Approval of shareholders. You can also access the meeting at any time via a website. As a note of today's meeting, the stakeholders have hired a meeting here at Christchurch Convention Centre, and online via the Computershare online meeting platform. Before we commence the formal business, I should advise those present in the event of emergency please stay calm and follow the clearly marked signs to exit the building. I'm pleased to advise that the remaining quorum of shareholders present, I declare the annual meeting open. To begin, I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce those people alongside me. On my immediate right is a gentleman well-known to you, Graham Leaming, our Chief Executive Officer. Alongside Graham is Tim Runnalls, Chief Financial Officer. Alongside Tim, Alan Isaac, an Independent Director. Alongside Alan is Rachel Farrant, an Independent Director. On my left, there's David Cushing, an Independent Director.
Alongside David is David Mair, a Non-Executive Director. Alongside David is Paul Scherer, an Independent Director. At this stage, I was going to note and observe that the court needs to exercise audience seats to gather the audience, but there are occasionally strong ones having made it down from Auckland. Similarly, our lawyers. I would like to welcome to the meeting today my father and also one of the loyalist shareholders that Skellerup has ever had, Selwyn, who's graced our presence many, many times with some entertaining interchanges with Cecil and Cushing over the years in Auckland. It's great to see you here, Selwyn. Yes, the bar is open after the meeting. Dealing with the order of events, the order of events for today will be as follows. First, I'll give an overview of Skellerup today, our recent performance, and future prospects.
We will then hand over to Graham to give a presentation as Skellerup's Chief Executive Officer. Given we're here in Christchurch, which is the foundation of the agribusiness, we will also have a presentation from Dirk Verbiesen, the Executive General Manager here on our agri division. I will provide an opportunity for questions at the conclusion of these presentations. I will then put the resolutions outlined in the notice of meeting. We'll cover each resolution in turn and invite questions specific to those resolutions. Finally, there'll be an opportunity for any general questions by shareholders on Skellerup's business and performance. For online attendees, you can submit a question at any time. To do so, select the Q&A tab on the right half of your screen, type your question into the field, and press send.
Please note that while you may submit questions at any time, I will not address these until the relevant time in the meeting. Please note that your questions may be moderated or, if we receive multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated together. Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all questions, and if that happens, we will answer them in due course by email. Voting. Voting today will be conducted by a poll on all items of business. For those in attendance, you should have a voting paper which was given to you when you registered. If you do not, can you please indicate that now by raising your hand, and a member of the friendly Computershare team will assist you. We're all enfranchised, good. For those online, I now declare voting open on all items of business.
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 at 10. Now to my address. Just to repeat, it's a pleasure to be here in Christchurch, Skellerup's spiritual home. The city has played a central role in our story, and it's great to be back here after quite some time. In fact, our roots here go all the way back to 1910, when George Waldmyr Skellerup, a Danish immigrant, opened a shop at 175 Manchester Street, not far from here. You can see him behind me here, I think. Selling imported rubber products, CAS Rubber has been our DNA always. Growing up in Christchurch in the 1970s, as I did, you couldn't miss the Skellerup rubber brand. I love that. I love this photo. We have it in stock.
We'll get it, orders made of rubber. Fantastic. Also, the foreboding factories out in Wigram. We've come a long way since those times. Today, Skellerup's a truly global business, but it is genuinely nice to bring the annual meeting road show back here to where it all began. Let's turn to the present. In 2023, we delivered record results again. Net profit after tax was NZD 54.5 million. Revenue reached NZD 353.5 million, and EBIT came in at NZD 78 million. These are outstanding numbers, especially considering the challenging and unpredictable environment we've been operating in. It's a credit to our team and the way we do business. Now let's talk about the two divisions, agri and industrial. Their contributions shifted slightly this year. Agri found its rhythm again with results significantly up.
It came down to hard work, renewed customer relationships, and some exciting new product lines they were optimistic about for 2026 and beyond. You'll hear more about that from Graham shortly. All others' work on the unconventional manufacturing improvements continued steadily. I want to acknowledge the quiet, consistent work that goes on behind the scenes. In that regard, it's not glamorous, but it's essential. We have a leadership team in Agri which combines market awareness with deep technical expertise, a rare and valuable combination. You'll hear more from Dino a little later on. On the industrial side, growth continued at the same pace as Agri. Some OEM projects were delayed due to market uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, which caused a few customers to pause investment decisions. Still, our team pushed on, pushed forward, found new opportunities, and grew the business despite the illness.
