Thank you. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. We were just trying to round up anybody who was late getting here. I'm Mark Dewdney. I'm the Chairman of Seeka. It's my pleasure to welcome you all here this afternoon to our, we call it a stakeholder update. We cover a lot of different audiences when we say stakeholders. We obviously have our shareholders, our staff, our growers. I welcome you all and thank you for joining us today. Before I start, I will ask Turi to please welcome us with a greeting and a prayer, and then I will come back and lead through the meeting . [Foreign language].
[Foreign language] from the north, to [Foreign language] the south, [Foreign language] the east, [Foreign language] the west. [Foreign language] Who have joined us online. [Foreign language] To all those who have gathered here in this room here today, the stakeholders, the [Foreign language], the family of Seeka. [Foreign language] To all those who have passed since we last passed our way, we acknowledge them. The likes of Mr. Jim Bolger, acknowledge a great New Zealander. We acknowledge his passing and the contributions he's made to this country. [Foreign language] a great chief of [Foreign language] from [Foreign language] , and to [Foreign language] of New Zealand acknowledge him.
To all those from your families, from [Foreign language], from communities who you know, knew, and loved since we last passed our way, our love and condolences go out to them and to all their families. [Foreign language] To all of us gathered here, wonderful to see us all come together as [Foreign language], and today the [Foreign language] of Seeka. [Foreign language] greetings once, [Foreign language] greetings twice. [Foreign language] greetings twice. [Foreign language].
[Foreign language] Turi, and thank you very much for that lovely opening. Before I start the formal proceedings, just a couple of health and safety announcements. If the alarms go off or you smell fire or somebody in a yellow jacket comes in and says we're in trouble, we need to get out of here, then please make your way through the two exits here. Knowing Michael, he'll be leading, and so just follow him, and we'll assemble out there, but I'm sure nothing will go wrong today. What I will do first is just run through a very quick overview to recap our business and how our performance has been over the last 12 months. I have a couple of financial announcements to make. One, an update on our expected profitability for the year, and second, to just confirm a dividend that the board has approved today.
Then I'll pass to Michael. Michael will give you a complete run-through of the business's financial performance for the half year and give you an update on various performances around the business and in the market. We'll then have questions and answers, which I'll get Michael to run, given that the majority of the questions will probably be directed at him. Then we'll break and we'll have refreshments. Let's make a start. You all know our business well, being closely involved in it. There are four main streams to our business: our orchard management services, where we lease orchards in our own name, and we manage orchards on behalf of growers. That business is designed to help us to bring supply in to fuel our pack houses, as well as to provide excellence in service to the owners of the land who trust us to manage their orchards.
The engine room of our business is our post-harvest services, which is a full supply chain business from orchard through our pack houses and then out to market, either on our own or through our partnerships with Zespri. We have a fresh business where we import product, we grow product, and we secure product from growers, and we sell those products into the New Zealand retail market and the Australian and Asian retail and wholesale markets. We have our Australian orcharding and pack house business that is primarily based around kiwifruit, but has a range of other different fruits in it. Over time, we'll focus, I believe, more on kiwifruit as we go forward, looking for complementary opportunities to grow kiwifruit in Australia out of cycle with the New Zealand kiwifruit to put into the Australian retail market or offshore into other international markets. Our business is founded on kiwifruit.
It is the engine room of what we do, but we are also looking to diversify from kiwifruit. We all, as people involved in primary industry, understand the risks that come if you have all your eggs in one basket. We will not step away from kiwifruit, but over time, I think we will progressively look to carefully and selectively expand our business beyond kiwifruit. When we look at the last 12 months, we're very happy with the performance that we've generated as a business, and we're very proud of the work that our extended teams have done, our management, our grower partners, and our partners right through the supply chain. We've had an excellent operational performance. Our fruit quality has been good in New Zealand and offshore.
Michael and some of our team have recently been in Europe, where they've had an opportunity to have a very close look at fruit in the market and have reported back that overall the fruit that is being produced, procured, and supplied through Seeka is very, very good. Our financial performance has been excellent. Two years ago, we reported a loss. Last year, a very good profit, and this year, our profitability is up again. We're continuing to invest. Michael will go through this in terms of our investments in automation, technology, and generally improving the productivity and profitability of our operations. We continue to try to ensure that we are doing the very best job that we can possibly do for all of our growers. Our growers are our lifeblood.
