Ki te rangi. Tu hiya kite. Mimi ni wa Te ara wa Tapuika. Tu hiya kitenga akal watata kutoa. In no one. Kwa teara, temie nuyu tena yao. Ko te aro ha? Ko te aroha. It is written in the sky. It is written on the land. Te Arawa, Tapuika. It is written in the hearts of everyone here at this time of Easter. What is the most important thing? Why it is love. It is love. Ko te aroha ? Ki te Atua. Ko te aroha ? Ki ngā tini aituā, ehinga hatua, ehinga maenai. Tetau kimuri. Kita fanau. Fanui watekamu penye akimi hiya. It is the love of the great one who looks after us. It is the love of all of those who've passed in the last 12 months. Our kaimahi, our workers, our directors, our family members who've passed over the past 12 months.
It is the love of everyone who is part of the family of Seeka. Haramaita wairo watapuifaka kinga ngako watanga tafaka puno. Faka urui rotu yuratau, tutapiro wato aroha. Kiapanya ai, emato, nami ya tika, nami ya pai, aa, ehadi yetu ni faka mali ya tanga. We welcome the spirit of the great one to be amongst us, to help us, to bless us, to guide us, and give us peace and goodwill as we begin this hui. Kia ratato.
Thank you, Turi. Welcome. Welcome, everybody. My name is Fred Hutchings, and I'm the chair of Seeka, and it is my privilege to welcome you here to this annual shareholder meeting of your company. I also take the time to acknowledge and welcome those who are joining remotely. Welcome. I also welcome Harmos Horton Lusk, Tompkins Wake, our banking syndicate, Westpac NZ, Rabo, ASB, BNZ, and Westpac Australia, and our auditors, Grant Thornton. For those of you who are in attendance, I hope you've already got your phones on silent. Please note the exits to the auditorium. If we need to evacuate, please make your way to the car park over there where a designated Seeka person will give you instruction. The company secretary has confirmed the notice of meeting was sent to all eligible shareholders, and we have a quorum, and accordingly, I declare the meeting open.
You see there the agenda on the screen. You're welcome to ask questions as we move through the agenda. However, in question time, all questions will be through the chair, and I will either answer or direct the question to someone who is better skilled to answer it. It is my pleasure to introduce you to the directors who are all present today. Director elections today include Stewart Moss, Mark Dewdney , and Hayley Gourley. Their profiles have been provided to you with a notice of meeting. Stewart is a non-executive director and member of the remuneration committee, as well as being a large grower, has served on the board since 2022. Mark is an independent non-executive director who was appointed by the directors in December 2024. The board has elected Mark as the next chair following my resignation.
Hayley is an independent non-executive director and a member of the audit and risk committee who was appointed by directors in January 2025. The remainder of the board is made up of Hayden Cartwright, who is a member of the audit and risk committee and a grower. Sharon Cresswell, who is the chair of the audit and risk committee. Ratahi Cross, who is a member of the sustainability committee, and Cecilia Tarrant, an independent director and chair of the sustainability committee and a member of the remuneration committee as well. Proxies. There are approximately 14 million proxies as listed on the table. As chair, I hold close to 11 million proxies, and I intend to vote in favor of all resolutions with the exception of resolution four, which I'm unable to vote on.
Now, there's been a number of new shareholders join our register, so I'd just like to go through what is the business of Seeka. Seeka is an integrated produce business that grows, processes, and supplies fruit to domestic and international customers. Our primary product is kiwifruit. In New Zealand, we have an orcharding business that secures fruit to process at our network of post-harvest facilities, which we then store and supply to Zespri. We ensure during that process that that supply is high quality. We also supply to our Seeka Fresh business and other customers. In Australia, Seeka is an independent produce company growing, processing, and selling kiwifruit, European pears, nashi pears, and jujubes. Seeka Australia presents a number of opportunities for growth.
While Seeka began from being a kiwifruit company, we now have expanded our products to include avocado, kiwiberry, nashi pears, jujube, and plums. Some comments on performance to strategy. The last 12 months have provided a much-needed return to profitability for the company. Having experienced three difficult years, the 2024 year performance has demonstrated what your company is capable of achieving. Seeka has achieved these results through being laser-focused on operational performance, optimizing the post-harvest infrastructure for longer periods of the year, and introducing new revenue streams. Seeka has controlled capital expenditure, and the results of the restructure in the previous year delivered savings and overhead. I thank management on your behalf for their loyalty, commitment, and successful management skills they bring individually and as a team every day to Seeka. Our financial performance is much improved.
Seeka has achieved a record profit and reduced debt, which has meant a return to long-term banking covenants, and this has allowed Seeka to resume dividends. Everything we aspire as a group of people working together is to deliver excellence to all our stakeholders. Now, here are some numbers that I'm sure everybody should be pleased with. We have now, in 2024, reached NZD 411 million revenue, which was a record, up 37%, off 43 million class one kiwifruit trays, and Australian production was up 166%. EBITDA, which is earnings before tax and depreciation and amortization, was up 193% to NZD 76 million. Our Australian EBITDA was NZD 3.2 million, up 373%. We delivered a NZD 30 million profit before tax, which was a record, and was a NZD 31 million turnaround from the previous year.