In both divisions, our technical expertise and product development is proving to be a real competitive advantage. We're encouraging early involvement from our development team in customer market initiatives, and that's paying off. Also, as you know, we have a significant third-party manufacturing partner in Vietnam, and our technical people need to be up there regularly, monitoring production and product development. All of this adds up to a lot of travel, and that isn't glamorous either. While we still distinguish between Agri and Industrial in our minds, collaboration between them, between the two, and our product development centers is increasing, and that's a healthy development. Our board's very supportive of this trend. Last year, I spoke about the need to build more in-market capability to get closer to our customers geographically. We've made progress here, developing local resources in key markets.
The board acknowledges, though, that our steps so far have been modest, which feels appropriate given the fluidity, if I can put it that way, of the commercial environment in places like the U.S. Our caution has been vindicated to date, but the luxury of the do-nothing approach may not continue forever. As we shared with the market in July, around 37% of our revenue comes from the U.S. Competitors increased even more since then. About 85% of that is for products manufactured in New Zealand, China, and Vietnam. Because we built significant inventories in the U.S. in the position of tariffs, Liberation Day, and subsequent variations on that thing didn't materially affect 2025, but they will increase costs for future years. If the current rates hold, we believe we can offset most of the impact through several methods, which include: one, pricing, where we pass the costs on.
As usual, it's about who pays. Two, sales growth, where we absorb costs, where competitive positions in the U.S. domestic competitors mean we have to build and build total revenues from sales growth. Finally, through manufacturing initiatives, including manufacturing and assembly in the U.S., with the result, of course, that no tariffs apply. That said, as we all know, the final outcomes of the China-U.S. negotiations are still unclear, and the situation seems to change weekly. What works this week might not work next week. For example, like here, we woke up a couple of Saturday mornings ago to learn that the Trump administration had reignited trade wars with an announced intention to impose an additional 100% tariff on all goods out of China from November 1. Within a few hours, NZD 2 billion had been wiped off the value of U.S. shares.
In response to that, a free world posted on social media, "Don't worry about China. It will all be fine," and that the Chinese president, who is highly respected, had just had a bad moment. Like many commentators, we believe that a reasonable compromise will emerge. We believe the tariff regime we are now operating under is unlikely to change materially and adversely. We'll respond appropriately when we have certainty, using the full range of tools at our disposal. I've spoken before about our disciplined approach to investment. We invest only when there is a high conviction and projects where we can see a strong strategic foundation. We're conservative by nature, and that's served us well. Some of the initiatives we're considering, especially around that market capability, will be more significant both financially and operationally.
Also, if we do develop new and market manufacturing capability and so satisfy local demand locally, that will create capacity in existing facilities. The management team is already working on this, seeking out a presence in markets which we do not currently have a significant presence and should have. In fact, in all of these ways, the next 12 - 36 months could be a watershed period for Skellerup. We're reconfiguring the business for the future, and there is a real sense of excitement about that. Of course, we'll remain disciplined with capital deployment. A strong balance sheet helps. Net debt is at NZD 30,000. It was NZD 12.4 million, a NZD 3 million reduction by 2024. That's enabled us to declare dividends totaling NZD 0.255 per share in 2025, another record. This represents a distribution of 92% of net profit after tax and reflects the board's confidence in our future.
Now, I want to be clear. While these record results are outstanding, they mustn't continue indefinitely. I've counseled shareholders against expectations of growth every year, particularly if and when at the time of our choosing, we move into the next phase of development I mentioned earlier. For the record, I reach to that caution again. Of course, we're not planning to fail. Skellerup doesn't stand still. Encouraging new initiatives, whether in process, product, or market, are presented to the board almost monthly. It's really the chief of the management team, and this bodes incredibly well for the future. You'll also notice the standard climate reporting in this year's annual report. Our investments have led to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions intensity. We've completed our first transition plan and an emissions reduction plan for our Wigram facility. Implementing these actions will bring both environmental and commercial benefits to Skellerup.