We will only have a business if our grower partners have a strong business, and we are absolutely focused on continuing to strengthen the bonds that we've got with our grower partners. Profitability, we've already announced this to the market, but just to recap, we are currently guiding or signaling to the market that we expect our final net profit before tax for the year to be between NZD 39 million and NZD 43 million. That compares to just under NZD 30 million for the last financial year, and that is an increase in guidance that we've put into the market in recent weeks. That just reflects that the final quarter's performance has been stronger than we anticipated. Costs are under control. Margins are coming through as we've expected. It's reflecting the increased Orchard Gate returns that are being signaled by Zespri, and we're having a good season in Australia.
Right across the business, we are tracking well, and we're very pleased with that. As I said, Michael will go into more detail on that. Finally, from me today, the board has approved an additional dividend of NZD 0.10 per share. The record date will be December 19, and that dividend will be paid to shareholders either in cash or as shares through the dividend reinvestment program on January 19 next year. That will be imputed to the maximum available level. That will depend obviously on individual's own tax situations, but we will be putting all the imputation credits on it that we can. I expect that we will have a final dividend announcement. It will need to be considered by the board in the new year, coinciding with the end of our financial year. That will be, as I say, considered by the board and announced in the new year.
Again, nice to be able to share some of our financial success with our shareholders. We're very happy about that. Thank you. That brings me to a close. I'll pass over to Michael, and Michael will run through all the details.
Thanks, Mark. Let me just push the button. Let me just deviate slightly, if I might, for a moment. Sorry, Turi, I forgot to tell you. I just want to acknowledge the passing of Jack Price this week. Jack was a long-term shareholder, a long-term grower. He was a life member of the Seeka Growers. I think they call him a patron. He and Daff were great friends of the company. She quite often used to come through and disrupt any productivity that we might have had in the office, and he would stand back, sort of chuckling away with his arms folded with that sort of slicked-back hairdo that he had. It's a tragic loss. My condolences to the family and Greg. He is missed. He will be missed. He's a wonderful guy, wonderful family.
I'm sorry to give you the bad news, but that was just recently this week. Of course, heading into the six-month results, a little bit old now. It's nice to have the wind at our backs, perhaps a little bit. We've been through some hard times, quite nice to have better results to be able to present to our stakeholders, shareholders, and growers. 47 million trays packed pretty much on time, up 10% in New Zealand. 5,700 tons of fruit in Australia, up 28%, and a very strong kiwifruit performance on the back of a new crop protection program we've got running over there. In terms of our revenue, NZD 308 million in revenue, NZD 83 million in EBITDA. Profit before tax at NZD 59 million. Our earnings per share is NZD 0.90. We believe we've done it. We believe that we've delivered excellent operational performance. Our growers have helped us.
We've had a very good growing season, to be fair. The crop was excellent. Growers gave us nice clean crops to work with. We've had an efficient harvest management system running. Our post-harvest was good. KKP machines added a lot to the dimension. We'll talk about what we're doing next. We've given excellent quality produce to Zespri to the market. Our bank debt is down. NZD 131 million is down, NZD 40 million on the year earlier. We banked NZD 65 million in July, which largely repaid growers' advances. That further improved our debt levels. We have been, and we are building our balance sheet strength and giving the company some resilience in case the tide turns. If it does turn, we don't want to be caught swimming naked. We are managing to get our debt down, and we're happy about that. We are still investing, though. Our capital maintenance program is strong.
We've got new automated pack lines in construction now for Kerikeri and HukaPak, both of which are kiwifruit-centric. We've got a new citrus machine going to Orangewood and Kerikeri as well. It gives us both additional capacity, the ability to pack it faster, better, smarter, as well as get some cost efficiencies into the system. In terms of profitability, NZD 308 million is up NZD 24 million on June 2024, 10% lift in kiwifruit volumes to our post-harvest hotel for fruit. Excellent growing seasons across both New Zealand and Australia. NZD 83 million in EBITDA, up NZD 15 million on the year before. Team's done a great job right across the business in optimizing our post-harvest engine. NZD 59.4 million profit before tax compares to NZD 45 million the year before. We had a NZD 0.90 earnings per share, which is pretty healthy, to be honest.