31 cents earnings per share before a deferred tax adjustment, been a one-off adjustment due to the government's removal of tax deductibility of depreciation on buildings. Dividends have been reinstated, 10 cents paid in January on the 20th, and a further 5 cents paid yesterday. Really pleasing, the net leverage ratio as calculated for the banking syndicate was 2.15 to 1, which was much improved from the previous year's ratio, and it is still the board's intention to reduce that further. With those brief introductory comments, I would now like to hand over to Michael, our Chief Executive, to provide the financial overview of 2024 and an outlook for 2025.
Thanks, Fred. Fred moves the podium away. I have to move it back closer again so I can see you. Otherwise, all you'll hear is a voice and wondering who is actually speaking. Material this year, a little bit easier to work with than the last couple of years, and we are pretty happy about that. Of course, it is a poignant day for us because it is Fred's last day as Chairman. I think we are all a little bit reflective about that and pretty sad. Of course, you know, one book closes, another one opens, and Mark Dewdney will take over. It is his birthday tomorrow. In addition to it being his birthday, he also gets the prize and present of being appointed as a new Chairman.
Material here is actually nearly the same as what I presented at the analyst briefing, if you happen to be on that call. As Fred just said, total revenue up $110 million at NZD 411 million, up 37%, really all on the back of improved and increased kiwifruit volumes. We, in the previous year, packed 29.8 million trays, up to 43 million. We run a hotel for fruit and a large part of what we do. We had better occupancy. Better occupancy leads to more revenue. More revenue means more profit. It is as simple as that. On top of that, in Australia, as I will update you in a minute, better kiwifruit volumes there as well is the driver of our profit in Australia. They had a blinder.
EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, up $50 million on the previous year at $76 million. A 193% increase. Our return on capital employed, a healthy 10%. I say it's healthy because we've still got a lot of money invested in orchards in development that therefore is dead capital that will produce us a return when they get into production, those orchards. We are just patiently waiting for that to happen. We have delivered financial performance in line with our strategy. Perhaps the strategy of geographical spread and a little bit of diversification on our kiwifruit foundation has worked for the first time this year. Rebounded with profitability. We have been focused on costs. We have been focused on revenue. We have been focused on how we get more margin.
$30 million profit before tax is up $51 million on the previous year. It compares to a $21 million loss, 2023. $9 million profit after tax is up $23 million on the year before. In getting to that number, we have got this deferred tax adjustment of $12.5 million. That number is $21 million or thereabouts when you add it back. Reasonably healthy. Our strict earnings per share was $0.21. If you give us the benefit of the doubt and added back the deferred tax change, which comes about because the government decided that depreciation on buildings are no longer deductible, out into the future, to the end of the life of those buildings, way out in the never-never land, if you give us that benefit, actually the true earnings per share is $0.51.
I think reasonably satisfied with that performance. Improved profitability has allowed the company to repay debt. We've been very strict and targeted with capital spend. We are targeting any deferred capital maintenance in the company. We are targeting switchboards and plant rooms by way of example. We've repaid NZD 35 million in debt, all from operating cash flow. All of our covenants are well within their long-term range. We are focused on bringing down that leverage ratio a bit further. Below two would be a good number to be. The board's range is between one and a half and two and a half times. At 2.15, we're not too far away. Our capacity hasn't been stretched. The automation plan's underway. I'm going to share a bit more about that with you in a minute. The return to profitability has enabled the company to recommence dividends.
The company's taken a measured approach to that, given that we're also focused around the debt situation. We want to make sure that the company's in safe harbor. Who knows what happens next? We just want to make sure we've got the strength in the balance sheet. $0.10 was paid on the 20th of January. $0.05 was paid yesterday. Those who participated in the dividend reinvestment plan, the strike price was $3.46. Into the segments, you can see on the bars, the revenue, where do we earn our revenue in our orcharding business, $103 million, $247 million in our post-harvest business. Seeka Fresh is $31 million and $19 million in Australia. We orchard to make money, but we orchard to make sure we've got crop occupancy in our post-harvest business as the fruit flows through our supply chain. Orcharding business is headed up by Barry Panellum.
He's here in the room somewhere. He's near the back there. If you would like to hand Barry, thank you. Grew 17.3 million trays of class one kiwifruit. It's 52% up on the difficult year before. And 4.6 million trays of growing our leased orchards, up 70%. That orchard division's now got demand from growers to do more management and leasing of what I would call premium orchards, so it's positive. NZD 103 million in revenue is up NZD 16 million, reflecting the higher yields. NZD 6 million EBITDA is up from NZD 1 million in the year before. Team also grows avocados and kiwiberry, kiwiberry being the most profitable commodity that we are, variety that we're actually handling and growing. We've got some orchard developments coming into production.