A quick mention of your board. I believe, by the way, that we have an excellent board, although this sounds somewhat self-congratulatory. Certainly, we work together very constructively in an environment encouraging an unlimited exchange of views, which I think is essential to a board's proper functioning. It's fair to say that several of us are rather long in the tooth for continued terms. In some quarters, that has traditionally been viewed as an issue. Our friends at the proxy solicitation firms continue to take that stance. We are now also receiving feedback from institutional shareholders and representatives of shareholder groups that value some longevity. They recognize that with tenure comes depth of knowledge about the business. Surely, it is about common sense.
In this regard, I hope that my colleague David Mair, who has served on the board for almost 19 years, is therefore guilty of what the proxy solicitation firms term excessive tenure. He has provided such outstanding service to Skellerup over a long period. I do hope he gets reelected today. I am quite confident. It's not just about leadership. Success comes from the people. It's all about people. On behalf of the Board, I want to sincerely thank every member of the Skellerup team for their contribution to the 2025 result. To our shareholders, I'd like to say thank you for your continued support. We're proud of what you've achieved, and we're excited about what's ahead. Thank you. Of course, without pressing onto that point, I can see that you can match that, Graham. We now move to Graham's address.
Thank you, John. As John knows, I've been delighted to bring the GZ ECM to Christchurch. I wasn't sure whether we had an ECM here before, but I was chatting to Tony James, a former Skellerup employee, before the meeting, and he assured me it was 2012, and I didn't know. It might have been 2011. Anyway, it's the first time in some time that we're here, and it's great to have the meeting here. I'm going to give you a summary of our business and strategy, a bit of a recap on FY 2025 results, discuss the outlook for the current year, and introduce you to some of the people influential in both what we've achieved and, importantly, critical to delivering future growth and success. At last year's ASM, which was held in Auckland, I spoke a lot about the four key elements of how we do business at Skellerup.
I'd like to briefly recap on that as collectively we think doing these things is critical to our success. Firstly, we focus on products and applications that demand high performance and/or high conformance. To capitalize on the deep expertise we have in our organization, we seek opportunities to deliver real value, such as designing and manufacturing milking systems that improve productivity and improve animal health. We're integrating multiple materials to reduce discrete parts and complexity for customers, for example, potable water and hygiene applications. Secondly, our development efforts are customer-focused. This may sound political or simple, but it's a cornerstone of profitable growth. Practically, this means when working with original equipment manufacturing customers, we work rapidly to deliver prototypes to prove a solution works, and then we get their commitment, the financial contribution to the development cost, and/or an irrevocable commitment to product.
The same customer-focused principle applies when we manufacture our own branded products, whether it be for dairy, footwear, roofing, sport, and leisure applications. Our product development follows a robust testing of market opportunity and a committed customer for market launch. In short, by working hard to understand customer needs, we boost our opportunity, create strong value for the customers, and in turn, capture a fair share of the value we create for Skellerup and for shareholders. The third element is our business model. We're a global business. 80% of our revenue is derived from international markets. We have people and facilities in market in New Zealand, Australia, China, Europe, the U.K., and the U.S. This on-the-ground presence has been and will continue to be critical to growth.
Our manufacturing footprint, as John touched on, is also global and a mix of our own and contract manufacturing facilities, providing us with both scale and flexibility. This model, alongside our customer engagement I spoke about earlier, means that capital investment requirements are not excessive and that product design and tooling into the joint property that we create is retained. Our largest operations are in New Zealand, China, with a partner in Vietnam. We continue to evaluate options to expand what is currently smaller manufacturing capability in our largest markets, including the U.S. Our priority has been to develop the necessary internal capability and versatility to deploy in market manufacturing. The focus has been successful, and we feel well prepared. As with everything we do, any investment and the timing of it will be robustly evaluated and undercut by growth and demand.
The fourth element is accountability at business unit level. We organize Skellerup into two divisions, within two divisions, industrial and agri, and within their business units. These business units generally align with a location and an application focus. They are accountable for growth and performance, and this is matched with authority that enables them to make the decisions when customer requirements, supplier choices, resources, and people needs are best understood. We have a small head office of seven people. These business units call on the technical expertise provided by our development centers, the largest of which are here in Christchurch and in Auckland. This structure has been and will continue to be a key plank to deliver growth, to enable us with robust regular evaluation and prioritizing our strategic initiatives and decisions around larger investments or commitment to equipment.