In terms of the balance sheet, NZD 3.7 million increase in capital employed compared to the half year in 2024. A NZD 17.3 million increase in Rotorua leased assets, which is really investing in cool stores for post-harvest and some infrastructure in Australia. We have decreased the assets held for sale. We have sold the last orchard in Northland. It is gone. While it is still held for sale, it is not held for sale in the books. Sharp Road is still on the balance sheet. It is for sale, but it's no longer categorized as for sale in our accounts. In total, NZD 562.7 million capital employed in the company. NZD 130.6 million in bank debt. It's NZD 40 million down the same time last year. We banked just under NZD 65 million in July. Our total facilities is NZD 201 million. We have focused on getting those leverage ratios down.
We have focused on making sure we've got headroom in our debt and funding arrangements. Team's done a very good job. The company's well placed now as a result of that. Earnings per share, NZD 0.90, up from NZD 0.41 in the previous corresponding period. There was a deferred tax adjustment last year, just to remind you. We've paid NZD 0.30 in dividends to date this year, and there's a NZD 0.10 dividend now announced. Of course, of that dividend, of the NZD 0.30 that we've paid, NZD 0.15 relates to last year normally, but we've paid it in the current calendar year. The NZD 0.15 paid for the current year plus this NZD 0.10 brings us up to NZD 0.25.
To answer a question that's already on the question sheet, the dividend policy for the Board is to normally pay between 50% and 75% of after-tax profits by way of dividends, taking into account all the normal considerations that you would expect a Board to take into account: debt levels, capital expenditure, outlook for the company, solvency, all of those things. Normally, the Board would consider to pay a dividend between 50% and 75% of profits after tax. Dividends would normally be paid in April and October. The Board has decided to pay a dividend out of cycle because the company's performance is slightly better than where they expected. The right thing to do is make a distribution back to shareholders. Asset backing per share, net tangible asset backing, NZD 6.44, and up 9%. Current share price around NZD 4.50.
There is some movement, some distance between asset backing and share price that I just noted to you only. In terms of looking at the operating segments, I'll run through them quickly for you. I don't want to bore you too long. In terms of revenue by operating segment, an orcharding business, NZD 69 million in revenue for the six months. A post-harvest business where all the investment is the hotel for fruit in New Zealand, NZD 205 million. NZD 11 million in our retail services business, Seeka Fresh, and NZD 22 million in Australia. In terms of orchard business, we're growing kiwifruit, avocados, and kiwi berry in New Zealand. It supplied 41% of the fruit that we handled in our engine room and our post-harvest business this year. Our growers, our contracted growers, our orcharding managers, all done an excellent job to grow great crops, great crop volumes.
It was a good growing season, it was delivered, and I acknowledge it. 19.1 million trays of class one kiwifruit in total. SunGold was up 15%. Hayward is up 4%. NZD 69.4 million in revenue is up 22% on the previous corresponding period. That's the first six months of last year. NZD 9.7 million in EBITDA, up 199%. In addition to all of that, we have 70 hectares of kiwifruit coming into production in Te Kaha. First real crops will be next year. We touched the edge of it this year in this year's harvest, next year we are looking forward to a more meaningful harvest of that Hayward fruit next year. That investment that the company's made over a period of years in conjunction with Kaunas and with Iwi will come into production and give us fruit to put into our engine room later on this year.
Breaking down the 9.1 million trays of fruit, 9.8 million trays of SunGold, and 8.9 million trays of Hayward, all well up on last year. In terms of the post-harvest business, run by Paul Crone. Orcharding is, of course, run by Barry Pinnellum. In terms of our post-harvest business, arranging the arrival of the fruit to our hotel, it's packing, storage, putting it away, kiwifruit, avocados, persimmons now on contract, citrus for our New Zealand orchard owners, generated 66% of our revenue in the first six months. It's all about supplying the markets and Zespri, the marketer, predominantly with high-quality fruit to support the brand and generate as much money back to our growers as possible. 47.1 million class one trays of kiwifruit, up 10% in SunGold, 9% in the other varieties, NZD 204.6 million in revenues, up 6%, NZD 78.5 million in EBITDA is up 13%.
We've got three new automation projects underway. I'll update you on those again a bit later in this presentation. In terms of Seeka Fresh, our retail services business, that's where we connect fruit to the high-paying market within New Zealand. We're selling the fruit that we grow ourselves or handle for our growers, kiwifruit, avocados, kiwi berry, imported fruit, kiwi crush. We also export some of that fruit to Australia for its kiwifruit and avocados or around the world in the case of avocados and kiwi berry. It's a very dynamic business. As part of that business, we also import to New Zealand pineapples, papaya, and bananas in increasing volumes, and we're getting stronger market returns. Business is going very well. NZD 1.5 million in EBITDA is up 39% on the previous corresponding period and continues to grow. Team's done a fantastic job under the stewardship of Kate Bryan.