You can see there on the bottom right-hand side, the gold yields, average per hectare in 2024, 13,464 trays a hectare, up 45% on the previous year's 9,295, a healthy increase. The Hayward yields at 11,224, up 67% on 6,730. You can see the story of all of these numbers is coming out and what has happened right across the industry, a rebound in kiwifruit volumes. Growers have done a fantastic job. Contractors have done a great job. Our orchard division, likewise, excellent. Post-harvest business set up by Paul Crone. Paul. Paul's over there, General Manager, Post-Harvest Services, packed 43 million trays, up from the 30 million trays, or 29.8 to be more accurate, on a better growing season. NZD 247 million in revenues, up 64 million in higher volumes. NZD 84 million in EBITDA, up 93%.
All of our assets in this part of our business, a lot of them here, NZD 350 million or thereabouts in assets in this part of our business. We have now, and we are realizing the gains from the automation changes that we've made, but also we are packing citrus on contract. We're packing persimmons on contract, and we're packing avocados for ourselves and on contract. There is an automation plan underway. We are focused on making sure that any automation that we invest in pays back. It's got to do better than look good. It's actually got to earn returns for the shareholders to put the money in. We have been reasonably targeted there to make sure that our investment is smart, financially smart. In terms of Seeka Fresh, it's retail services division set up by Kate Bryant. Go on, Kate.
If you don't know who she is, she's over there. You're welcome to talk to any of these people afterwards. NZD 31 million in revenues, up 49%, really on growth in imported produce, bananas, pineapple, papaya. We have higher sales for our own wholesale market in Auckland. If you didn't know, we have one. We do. We've had one for a number of years now, supplying fruit through to retailers and into major customers and into Foodstuffs and into Woolworths. NZD 2.6 million in EBITDA is in line with the year before. This business also produces and sells kiwi crush and avocado oil, which we are now integrating the new Olivado business into. If you didn't know that, we purchased the assets of Olivado in the Far North, and we will focus all of our avocado oil manufacture on that business once we get it fully integrated.
We have Seeka Australia. Jon van Popering is here. Come on, Jon. Thank you. AUD 19 million in revenue, up 85%. Up 85%. Kiwifruit volumes up 166%. We have had to be resilient over in Australia with the pressure of PSA. Jon and his team have been resilient. They have been innovative. They have brought in new sprays to be used in those orchards, in particular, Actigard. That has been a game changer for us. We are in the second year using it. Last year's response from our orchards to that new regime has been fantastic. We have nashi volumes up 10%. We have a new nashi variety to be launched in the middle of this year. It will be. AUD 3 million in EBITDA is up from AUD 1 million last year.
Look, we're on our way back in that business, and I'm very happy to report it. It needs to go further, and our plan is to do so. In terms of the outlook, this might be what people are looking for. Zespri has been forecasting 205 million trays of New Zealand kiwifruit. In fact, I've seen numbers up to 217 million trays, and there could be some upside on that number. That is up from a record 193 million trays last year. We have packed and successfully packed beyond our share of the early harvested fruit in the industry. The crops that we have handled to date are clean, smooth, and above estimate. We are reasonably pleased with what our growers have delivered us, what our contractors have helped us get, and what our own teams have done with it.
In Australia, Australian harvest started in December, in case you didn't know that, with plums heading through to pears. Kiwifruit harvest is ongoing. We've got new kiwifruit developments coming on stream. That Actigard program has accelerated those developments, and so we're very happy with what we are seeing there now. Across both countries, the labor supply is excellent. We've had waiting lists in New Zealand before we started. We haven't had that in a very long time. All shifts are up. All shifts are fully manned. It's not something we have seen for a very long time. In fact, we've got standby crew in a potency to bring the last night shift up if we want to and if we need to. We are happy with that too. In terms of our expected volumes, we have been targeting to pack more than 45 million trays this year.
It's a number which we probably wouldn't normally release to the market or release to investors, but that was our target. We did release it to Seeka Growers yesterday, so we thought we'd better share it with everyone. We're currently packing ahead of that. I can't say that we will definitely be packing ahead of it at the end of the harvest. We're about halfway through all crops. At the moment, we are 5-10% ahead. We will see what happens with this weather. We will see how it all plays out in the end. We will report to the market at the end of the harvest about what we have done because it seems to be a mission-critical number. We are handling that crop at the moment, and we're pretty pleased with what we're seeing as we go.
I kind of know there's some people waiting for that number, so there it is. I thought I also would share with you a little bit about what else we're doing. We have ordered a new packing machine in Northland. It is a Chinese machine called Reemoon. It is a lower-cost option, but funnily enough, we're getting a more advanced machine than we have got anywhere else in the company. There are some other aspects about that machine which makes the business case compelling. Alongside it, we will have a technician here on the installation for two years, making sure it runs properly. Machine scheduled to arrive at the end of this calendar year and be installed by Christmas for commissioning for next year. We can do that from within our CapEx number, our depreciation number.