With that background, the measure of success was, of course, sustained growth and profitability and cash flow. In FY 2025, we delivered a record EBIT of NZD 78 million, an increase of 7% over the prior corresponding period. This was the ninth successive year of EBIT growth. Net profit after tax of NZD 54.5 million was also a record, up 9% over the prior comparable period. As John and I both noted, we segmented Skellerup into two divisions, industrial and agri. The industrial division recorded its first successive record EBIT result of NZD 48.4 million, an increase of 3% on the prior record. Sales of engineered polymer products and medkit systems for potable water, wastewater, and industrial control applications were up in the U.S. and Australia.
Roofing construction sales also grew, spurred by the installation of solar systems, believe it or not, in the U.K., more than offsetting the impact of a soft Australasian construction market. Marine foam sales into the U.S. began to strengthen in the second half of the year after a prolonged period of low demand and inventory adjustment by our customers. As John noted, the agri division bounced back from a softer result in FY 2024 to a record FY 2025 EBIT of NZD 75.3 million, up 50% on the prior year and an increase of 4% on the previous record result achieved in FY 2023. Demand for essential consumables for the global dairy industry, predominantly manufactured here in Christchurch, was consistently strong throughout the year, in contrast to the prior year where the first half was impacted by customer destocking.
Products for the global dairy industry account for the majority of agri division revenue, and the balance comes from footwear, including products for farming, urban, and specialty safety applications for international and domestic customers. Of course, earnings are very important, and cash flow remains a critical measure for any business. A former boss of mine once told me that cash was more important than your mother. Strong cash flows enable investment and growth and flexibility to manage through disruption. In FY 2025, operating cash flow was NZD 66.5 million, a strong result despite a deliberate increase in inventory to provide some relief from the expected imposition of tariffs by the U.S. As John noted, net debt remains very low at NZD 12.4 million at the end of FY 2025, but we were able to invest in the future growth of Skellerup and sustain high dividend payouts.
Looking forward, we're investing in developing products, people, and manufacturing capabilities so that we can continue to deliver earnings growth in the future. Dairy is one of the cornerstones of Skellerup, and the demand for protein globally continues to grow. Our focus is to support the long-standing relationships we have, develop innovative products with features that deliver productivity gains for farmers, and capture new opportunities in emerging markets. Over the past 18 months, we've successfully launched a new high-performing milking liners and the first products from our throwback calf feeding range. We've also been investing in modernizing our manufacturing capability, which has reduced engineered and production waste, energy consumption, improved productivity, and provides that platform for possible future deployment in other markets. Dino Drgas, Executive General Manager for the Agri Division, is going to talk a little more on the growth opportunities for the Agri Division shortly.
Potable and wastewater is another cornerstone application for Skellerup. The thing that potable products and milk products have in common is they have very demanding standards around the materials you can have in the products. We supply products critical to the security of water infrastructure and performance of tap water across the world. The U.S. is our largest market, and in recent years, we've achieved good growth in Australia with a supply of jet valves for new smart meter applications and gaskets for the fast-growing polypropylene biomarker. Another recent example is the development of a new gasket for high-pressure water systems in New Zealand. Our proprietary fiber-infused rubber gasket provides water authorities and installers with a high-performance, compliant, and easy-to-install solution, replacing legacy products' chronic leakage. Sounds like a marketing slogan, but it's true. A common element across our activities at Skellerup is material.
Almost 90% of what we sell includes molded or extruded polymer: black rubber, silicon rubber, liquid silicon rubber, and engineered plastic or high-performance foam. Our messable vacuum pump systems are the exception as they are not polymer based. Where are the wastewater applications they're used in? And the philosophy of integrating elements to provide customers with a more valuable solution most certainly are common to how we do business across the Skellerup group. We fund organic growth opportunities and capability investments from consistently strong cash flow I referred to earlier. This cash flow and the very low level of debt we carry offers possibilities for acquisitions as well. We look for businesses that complement our existing capability, expertise, market application, and geographic footprint.