During the period, we also acquired the assets of the previous Olivado business, which is an avocado oil manufacturing and marketing business in Northland. To be honest, we pushed it into receivership to start with. We bought the assets out of it under the stewardship of Jim Smith. We have now got that business up and running again in Northland as manufacturing oil now, and we will soon be bringing it through to market. In terms of Australia, John van Popering, the General Manager in that part of our business, it's all about growing, packing, and retailing kiwifruit and other Australian produce, European pears, Asian pears, namely nashi, plums, and jujube. It's an integrated orchard-to-market business. 5,703 tons of fruit last year, up 28%. Business has benefited from the new crop protection program that we have in that part of the world.
For those of you who are kiwifruit growers, Actigard has been a game changer for us there. We're pretty happy with how that's running. Just as a current life, current state update to you, business over there, bud break looks outrageous. We're very happy with what we're seeing in that part of the world at the moment. Revenue at NZD 22.2 million, up 14%. EBITDA NZD 6.4 million in six months, up 32%. We've got new development orchards over there as well. We've got NZD 12.3 million New Zealand dollars invested in those. It looks like we will be heading to the first crops across all blocks in Australia next year. Really has taken a huge leap forward, and we're happy about that. To my final slide, what are we focusing on doing right now?
We're really focusing on making sure we're delivering operational excellence, continuing to do that, to build our financial results, to make sure we've got sustainable returns to our shareholders and to our growers. We are continuing to invest in our capital maintenance program. We've got big work underway in terms of our plant room and switchboards, which I previously talked about in previous minutes. We have invested in three new automated pack lines using REEMOON Technology. The first of those is now installed in Orangewood. That is our citrus machine, complete with robot and infeed. That is in testing at the moment to be commissioned on the 25th of November. The Kerikeri machine is in containers and in shipping at the moment from China, so it's on the water, expected to be here in about five weeks' time.
It will be installed through December and to be running at the end of December. We are waiting for the bin tip to be shipped. It should be shipped from Europe later this week, along with some other periphery automation that we've got from Europe for that machine as well. Finally, we've got our Hokapack machine. Hokapack machine is built, is laid out in China in the factory. They've got it in testing. They expect to be sending it to us in the next four weeks by shipping. We expect to have it with us in December to be installed in January. All of those timelines are ahead of schedule. None of them are behind. We're pretty satisfied with where we're at. We're very excited by the technology. We're excited by the speed of deployment that our partner REEMOON have delivered to us.
We're happy with the cost efficiency and the financial dynamic of those investments. We've got no hesitation at all, having been through a full diligence process and sending people up and around the world to look at that equipment and technology being deployed. We're excited by it. It gives us both cost efficiencies and gives us some capital expansion as well. That's the end of my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions from the floor. I do have some questions that were sent to me. Mark's made me do this bit because he's got the ability to delegate. I'll take one. I had a question from Selenium Corporation who's asked me about the clarification update of the dividend policy.
Mark has already outlined that the dividend's been announced today, considered and announced by the board today, and that the next time that the board will consider it is at end of year for a dividend in the normal cycle to be announced in February for payment in April if there was one determined to be payable. I have outlined that the dividend policy of the board is to pay between 50% and 75% of NPAT in the normal course of business, having considered all of those matters that you would expect a professional and publicly listed board to consider in making such a determination or such an announcement or considering a dividend. I've got a question here about future marketing expansion. At the moment, we don't have too much future marketing plans for expansion.
We are focused very much on our Seeka Fresh business and growing that, and we've got momentum in that business in connecting produce through to both the New Zealand domestic market and into the international market. We have, of course, got our programs in Australia selling Australian produce largely within Australia and only exporting because of capacity, for capacity constraints really. At the moment, we don't have anything beyond that. We're fully deployed. JJ.
If you get any item of the internal growth that you so well described, do you think of any forces from the opposition?