We're just reorganizing things a little bit to make sure it works. I think we're delighted. It will be a game changer. There are some other technology that we have found, particularly in relation to cool stores, which we are also very excited around. If this works, you may see a video. I have to push the button again. This is not a fly-by-night outfit. That building you're looking at is more than 500 m long, about 300 m wide. No artificial lighting in the building. Robots are important and will be part of our business. The scanning system is as good as anything we've seen, perhaps better. This is a big effort. Lots of machines and lots of installations. [Foreign language] If you can't work it out, that fellow's talking in Chinese. We went to this machine and saw it running. [Foreign language]
We understood exactly what we're looking at. Jared Bates, myself, Marty Gray. They've got packing operations. It's some real innovation in that business. We're delighted with it, to be honest. We're very excited by what it is that they can do. The machine that we're bringing into Kerikeri will have a normal European bin tip on it, but also a robot akin to what you were seeing there to tip bins in. We couldn't convince ourselves that a robot could actually do just as good a job as a natural bin tip. Reemoon are giving us two. On the basis they'll refund us one with whichever one we don't want to keep. That will happen.
If we're happy enough, if management's happy enough, we may well have a chat and recommend to the board that we accelerate the next stage of our development and automation plan by upgrading a machine at Huka Pak for the organics. That is exciting, I think. I'm a little bit nervous about what comes next. Here it is. Of course, Fred Hutchings does retire today. On behalf of management and on behalf of the company, I think it's been our privilege to have Fred as our chairman. He has been rock solid and a resolute supporter of the company, even as we've been through some hard times. Given I said it last night, and I've said it a couple of days ago, we couldn't have ever expected or asked for a better chairman than what we got when we needed one.
I just applaud board processes when they do things like this, and they brought us Fred Hutchings, and it's been superb. In case you don't know what he's done, here's an example of it. NZD 116 million in revenue in 2014. Decided to move on from the foundation of kiwifruit. We went and bought wholesale market in Auckland with Seeka Fresh for NZD 5 million. Pushed on to kiwiberries because we believe kiwiberries might be resilient and an option to Psa. We acquired Seeka Australia for NZD 26 million. Added a new geography to the business. Of course, then we used to be Seeka Kiwifruit Industries before that, so we rebranded to simply Seeka. The byline is select excellence. By doing business with us, you are indeed excellent. Of course, we went across and did the DNFC, Kiwi Crush, avocado oil.
We bought Northland from T&G for NZD 40 million, and we had to raise some capital to pay for it all. Revenue at that stage, NZD 204 million. We went up down the teddy, NZD 25 million, NZD 237 million in revenue. Put the new building up, packhouse in Kerikeri for NZD 16 million, having sold some of the orchards. We spent NZD 21 million at Oakside and Transcool. We sold the orchards in Australia and leased them back, raising NZD 28 million. We went on to buy OPAC, NZD 61 million, NZD 310 million in revenue at that stage. We bought Orange woods for NZD 7 million. We bought Fruitometry to give us a better understanding of what's happening in the orchards for NZD 2.6 million. Upgrades at KKP and TransCo, NZD 20 million. We hit the hard times with COVID.
We imported NZ Fruits over in Gisborne for NZD 22 million. That stage, NZD 348 million in revenue. Of course, we are over in Australia to Jujubes and Nashis. We had to fight the weather events. Knocked us down a bit. We bought some accommodation in Katikati. NZD 411 million in revenue from NZD 112 million twelve years ago. NZD 30 million profit before tax. Our EPS, 52 cents. While kiwifruit is still our foundation, we have a basket of fruit produce that we handle. It is a credit to the board, but it is also a credit to the chairman who led us through all of those processes and led management and supported management as they might need to. Two things. Firstly, ahead of Fred Hutchings, not behind him, ahead of him is the wonderful Anne Hutchings.
Anne, we have a small gift for you just about to be delivered to your chair, so the chairman's wife. You give it to her. I'll trip and fall. Wait, there's more. The shareholders won't know this, but actually, we have a tradition in the company of giving key people who leave their own monopoly board. In the very first annual report that was published by the company, when you folded out the back page, some will remember there was a monopoly board that talked about what the company had done. There were only a few tiles on it, but it was meant to be like, "This is like monopoly." When key people leave, we present them with their monopoly board to tell them what they have done and what they're part of and what they've been building and what they have built.
I am happy to present this formally to Fred on behalf of the company and on behalf of management and thank him very much and invite him to take that in a little white envelope. I get to sit down now and he gets to stand up. I will push the thing back again for him.
I will not tell you what his words of advice were just then, but thank you, Michael. That is not an achievement of mine at all because it takes a team to do that, and it is management who does that. Our role as a board is to listen and encourage and let them get on with the job. I suppose one of the things I have been very careful about as the governor of Seeka is to make sure I stayed in my lane.
