a market leader. Our group strategy is dynamic and will continue to evolve as we respond to the changing demands of the market. The purpose of the PGW strategy is to provide clarity and direction at a group level around our strategic priorities that we will collectively work towards.
The eight priorities are then layered in more detail in the strategic objectives of each business unit and corporate function. Each of the eight strategic priorities have specific measurable objectives that we will monitor progress over time. As part of our aspiration to continue to seek growth, we will also seek out potential acquisition opportunities within the New Zealand market that complement PGW's strength and that had a good strategic fit while also being immediately value accretive for the business. Turning now to outlook. We are five months into the financial year, and we've seen our strong first quarter trading performance continue. Spring is the busiest season for our retail network, and we've seen positive signs as the business ramps up over the seasonal peak trading months.
While our livestock business has been heavily impacted by COVID-19 related operating restrictions in recent months, confidence in the red meat sector continues with strong beef and sheep schedule pricing that is expected to remain positive for the balance of the season. The peak trading period for the livestock business is in the second half of the financial year. Pricing for crossbred wool remains subdued, while our real estate business continues to perform well, but with fewer lifestyle and residential listings. The ongoing uncertainties presented by COVID-19 and related operating restrictions, supply chain disruption, and consequential market impacts continue to be a reason for us to be cautious about earnings projections.
However, aside from these external influences, the business has been trading very strongly year to date, and we are optimistic and expect to better last year's impressive performance and to be around NZD 58 million at an operating EBITDA level. The board is confident that the company is well-positioned to continue to perform well and deliver on our PGW Group strategy to grow the business. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now respond to several questions we've received from shareholders or their proxies that we have received during today's meeting in relation to our presentations so far. First question is raised by Mr. Flexton. Would it be possible to consider doing a combined meeting next year, i.e. a virtual meeting as well as a physical meeting? I'm delighted to say, Mr. Flexton, that we will absolutely consider doing a combined meeting next year.
Next question, I don't think that PGW currently has a dividend reinvestment policy. Are there any plans to introduce one in the future? PGW previously had a dividend reinvestment policy, but discontinued that a number of years ago. The board has reconsidered this on several occasions, but has not determined not to reinstate the policy given the strong balance sheet. I have another question. The earnings guidance that the board updated this morning. The question comes, guidance was raised to approximately NZD 50 million of EBITDA. This is a big increase from the 53 million announced just over a month ago. What are the key drivers for this? Well, I sort of touched on it a little bit, in my comments on the outlook. We have had a fantastic spring.
We had a record earnings result in the month of November. The business is trading extremely well. There's clear indication that we as a business are gaining market share. Our people have absolutely gone the extra mile to service the needs of the customer. Really, this is broadly a reflection from the board this morning that the business has traded so well in November that we thought it absolutely appropriate to update the market. The last question I have, which I'm going to hand over to Stephen Guerin, what is PGW's policy stance on the COVID vaccine mandate? Over to you, Stephen.
Thank you, Chair. Clearly there are a number of businesses that are contemplating this world. PGW is one. We have an obligation in terms of our business and our people in our business to do a risk assessment. We are working our way through that process, and we are consulting with our staff around our response to vaccination policies. At this point in time, we haven't made a determination on what that looks like as we work through the consultation with our staff.
Thank you, Stephen. I don't have any further questions. There will be an opportunity a little bit later on to ask any other questions. I'd like to just perhaps end the session by saying that PGW's impressive year would not have been possible without our exceptional team in the field, who this year, and I know I mentioned it at last year's AGM as well, the tireless work and commitment to our customers and the rural communities in which we live is greatly appreciated by the board and I'm sure by all shareholders. By living our values and adapting to the challenges faced, our nationwide team of over 1,700 people can genuinely demonstrate the dedication to our vision of helping grow the country.
On behalf of the board and the executive team, we thank our shareholders and customers for their loyalty, trust, and continued support. We would like to also acknowledge the extra lengths our suppliers, both domestically and internationally, have gone to in order to secure products for our customers during these testing times. I'd like to move now to the business of the meeting and the resolutions. The resolutions relate to the election of a director and confirming the appointment of the auditor and authorizing the board of directors to fix their remuneration. The three resolutions and accompanying explanatory notes are set out in the notice of meeting. As usual, we offered shareholders the option to cast their votes on meeting business by post, email, and online today. Proposed resolutions will be determined by a poll that will be undertaken by our share registrar, Computershare.
The first two resolutions relate to the election of directors and biographical notes for each director are set out in the notice of meeting. Resolution one is to consider the election of Dr Charlotte Severne as an Independent Director. Charlotte's biographical notes are in the notice of meeting. Charlotte is an Independent Director and joined the PGG Wrightson board on the 18th of June 2021. Charlotte being eligible offers herself for re-election. The company's directors wish to note the specific expertise and experience that Charlotte brings to the board, as noted in her biographical notes, and the board recommends shareholders vote in favor of Dr Charlotte Severne's election. Ordinary resolution number two is the re-election of Oon Kian Seng as a director. Oon Kian Seng's biographical notes are also in the notice of meeting.
Unfortunately, Oon Kian Seng cannot join us in person today due to COVID-19 border restrictions. However, he has joined the meeting remotely and was able to join obviously our board meeting, our full board meeting this morning. Oon Kian Seng is a current director of PGG Wrightson Limited, and he joined the board on the fourth of December 2012. Oon Kian Seng being eligible offers himself for re-election. The company's directors unanimously recommend shareholders vote in favor of Oon Kian Seng's election. Ordinary Resolution number 3 is to confirm the appointment of Ernst & Young as auditor and to authorize the board of directors of PGG Wrightson to set the auditor's remuneration. As is usual with audit fees, it is impractical to fix the remuneration at the beginning of the year.
Accordingly, the board of directors are seeking authority from shareholders of the company to appoint Ernst & Young as the auditor and fix the audit fees at the appropriate time. Thank you. I will now move resolutions one, two, and three as set out in the notice of meeting by way of three separate motions as ordinary resolutions. A poll will be conducted in respect to the three resolutions. For those who have not cast your votes already, please do so by clicking on the Vote tab on the right side of your screen. That concludes the discussion, our discussion on the items of business. In a minute, I'll close the voting system, so please ensure that you have cast your votes. While we are waiting, we may be able to address any further questions, and I will look at my moderator's screen to see if I have any.
I don't. Thank you. The results of the voting on the three resolutions will be released on the NZX shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting is now open for any general business. Are there any further matters or discussion or any questions? I have none. I hope that accurately represents all shareholders on this meeting, and we haven't missed anything. In closing, that completes the business of the meeting, and I therefore call the 2021 annual shareholders meeting closed. The documents from today's presentations are on the PGW website, and we will post the presentation and the recording of this meeting there later today. Thank you all for your ongoing support of the company, and I look forward to seeing you at the same time next year. Thank you.