The question was, apart from the internal growth that we described or invested into ourselves, do we pick up any growth from our opposition? In the normal course of business, JJ, 5% of growers might come and go by way of birth, deaths, and marriages. We do pick up growers. We have got an expanding book. We have grown market share. Pretty much, when you get to the scale that we're doing, it's hard to grow it significantly. Pretty much, it's a status quo for the moment. We're always looking at ways to do it. We're always looking at ways to finance it. We're always looking for a way to beg, steal, borrow, or confuse. If we can confuse them, we're more likely to get them, I think. We're always chasing. We've got a team of people who do that. I've got a question here about innovation and waste management.
It's not really a question, but it's from [Nick Dapuni], asking about that. In terms of waste management, we've got a full sustainability drive happening within the company. We are looking to recycle as much cardboard waste and recyclable waste as we can. We are doing innovative things in and around our biowaste, the dust, the hair, the leaves that we might get when we pack fruit and vacuum it and run it across the brush rollers. We do have a commercial worm farm here on site at Seeka 360. Rather than taking that biowaste hundreds of kilometers away to dump it in a landfill, we stick it through the catalytic bioreactor here at the back of this site. The catalytic bioreactor is a worm. We take the worm castings and put it back into the orchard to displace using artificial fertilizer.
It's something which has worked pretty well with diverted waste and putting it back into the ground and actually improving soil health by doing that. The answer is that we are doing that. Nick, thank you for the question. I'll take any ones from the floor before I keep reading them out, please. There's a microphone coming.
I'd like to applaud you on your grasping of automation. That's fantastic. One question, however, you're relying on Chinese technology, which is probably far better than anything you'll find. If the world cuts up rough politically, how vulnerable are you if they withdraw support, and can you run these things without them?
Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you. As part of the negotiation that we held to bring the new technology into New Zealand, there are a number of aspects that we considered. Firstly, with the installation of these new machines, we've got on-site in New Zealand support personnel here from China for two years. Onboarding the machines, for two years, their people will be here. They are establishing stores and stock of parts here within New Zealand, and that's all been handled and actually looking for sites now to buy that so they can establish those warehouses.
As part of the onboarding and the purchase process and the pre-acquisition inspection, we sent a team of post-harvest people, including electrical engineers, to China to make sure that things like electrical fittings were all standard and to our electrical standard to make sure that if we did have a problem, we could just take those out and switch them out. Really, most of the machine is, I think Paul best described as generic. Some of the technology they are bringing us, like the tri-head cameras, are out the gate smart. This is like BYD, what BYD is doing to the electric car world. It is beyond smart. It's a lot cheaper than what we could buy Euro for, and we're getting state-of-the-art and leading technology with these people.
To the extent that if we wanted to make a change with one of the European manufacturers to machine or numeral automation, it would take us maybe 18 months to get it. With REEMOON, we get it in 10 days, and we get the next iteration of it tweaked in the next 10 days. Within 30 days, we've got technology running the way that we want it. At the moment, I've got no hesitation in standing up in front of the stakeholders and shareholders and saying, I believe this to be a very good technology and relationship that we've built.
Okay, I've got some more questions.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm happy. Yeah, I'm happy to take as many as you want.
Just following that thought a bit, can they turn it off from a desk in China through the internet?
Cybersecurity is a big thing. They are able to help us because the technology is using AI. We're actually using AI a lot now with things like inventory management and trying to work out what fruit to ship next to the market. They can't turn the technology off. The way that they're under the contract, though, the AI will be learning to help us improve how the operations run. I've got another question here asking me about, could an indication be given about the new licenses being issued by Zespri and what that might mean on Seeka? The answer is we don't know yet at the moment what Zespri is doing in terms of new license release. We know that they are considering new red license release, but we don't know whether they're going to say yes to that yet or not. We are waiting like everybody else.
As I understand, the new varieties that they are considering are complementary within the harvest period that we've got right now. They're targeted to hit a certain week when we've got a lull in production. Week 15, I think, Kate. I hope she's nodding over there. We're just waiting to see what it all looks like when they release. Are there any other questions from the floor? I've got one more in front of me already, too. I've got a question here about the risks from climate change. I might just talk about that slightly wider. The risks from climate change, if you think about it, we're in climate change now. We're actually experiencing the risks. There are new varieties coming now which are better suited to the growing conditions that we're heading into.