Thank you, Michael, and on behalf, I am sure, thank you for those lovely flowers to Anne. Right, with those few comments, I must get on to the next part of the meeting, and that is where we deal with some resolutions. I forgot earlier in the meeting to welcome those that are online. Does someone know how many are actually online?
Sixty.
Yeah, sixty. Welcome to all of you online.
Is it not appropriate for us to discuss your presentation?
Sorry?
Is it not appropriate for us to discuss the year's events prior to the election?
No, there will be time for general business discussion. At this point, we will stick to the agenda, and we will deal with the resolutions first. Thank you. Now, it is the formal business of the meeting. We have five resolutions as outlined in your notice of meeting.
There will be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions on each as they're put to shareholders. For the sake of good order, shareholders' questions raised should relate directly to the matter being considered. As is our normal practice, we will take a poll on each of the resolutions. Shareholders in the room, you should have your voting card on arrival. If you did not register on arrival and wish to vote, please make your way to the registration desk. Just outside the room, a staff from Link will assist you. Please mark your voting intention for each resolution, and the voting cards will be collected at the conclusion of the meeting. Shareholders joining online are able to cast their vote using the electronic card voting system, and that is there on the screen.
To vote, you need to click "Get Voting Card" within the—I’ll just read this, make sure I get it right—within the outline meeting platform. You’ll be asked to enter your shareholder or proxy number to validate. Please then mark your voting card in the way you wish to vote by clicking "For," "Against," or "Abstain." Against each resolution on the voting card, once you have your selections, please click "Submit Vote" on the bottom of the card to lodge your vote. Voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting. The results of the vote will be announced via the NZX. Each resolution set out in the notice of meeting is an ordinary resolution, and as such, must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution.
The outcome of proxy votes will be displayed for your information after the voting of all the resolutions. Resolution One, Director-Election Stewart Moss. I invite Stewart to address the meeting briefly.
I'll have to move this forward a bit. I've been involved in primary industries all my working life, initially dairy farming in the U.K. On immigrating to New Zealand 25 years ago, we took the decision to move away from dairy farming and into kiwifruit, buying an orchard in Te Puke. To gain a better understanding of the industry, I worked for Seeka during the picking season, spending five years running a grader in a packhouse. I've been a member of KGI, giving me an insight into the grower representation within the kiwifruit industry. In 2004, we developed a large-scale orchard from a greenfield site in partnership with three Te Puke-based growers.
This has given me a broad range of knowledge of the kiwifruit industry, from the practical through to the political side of the industry. Three years ago, I was invited to join the board of Seeka to be a grower voice and to hear any grower concerns around the boardroom table. I am seeking re-election to the board to continue to be a voice for growers in line with one of Seeka's taglines, "Growers First." We are a volume business. Growers are essential to the company to increase our volume and returns to shareholders. Thank you.
Thanks, Fred.
Thanks, Stuart.
Thanks for those comments, Stuart. I now propose the following resolution to re-elect Stuart Moss as a director. Are there any questions from shareholders? Any questions from online? No, I see the head is shaking. There aren't. Thank you. The second resolution is to elect Mark Dewdney.
I now invite Mark to address the meeting.
Thank you, Fred. E rau rangatira mā, tēnā koutou, kaumātua, kuia, tangata whenua, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa. Before I talk about why I'm here, I just want to recognize and thank Fred for his leadership of the business. Fred, sitting here contemplating becoming the chair of the board and hearing of your achievements has scared me stupid. You leave very, very big shoes to fill, and I'm just looking forward to doing the best job that I can. I'm originally from the Waikato. My executive career focused in primary industry. I worked for the Tatua Dairy Company for a number of years, then joined Fonterra and ended up up in Asia with Fonterra. I was in Singapore for a couple of years and then Tokyo for probably three and a half years, where I was looking after Fonterra's ingredient business through Asia.
My family and I then came back to New Zealand, and I was the CEO of Livestock Improvement Corporation, the dairy genetics and farm improvement company. I went from there after seven years to PGG Wrightson as the CEO. I was CEO for about four and a half to five years. It was where I gained my first exposure to the kiwifruit industry as we were a supplier of inputs to the sector. I then finished my executive career and have split my time between my family's farming business, which is based around the Waikato in the Bay of Plenty. We milk dairy cows, not as clever as Stewart in terms of we've kept milking them, where he was clever enough to sort of get out and get into kiwifruit earlier.
We milk dairy cows, we milk sheep, we run a small cropping business farm, and we have a dry stock farm in Tauranga. Just recently, as I joined the board, my family and I, we bought a small kiwifruit orchard in Te Puke. We are getting exposure on the ground. In terms of other directorships, I sit on the board of Tatua Dairy Company, a very small independent dairy processing operation in the Waikato, a small, very innovative and successful company. The chairman of New Zealand King Salmon, who is a listed aquaculture business, probably New Zealand's largest aquaculture company, focusing on salmon in the Marlborough Sounds, which we sell all around the world into food service and retail, and now Seeka. I was delighted when Fred called me pre-Christmas and asked if I would be interested in joining the board.