We also look for businesses that may provide us with an opportunity to accelerate our growth plans in markets where we have a smaller position and consider or expand more rapidly in the future. However, focus remains tight, and we will not deviate from our guiding parameters of return expectations. We have conviction in our plan for growth, and FY 2026 has started well. Earlier today, we reported Q1 earnings for FY 2026 were up 10% on the same period last year. Demand across the range of applications our products are used in has been reasonably robust, with dairy and infrastructural products the most notable contributors to growth. Whilst we're pleased with the start, uncertainty over further changes in costs to manufacture our largest market in the U.S. remains, and the possible impact of such costs on market demand make forecasting future results difficult.
Last week's announcement on the possible increase in tariffs between the U.S. and China, as John mentioned, is evidence of such an end. However, based on the Q1 earnings and our current expectations and assuming no significant changes in trading conditions, we expect FY 2026 net profit after tax to be in the range of NZD 55 million- NZD 60 million New Zealand dollars. I've discussed our business strategy and structure, recent results, and the immediate outlook in the future. Our results and future success very clearly depend on the skill, tenacity, and contribution of many people. We have a pretty large group here today, and I'd like to introduce some of them now. I won't introduce everyone because it would take too long, but maybe as I do, you can just raise your hand or stand up and give a wave. Dino, they're going to meet you shortly.
Dino Drgas is the Executive General Manager of our Agri Division. Alongside Dino there, the man with—here, Mike Draper runs our tool business here in Wigram, Christchurch, Jensen Holder Plastics. Alongside Dino, Logan McKenzie, who looks after our vacuum systems business. And alongside Logan is Sean Spacy, who heads up our product development center at Auckland. In the second row, I'll work again from the far end. We've got Jane Boyd, who's responsible for customer experience, marketing, and digital systems for our business here in Christchurch. We have one of the pertinent engineers in our team here in Wigram, Christchurch, Nick Jenny, and Tim Sundstrom, both working in the facility here in Christchurch in the manufacturing area. Anna Waterhouse recently joined us as Head of Development for the agri business and Matt Purdy, our Manufacturing Manager here at Wigram, Christchurch. In the next row, I'll keep going back.
I will introduce everyone. We've got Dina Khulbe, who's our Financial Controller here at Christchurch, Aaron working in Dina's team. We've got Rebecca and Kim working in our business here at Christchurch in Sales and Marketing roles. Last but not least, we've got a few Australians in behind there. Patrick Croddy is the Head of Gulf Rubber Australia and also the Head of our global growth foam business, which sells under the Ultra One brand. Alongside him is Adam Clopper. Adam's been working for us for Ultra One Australia for seven years. Just this week, he's been appointed. He's decided to jump the ditch, and he's going to come and run the Ultra One business here in New Zealand. Welcome Adam. Lastly but not least, sitting in behind Adam there, we've got Azriyat Dibala. Azriyat is integral to our Dents Roofing business, construction business in Victoria and Australia.
Down the back, we've got Kim, who's doing the monitoring and probably is feeding questions through lately. Laura, who is our EA of many years in Auckland, does a fantastic job. I've just noticed hiding down the back is Troy Valentine, who's responsible for the commercial operations here at Christchurch. There's a lot of people here. Take the opportunity. I can see Jackie sitting in the middle there, too. I can see Rob. There's lots of people here as well as former Skellerup employees. Lovely to see you all. Take the opportunity to have a chat afterwards. Back to the script. I am excited about the ambition these people share and the capability and initiative to embrace change, to improve and grow our business. To close, I express my appreciation to all of our Skellerup team, our board, and our shareholders.
Our global team of around 800 people brings a diverse international perspective. The application of their expertise and diligence to the design and manufacture of the many critical products we provide to our customers is first-class and underpins the nine consecutive years of operating EBIT growth for you, our shareholders. Before I stop, John mentioned our team at Government, and you the shareholders are represented by an excellent board who bring commercial know-how, experience, leadership, energy, and robust discussion to every interaction we have. Dino Drgas joined our board meeting for a time today, and he remarked to me before, he said it's good to see some divergence in opinions and a robust discussion in these meetings, and that is a healthy thing. As John said, some of our board have served Skellerup for terms more than approaching what some commentators and proxy advisors consider the optimum maximum.