There are new root stocks being produced that will help us in the case that we have a problem with a part of the plant that goes below the fruiting scion, the bit with the roots in the ground. I've recently come back from Italy and witnessed the turmoil that they've been through with a new disease that they've got there called Moria. They've got completely different growing conditions and completely different soils. The issue they've got there, I believe, is specific to their conditions, their soils, and their water. They have developed new root stock there, as well as Bounty. Bounty can handle it. That is actually adapting. We're in a process of adaptation at the moment in and around climate change. We're in it. Things are changing. Growing techniques are changing.
I think actually we're well placed to continue to counter any risks that we've got from climate change. Are there any last questions before I hand it back to Turi or you? Oh, yeah, there was one more. Keep on going. Why not? Make it more the merrier.
Michael, given that it appears that Seeka is, I'm not going to say holding it up, but we're certainly providing a higher quality crop by the time it gets to market. How do you think we could leverage that to either grow Seeka's market share or improve the profitability of Zespri and growers as a whole? It frustrates me seeing it. You consistently highlight it. I'd just like to know what more could be done.
Yeah, thanks, Alex. I might be biased, but genuinely, having just come back from the market, you don't need to look at the statistics. You can just look at the fruit. The fruit that we've delivered to Zespri, the marketer, the quality is noticeably better and different than what the rest of the industry is delivering them. That might be because of our handling techniques. That might be because we only conventionally handle our fruit. It might be because we've got things like the AI tool running or our processes might be all true. The only way that we'll leverage a benefit out of that is to actually get Zespri to put more costs on poor quality fruit and more incentives on good quality fruit so it differentiates itself. Money talks in our game.
If a grower gets more money because through their handler, they've delivered a better slice of fruit, then we'll get more grass. Of course, the people who are on the other side of that conversation will be resisting that suggestion at all costs, but that's the way to get there. Good. I've got a question at the back.
I'm just mindful of the employment status at the moment that there are lots of industries that are struggling to keep their doors open because they don't have staff. How is Seeka focused in that area? Are we having to worry about not having enough pickers? That's for our product.
Yeah, that's a wonderful question. Thank you. During COVID, this was a desperate place to be employed and a desperate place to be the CEO of. We were 1,100 people short on particular days in the season. That has largely turned around. If you come to us during the season, on any given day, you'll get a job. We're largely full. We started this year full before the season and had a waiting list. We haven't had that in 10 years. The employment situation in New Zealand is completely different. While we still hire a lot of RSE workers, we've backed off the number that we bring in so that we can hire more New Zealanders. We do occasionally have problems with reliability, but we are doing things to make this like the go-to company to work for: prizes, gifts, rewards, attendance, recognition, cultural days.
Tomorrow's a loud shoot day in the company, and there's all sorts of things happening like that to make it a great employer where people want to be employed and want to work. At the moment, labor supply is freed up. We don't have an issue with labor at the moment, and long may it continue. Nick Reynolds at the back's got a question.
Thanks. I've got a question online from Yin. Yin says, "Congratulations on the great half. Is there any chance of any additional profit upgrades before the financial year ends?
That's a wonderful question. Today, we had a Board meeting, and management has advised the Board that we are operating within the range. We need to be reasonably outside the range to have a guidance change. At the moment, the guidance is what the guidance is, between NZD 39 million and NZD 43 million profit before tax. It will be a record for the company if we can achieve that. We have not changed the guidance today. If we do need to change it, we'll let you know. There's another question.
Yeah, so Peter Cross asks, "In terms of cool store capacity, does the company have the ability to do much more than it did last season?
You know, Paul Crone and Jarrad Bates are about to faint. The answer is we do have some extra capacity. This year, while we were full for periods, we weren't truly full. We did lease 2,000 pallets or thereabouts of 3,000 pallets of cool store space to Eastpak on a commercial rate on a commercial basis. There is some more space yet left in the system. We are looking at technologies which may actually allow us to squeeze more capacity out of the existing footprint before we have to think about building more. We are looking at racking solutions, racking technologies, which would mean the entire cool store is able to have fruit in it without having to have a center aisle to put forklifts in and out to get the product in and out of that cool store.
Understanding, of course, airflow is important and that we will have to work out exactly how we maintain the temperature of the fruit while it's in those stores. There may be technologies for us to squeeze a bit more out. There's certainly a bit more there at the moment. I've also got a question from Pirahima Fine O Trust. In fact, what I'll do is I'll go to the Pirahima Fine O Trust meeting if I can get myself invited and answer those questions directly because they're more related to trusts and background and kiwifruit and industry and those things rather than a meeting for the stakeholders. One more. Go on.