I came across, met Fred, met Michael and the team, and was taken from the first meeting in terms of what I felt the culture of the organization to be, the scale, and the significant opportunity that I believe that the business has and the industry has to grow and continue to improve what we do for our customers and for our staff and for our shareholders. I've loved being on the board. I'm really looking forward to playing my part as part of the board, supporting Michael and his team, who lead the strategy development and the strategy execution. Our job is to make Michael and his team's job easier wherever we can, but to challenge them as well to continue to lift the bar for shareholders. I look forward to meeting you in the future. I thank you for your support.
I appreciate very much the opportunity to join the Seeka family. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. Now I need to put the resolution formally to elect Mark Dewdney as a director. Are there any questions from the floor? Any questions from online? No. We will now move to resolution three, the director election of Haley Gourley. I now invite Haley to address the meeting.
Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to address the meeting and look forward to your support as I seek to be elected as an independent director of Seeka. My first experience of the kiwifruit industry was actually picking fruit as a teenager during the May school holidays.
Now, I know that's not unusual in this part of the world, but I can tell you at the very northwest part of the South Island, it was quite unusual at the time. Of course, that fruit and those orchards are no longer there as the dairy farms and land use change took over quite rapidly in the early 1990s. My links to the land have been the foundation for my executive and governance career. I am an agricultural economist by professional education and have worked across finance, banking, and manufacturing, both in New Zealand and internationally.
Of particular interest and relevance, I think, to Seeka, the three roles I've had with long-standing employers and organizations, the first was with Rabobank, where in addition to leading the New Zealand business, I've worked alongside many companies across strategy and the primary sector value chain, locally and internationally, ranging from commodity traders through to food processors, food manufacturers, to the retail side of the business, and of course, importantly, with farmers and growers in various parts of the world. With the publicly listed company Scales Corporation, I was very proud to lead their agri -division for four years across five manufacturing sites internationally, and particularly through the turbulent COVID years that challenged us all across supply chains, markets, and to keep businesses running successfully. I can appreciate what Seeka went through during those years as well.
Thirdly, as a non-executive director with Pāmu, really understanding the challenges that large-scale agriculture brings, the importance both to New Zealand, but in particular, the challenges of running those businesses successfully with the vagaries of climate, markets, actually the performance of people and our crops and animals alongside them. I think that also has been valuable experience and things I can bring to the board. The skills and focus in particular, I think, are really the commercial and strategic insights within the primary sector that I've experienced over the last 30 years, particularly in business development and achieving growth alongside balancing the need for risk management. We know that with reward, there's always risk, and getting that balance right is always a challenge, but one that I enjoy and look forward to progressing.
Importantly, though, an appreciation of the very critical importance of stakeholder engagement and communication across all aspects of the business is really a key to success, I think, in any business and one that I both enjoy and enjoy being involved with. I believe that Seeka is well positioned for future success and growth and acknowledging the ongoing need to balance that growth and the growth strategy with the risks faced by the business. I think that's been evident in recent years. I commend and respect the current and prior board, management, staff, growers, and shareholders that have supported Seeka up until this point and going forward, and respectfully request your support in election as an independent director to the board. I look forward to making a contribution to that ongoing success of the company. Thank you.
Thanks, Haley.
I now put the resolution, and I'll do that, and then I'll ask for questions to elect Haley Gourley as a director. Are there any questions?
First of all, I'd like to acknowledge your being chairman. Maybe this is not the opportune time, but maybe I've been a thorn in your side from time to time.
Never felt it.
I'm sure there's a gap. My question to Haley is, I can highly commend Haley. She comes with a pedigree. She told you that she worked for Skellerup for several years. I would have invested a similar amount of money in Skellerup to what I had invested in Seeka. I've made millions of dollars out of Skellerup , and I'm being patient that maybe our business will come back. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other questions from the floor? There are none. Thank you. We'll move to the next one.
Directors are wanting to pay themselves, but anyway. Resolution four is that the pool of funds available for the remuneration of directors be increased by an amount of NZD 83,000 per annum from a maximum of NZD 610,000 per annum to a maximum of NZD 693,000 in each financial year payable to all directors taken together effective 1 January 2025. We have sought advice on this resolution, and that has been distributed to you in the notice of meeting. That report is based on market data from comparable companies based on market capitalization, revenue, assets, industry, and private companies. The consultants put comparable companies in those buckets, look at that, and then use their judgment to make a recommendation to us to consider. The board has obtained that independent report from Strategic Pay. As I have mentioned already, it is made available to you.