Their animation of term ahead of competence for results is very frustrating. The sustained good performance of Skellerup does not happen without a very effective board and should far outweigh some arbitrary assessment based on the years directors have served. Engagement in our board is invaluable and always available, but it's not limited to scheduled board meetings. Again, thanks for attendance today, both in person and virtual. We're grateful for your interest in investment in Skellerup. We're committed to continuing to apply ourselves to deliver critical products for customers, promoting the long history of Skellerup, and to deliver sustained excellent returns for you. Thank you.
I think that'll be it, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much. Second applause for Stephanie Beardham, the first. So Stephanie, I'll do that again. Welcome. All right. Good afternoon, dear shareholders. It is quite an honor for me to be given this segment here today, and so I shall try to make efficient use of this time. This presentation is about future growth prospects of our dairy business segment and how we plan to deliver on these opportunities. If I'm allowed back up here next year, I promise to cover some global footwear opportunities as well, which I can assure you are equally exciting. Fundamentally, I see two dimensions in which the segment of our business can grow. Firstly, I believe that the consumable products that we manufacture for various sizes and various markets are still undervalued, and there's significant room for growing a more differentiated value proposition in our products.
Similarly to car tires, which govern system performance as though the only point of contact cars have with the road, milking liners are the only component of a complex milking machine which contacts the most sensitive part of the animal. Well-performing liners make a tangible difference to the productivity of a farm, and poor quality or early failure can have detrimental impact on not only productivity but also the health of the herd. To draw a comparison to value, index, dairy farmers spend about 50 - 100 times more on fertilizers each year than rubber liners. Still, most farmers consider rubber liners a commodity when purchasing decisions and certainly weighed primarily on price. Changing this perspective isn't easy, but in my view, harping on about the value of frequent line changes is not going to achieve the step change needed.
There are several global trends in the dairy farming industry which present interesting opportunities for us to recalibrate the value proposition of our products. Firstly, farms are growing into larger and more commercially focused operations. Also, farmers are younger, and they are more data-driven decision-makers. There are also quite a number of new challenges, like changing climates that you can see outside, fast spreading diseases, labor shortages, and also more processes during products. Our current team here at Skellerup carries the necessary expertise in polymer materials, manufacturing processes, and product development to take a world-leading role in delivering solutions for these problems. The second dimension of growth for our dairy business is that the total addressable market is growing as industrialized farming practices emerge in some of the world's largest dairy-producing countries.
Many experts point that the global herd sizes are not growing, but in my view, that is a second point entirely. The global rate of dairy production and consumption is growing. It's growing by about 1%- 2% per year. Far more importantly, the way in which milk is being produced is changing drastically. The U.S. dairy production is arguably the most industrialized in the world, with a total herd size of about 9.5 million cows, producing about 100 million metric tons of milk per year. For contrast, India is a country that produces more than twice that at approximately 240 million tons with a whopping 60 million cow herd and a total bovine population of 300 million animals, many of which are lactating also. That's approximately one-fifth of the U.S. production efficiency per animal.
India is the largest, but by no means the only large dairy producer who owns and consolidating, and there's a clear trend towards more efficient industrialized milk production. Countries in Eastern Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa follow the same trajectory. This vastly increases the size of our total addressable market for high-performing milking systems. These growth opportunities clearly exist for our own brands, but they also benefit our OEM relationships. More than ever, we partner with our OEM customers on product development, sharing market intel, and we collaborate on achieving the common goal of elevating the value of our products and market. Just like Ferrari works with Pirelli to develop tires, we're increasingly seen as competent partners to deliver systems that outcompete any alternatives. As Graham just mentioned in his speech, the second key element contributing to our success as a group is a customer-focused development effort.
To understand how some of the future development of the global dairy production is going to change, it is useful to take a closer look at the forecasted changes to global consumption by region. This graph behind me shows the per capita consumption of dairy in kilograms of milk solids per person according to different regions in the world. Across different regions of the world, over a 10-year outlook from 2024 to 2034. Takes a little while to wrap your head around, but it's got a lot of interesting information in that graph. According to this forecast, global consumption will increase by 15% over the coming decade. China, on the left-hand side, increases by 19%.