There's been some interesting articles in the paper recently about ways to launder dirty money. In other words, paying employees cash for the work that they do, the cash, of course, having come from the likes of illicit drug sales. The question is, can Seeka be absolutely sure that none of its contractors are involved in these sort of dirty dealings?
Okay, let me give you a reasonable answer and not give you a dishonest one. We have a compliance team. That compliance team goes and touches every contractor in this company, touches them for safety, employment practice, wage record compliance. If you want to get paid by us, you have to be cleared by that compliance team, and you will be audited by them. You might also be audited by Zespri, and you might also be audited by the Labor Inspector and MBIE. To be paid by us, you must be audited by our compliance team, and they find you fit, or they will stand you down. If they stand you down, Nicola Neilson, the CFO, will not pay you.
I can't guarantee you that doesn't happen, but I can guarantee you that we are doing everything consistent with making sure that we are abiding by the standards that people expect us to abide by, being a publicly listed company where we're stewarding public money and don't want to be anywhere near that kind of behavior. I couldn't guarantee completely that it doesn't happen because we're a big company, and we're working across a wide range. We're doing more than what's reasonable to make sure it doesn't happen. One more. All right, can be as many as you like.
Time, I haven't got time.
The beer's going to stay cold. It's in the fridge.
As you've pointed out, our share price is a bit low at the moment, and you've probably noticed there's been a few takeovers in the share market. How vulnerable are we, and do you have means of buttressing yourselves?
That's kind of true, but we're less vulnerable today than we were when the share price was NZD 2.30. The price is up something like 78% in 12 months. We have paid a dividend, and the company has seemingly got some positive momentum behind it. If you think about New Zealand, really, it's one of the shining lights, to be honest, in the share market, perhaps just behind Scales. I think there's two answers. We're always vulnerable. People are willing to have a go. If it benefits the share price, we all benefit. We've got a loyal group of shareholders. We've got loyal grower shareholders. We've got cornerstone shareholders who enjoy the company, I believe. Therefore, I don't feel particularly vulnerable. When we're trading at such a discount to asset backing and we're making the money, then I guess someone might have a go.
At the end of the day, the shareholders will decide.
Yeah, at the end of the day, it's up to the shareholders to decide, correct. I'll hand you back to Mark if I can sit down. Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Michael. You did that extremely well. Finally, from me today, just three thank yous. First, thank you to all of our growers. We appreciate that you all have a choice of who you work with and who you supply your fruit to. We truly are grateful that you choose to work with us. Michael's spoken a lot about quality. You know, quality and having the best quality fruit will be the thing that, at the end of the day, protects growers and allows Seeka the best opportunity to do well on your behalf. I just urge you all to continue to focus everything you can on ensuring that you grow and supply us with the best fruit possible. We will do the same through our business. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to another, hopefully, very good season next year.
Second, thank you to our shareholders. We appreciate and understand that a couple of years ago, our results were not good. We appreciate very much the fact that shareholders supported the business and stood behind the business as we took a lot of steps to sort the issues out that we were facing. Most of them were driven off lower volumes, but our debt got too high, and our earnings were not high enough at the time that we had that debt. It's nice to see the share price appreciating, and it's nice to be able to share some of the profitability back with shareholders by way of dividends. Thank you for your support. Finally, thank you to all of our staff, Michael, Michael's team, and every single staff member that works for us throughout our business in New Zealand and Australia. We haven't got a business without our people.
I wouldn't want to have anybody other than the team that we've got running this business in charge of it. I think we've got wonderful people. They know the business extremely well. Their passion is just unquestionable. We saw that today from Michael. Michael, well done. Thank you to your team. Keep up the good work. On that note, I will ask Turi to close the meeting, bless the food and the drink that we're about to have, and please come and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Thank you.
[Foreign language] short on words. [Foreign language] big on meaning. [Foreign language] plenty of money flying around. [Foreign language] The final thought. [Foreign language] May the calm be widespread. [Foreign language] May the color of the sea be the hue of greenstone. [Foreign language] May the glimmering and the shimmering of the stars guide us on our way as we leave today. I'll bless the food. [Foreign langauge] for this food we're about to have. [Foreign language] for all the conviviality that we're going to enjoy. [Foreign language] , we enjoy it in His name. [Foreign language] for those online. [Foreign language] Our love and our care and our regards to you, to everyone in this room. [Foreign language] Enjoy the rest of the.