If you have a quick look at this table, you'll see that analysis and also the lower and upper range that Strategic Pay recommended. This is at the bottom there. Like all good people, we pick the middle. This is a slide that demonstrates the proposed allocation where the Chair's fee would go up by $20,000, members by $10,000, no adjustment to the audit and risk committee. That is because our audit and risk committee also works as the due diligence committee when we do need due diligence work done. For that reason, it's already at the upper range of what we would normally expect an audit and risk committee in the market expects an audit and risk committee to be reimbursed by, and some small adjustments to the sustainability committee and the remuneration committee. I'll pause there and ask if there's any questions.
None from the floor, none from in line. Thank you, and we'll look forward to seeing how that is voted on. The one thing I didn't mention is that the last time we sought a fee restructure increase was back in 2022. Resolution five is the appointment and remuneration of auditors, and the resolution reads, "To record the reappointment of Grant Thornton as auditor of the company and to authorize the directors to fix the remuneration and expenses of the auditor for the coming year." Grant Thornton are automatically reappointed as auditors under the Companies Act, so we're seeking your authority to pay them. I'll pause there and say, are there any questions on that resolution? None in the room, none online. Thank you. General business.
Am now happily open to the floor to ask any questions on any matters that we've already covered or any general business that they would seek greater clarification on about the company. Yes. We'll get a microphone come to you. Sorry, Cecilia, so that the people online can hear you.
It's a little bit related. It's actually in relation to resolution four. I'm not opposing resolution four, but I'm just sort of wondering, as a bystander, exactly how often do directors meet? How many hours a week would our directors spend in Seeka affairs? Sort of think, can you give us an idea of what it actually involves?
That's a good question. We meet at least some are online, but it normally would be 10 or 11 times a year. And then directors participate in subcommittees as well.
If I took my example of as chair, I would attend every board meeting, every subcommittee meeting, which would add up to quite a few hours just in meeting time, let alone the preparation time. It is not insubstantial.
In addition, you take a phone call from me at least once a year.
Yes, I do take quite a number of chief. Okay. The good thing about our chief executive is he rings me. I do not have to chase him. Hopefully that helps. Any other questions? Yes? What are jujube? There are a date. Michael, would you like to explain? Oh, and maybe I could ask Jon to explain it more because Jon is growing them. Jon, would you like to do that? [Inaudible]
You have to repeat the question on the microphone so people can either like and hear it and then explain the answer.
Okay. The question was, what are jujubes? So they're a Chinese red date. You can eat them fresh or dry. They're quite small, the size of a golf ball, quite crispy, not really juicy, but they're very sweet. They've got a Brix in the 30% range.
And I've tried them in a dried form. They have a very unusual taste. It's not something that you would ever relate to any other fruit.
Do you export them from Australia or are they locally produced?
You got to repeat the question, Jon.
The question was, do we export them? We export some dried product only at the moment. We're looking at developing markets, but everything else is sold domestically fresh.
In Australia.
In Australia.
Yes, and we'll just wait for the microphone to come.
Sorry, it's me again. I'm single. I've just turned 80, so that must be some consolation to the Chairman and the others. Probably only got a couple of years to go. I've been coming to Seeka since before Fred was the Chairman, so I've been coming quite a long time. I'm sorry, fellow shareholders. You're a lousy lot. Imagine asking a question at a shareholders meeting, what is this jujube berry? Surely we've got other things to talk about. No, I'm livid. I told my wife I was going to behave. This is my behaving. Fred, you would have made a wonderful Chairman of a cooperative. The director here says, "Grow us first." Hang on. Is this a cooperative or a company? Do you know the difference between a company and a cooperative? What is it?
Cooperative is all growers working together, and a company is looking after the shareholders.
Correct. You said, "Grow us first."
I said that was one of Seeka's taglines, "Grow us first," which it is. Without growers, we've got nothing.
Have we? We could get rid of the growers and go into another business. We could go into Seeka's business and make some decent money. Anyway, I had something else to say. Yeah. Sorry about that. You pay the growers and the employees in part in shares. Now, the rate that you pay them out, the shares are worth $2.50 at the market. That's what it is. But the net asset value is?
$6.
$6. So why give them something that's worth to us shareholders $6 for $2.50? Don't you value your company? You should never do that. It doesn't go through the profit and loss.
It makes you think that you're doing well. Now, get rid of all your side assets. We're not getting a decent return from Australia. It's a diversion to management's attention. We've been buying all these pack houses and what have you for 12 years. What was the share price 12 years ago? How much?
About 80 cents. No. What was it? It peaked. All right. Okay. Twelve years ago, somewhere between 60 and 80 cents, if I remember rightly, wasn't it? Yeah. Okay.
So what was my question now? Shareholders, back up. No, that's a statement. Sorry. Are you going to do better, shareholders?
Thank you for your comments. I would just say we are in a business where you do need patience. One of the comments I was going to make before I close the meeting, which I'll just check that there's no further meetings from the floor.
A question, sorry? Yep. Thank you.