Despite a relatively low per capita consumption of less than 5 kg per person, China still offers a very interesting opportunity for us as it not only carries a large population, but more importantly, boasts a very highly industrialized production industry with a very high value appreciation for well-performing liners. Consumption in South America is only projected to grow by 1% but here, environmental pressures, cost inflation, labor shortage, and other factors are driving an industrialization trend which increases the size of the addressable market disproportionately to their growth in demand. The U.S. and Europe show an interesting trend where the consumption of fresh dairy products continues to decrease. However, this is largely offset by an increased consumption of processed dairy products such as cheese and whey powder. This finally brings us towards perhaps the most interesting part of this dataset.
Not only is dairy production industrializing in India and Pakistan for similar reasons to South America, the rate of consumption is also predicted to increase by 35% and 15% for India and Pakistan, respectively. The primary drivers behind this change are growing wealth. India and Pakistan have dairy consumption deeply embedded in their culture. Dairy is a staple ingredient to their cuisine and social customs. As their prosperity grows, so does their consumption of dairy. This forms an interesting contrast to China with a similar population size but much lower per capita range consumption. In conclusion, we see great opportunity to not only expand the scope of what we do, but also where we do it. The global demand for highly engineered rubber consumables for the dairy industry is growing, and we are well positioned in solving the technical challenges involved in meeting this demand. Thank you.
Thank you, Graham. Thank you, Dino. Before I move to the resolutions before the meeting, I will run the floor and then aim to unwind participants for any questions on the presentations provided by Graham, Dino, and myself. A reminder too, please state your name and whether you are a shareholder or property holder. I'll take questions from the floor first.
Okay, I'm in the wrong place there. I've got a microphone. My name is Hakim Abuteya. I'm a shareholder and as well a proxy holder. Thanks to Shirley in case you need a proxy for my shares. I'm from the New Zealand Shareholders Association. I've got a number of questions. Do you want to ask me all at the same stage?
One at a time would be useful.
Okay. I guess you talked several times about organizations criticizing the age of the board. You said probably. I can say it's one of these.
I know all of us all involved. I'll just say it's past. Please follow your focusing only on age and tenure. To expertise and knowledge especially.
Okay. I guess what I would like to see possible today, otherwise maybe in the next meeting or so, what would be just the plan, what strategy is to renew. It's not, oh, yeah, he's now for, I don't know, 19 years or something like that.
Yeah, please help us out.
On the board, just as some strategy how to renew individual people to just make sure that there's not this terrible time when the entire few disappear and there's no one who knows.
This is a big comment. I don't know what she and my thoughts would be there, but it's very much in with the rest of the board that we are related to the meeting, so obviously transition is a total.
Yeah, one other thing, I guess, you used to do, Graham, this watershed moment.
Was it?
I guess I'm wondering whether one of you could maybe add a little bit more water to that.
What is going to be the winner of the 12th round?
I know what the watershed moment could be, but what does it mean for Skellerup? What opportunities do you see? What's really changing in the next 12?
Dealers with the Chair of position and actually kind of a Frankenstein of the dialogue, then they would sell it out to customers who are the most closer to them. The notion of being in the market and being able to supply things just in time from a continuous or nearby facility. During the discussion, like I said, about four or five years ago in the context of COVID, it's become even more compelling with the tariff position. Obviously, if we were to manufacture in the U.S., we would all avoid the tariff cost. We're actively considering, we have nothing in front of us, and it's obviously by nature we're conservative, so we'll take it slightly. We want to be clear too about the exact landscape we're playing against because it moves.
As I've said in my speech, seemingly every week, one proposition could see Skellerup looking to establish some sort of a tool or foothold of a presence in particular in the U.S. market to supply some of our key customers from goods originating in the U.S. market. Now, that's not a significant step for this company, both in financial and operational terms, but it will be a significant change for us. That's hence the watershed comment.
Okay. Let's maybe look at the U.S. market.
U.S. is where my focus is going for the meeting. I see you want to say something. Just maybe ahead for that. You heard Dino Drgas talk about the growth opportunity we see in dairy business in emerging markets, Asia, Eastern Europe. We see a future where the demand is much higher than what it is now. If we have that demand coming along parallel to retaining the existing strong position we have in existing markets, we have the opportunity to think about where we manufacture some of that product and, I guess, reposition where we manufacture some of that product. We have some existing limited manufacturing capability in North America, not for dairy rubber. For example, we have a small manufacturing plant that's concentrating liquid silicon rubber products, mainly for industrial applications.