Is that working? Oh yeah. Chris Malcolm, we've been through a pretty rough period, haven't we? And God knows what we face. You talk about your risk committee. Just a question. Do you run formal risk scenarios written down? And do you have formal contingency plans written down? And if you can share some of those, I'd be interested.
Yeah, we do have a formal risk register that's written down where management brings to the board on an annual basis, which is reviewed by the audit committee and the board. Those that are at the top 15 of those risks are formally documented, assessed, time is spent working through what the mitigation controls should be to manage those risks.
We also formally have a staff member that helps with that risk management register review and audit to make sure that those mitigation steps that are put in place are in fact undertaken. There is a very formal risk management process that is worked through in terms of the risks as management and the board see them to make sure that they are managed as best we're able. Any further questions?
Martin. As a grower and a shareholder of the company, we've all had damage. As you see, I've had a bit of bleeding in the ear days. It hasn't been great over the last two or three years. I respect what the board's done, and particularly the management, to pull the company through some difficult periods for everybody.
Yeah, I'd just like to thank them all on behalf of shareholders for what they've done. I think looking forward, I've never seen such confidence in the industry that Seeka is able to capture. I'd just like to pass that on. Thank you.
Thank you, Martin. Any further questions from the floor? Yes.
Surprised that no one's actually asked this question. In the absence of anyone else, I'm going to ask you, has Seeka had any thoughts about what the Trump phenomena is actually going to do for the profits of the kiwifruit industry, and in particular, Seeka?
We haven't formally discussed that as a board, to be fair, at this point. Any comments that I make are off the cuff. We need to remember that Seeka does not take kiwifruit to the global market.
That's Zespri's responsibility, and it's their responsibility to price out in those markets. We have had no feedback from Zespri at this point of how they plan to approach that. Secondly, all the revenue that does come from those markets doesn't come into Seeka's books. It goes to Seeka's growers. Seeka Growers, who is an independent company, collects the money from Zespri and distributes it to the growers that grow fruit. In some ways, you might say, you know, Seeka's business is really about providing services to growers and receiving our revenues from providing those services to growers, and the market may not affect us other than through the growing activity that we do ourselves. It'll never be as simple as that because we have to wait to see how well Zespri can sell its fruit.
It does sell a bit of fruit into the United States, but it's not its primary market. Any further questions? Any questions online? There's no questions online. I was just going to say that it's how it's been such a great pleasure to be involved with this company over 12 years. When I was invited to start, it was at the height of Psa. The company was on its knees in many respects and had had to cut people, had to cut its cloth to meet the revenue that was going to come in at that time. We have diversified to try and minimize the risk of being a single packhouse in one region here in Te Puke. Michael's demonstrated some of the things that we've tried to achieve.
Some of those, I will accept, have not produced as quickly as we would have liked to and generated the returns as quickly as they would have liked to. I still have confidence that the opportunity is there for them to develop. That is why I mentioned we have to have patience because there is no doubt this year has demonstrated what this company is capable of doing. The last three years have been pretty tough for various reasons which you are all familiar with, from COVID to lack of labor and weather. The weather risk is one of those things why we need to further reduce debt to get those ratios down so the company is in a position to be able to absorb those sorts of shocks, but at the same time, it needs to be able to access capital to take opportunities for further growth.
My final comment before I close is that I'm very pleased with the board that the company has now been able to assemble to take the company from now and into the future. I'm sure they will serve you as shareholders very well. With those closing comments, I'll ask Turi to close the meeting for us. Thank you.
I can't hear you. Keaque Perdidika, Fred. William Long fellow, Wadsworth. I shot an arrow into the air. It fell to earth. I know not where and I know not where. For so swiftly was its flight that it was lost from my sight. I breathed the song into the air. It fell to earth. I know not where. I know not where. For who has the sight and the keenness and the strength and the sight and the strength to follow a song in its flight?
Twelve years on, in an oak, an arrow was found still unbroken. And what of the song from beginning to end? Yeah, Fred. It's found in the heart of every friend. Twelve years, Fred. Today, we had the verses of the song. The song will be sung for many years to come. As my old uncle, William Shakespeare, says, "Parting is with such sweet sorrow. Goodbye for now until morrow." Keinuitata. Katou, kitato, katoa. Te atawhai o tō tātou Ariki, a Ihu Karaiti. Me te aroha o te Atua . Mete fifinga taitanga. Ki te Wairua Tapu . Haumaru, haumaru ki te haere. Haumaru ki te noho te Aranga. Me ngā manaa kitanga katoa. Kia whakapaingia te ingoa o te Ariki . May the grace of the Spirit, may the fellowship of everyone here, and the goodwill of everyone here, be with us all as you go safely, as you stay safely over this Easter break. God bless us all. Kia ora tātou.
I blessed the food, by the way, and it's out there.
Thank you, Turi. Do make sure your voting papers get collected and do join us for refreshments down in the cafeteria.