As it's been on, and we've talked about this for many years, an option we want to develop is to be able to establish some manufacturing in market, whether that is in North America, which probably is a more likely priority than that in Europe. This advantageous manufacturing product at a distance from market in terms of development. Thinking about going forward, what John's alluding to here is sometime in the next three to six months, as we talked about, there could be some more significant investment we make in manufacturing capability, for example, in North America. It's also meant by the fact we're expecting to realize increased demand for our products in some of these emerging markets.
You're not one without the other. It was the choreographers seeing it in the chaos, right?
I guess I'm still looking for something concrete, but
there is nothing concrete right now. I don't emphasize, but this is something we see as potentially needed to not having to do, but certainly to continue the growth pattern that this group's enjoying. We see this as something that we will likely need to explore in the next 12- 36 months.
Yeah. Maybe one last thing. I came out today a bit earlier due to the rain weather here in the cooler months, so I had a little bit of time to look into the rest of the report. Not just the financial stuff, and I discovered that something like 25% of it was environmental report. I guess I read a lot of high-level things, but I'm wondering whether one of you could sort of in one minute summarize what exactly you're describing and what exact things you plan to do to improve your environmental improvement.
Yeah. We have no tool to deploy. There are certain statutory reporting requirements that we have to see, this plant reporting legislation that would be out there. I mean, I'll take a timely opportunity to speak to this. I know I enjoyed this too much.
It's been a mandatory requirement for us to prepare those disclosures. We've taken what we think is a practical and pragmatic approach to it. We've got good value from the risk and opportunity identification that we've done, and we continue to embed that in the organization. From an emissions reduction perspective, we've piloted a program at the Wigram site, which is our biggest facility, to reduce our emissions in line with the 1.5 degree target from the Paris Accord. We believe we will achieve that with the commercial investments that we will make over the next 5- 15 years. That's what we are endeavoring to describe in that report. We obviously see them forward-looking, so we cannot give explicit detail on exactly what they are, but there are details and model initiatives that we're putting in place.
He wouldn't be the first person to question the utility of the sort of the volume of that sort of reporting. I think the government's responded to that in the last few days, as noted. It's increased the thresholds before which these obligations will apply. The numbers went from, I think, NZD 50 million, wasn't it, to NZD 60 million to market capability. These reports won't go away, but there'll be less people publishing them. We hope to continue to have to publish them, by the way, to less people for ensuring the future.
Nothing else from the floor, Kim. Government Financial Controlling is our moderator. Kim, are there any questions online?
Yes, we do have a few questions online. The first comes from Paul Inley Grant. Paul has asked, "How can Skellerup break into the Australian market more? Our nearest neighbor has no tariffs on us and is just 13% of Skellerup revenue in 2025 year.
We've got two businesses situated in Australia. We have a business in Sydney, which is focused on technical OEM products for customers significantly in the potable water industry. Also, out of that business, we convert and distribute foam products, printed lingerie foam products to customers throughout Australia. Our real emphasis for that business based in Sydney has been building the strength of our relationships in the same demanding applications we talked about before on potable water. To capture views here in the audience today is that that business, we've won new business in the pipe infrastructure market. We supply gaskets, which are essential to the joining of this infrastructure and keeping water in. We also supply gaskets, which are used in wastewater pipe, which is obviously not potable water, but equally important that you keep the water out of it.
Then emerging applications like smart meters, which are being used to measure water usage on properties, as well as other utilities. That's a priority for that part of the business. We have a team in place in Sydney that's focused on those high-value, highly technical products for a range of applications. In Melbourne, we have a distribution business, which is around roofing construction products. The Australian construction industry, not unlike New Zealand, has been through a pretty tough phase over the past couple of years. Our focus has been very much maintaining the value of our brand and not falling into a pricing war. That business is more subject to the vagaries of market demand.
Our priority remains pretty clear in terms of a clear focus on the applications we're around, building strong relationships with customers, as we talked about before, and making sure that the new products we develop are carefully considered and developed with customers so that we've got a strong conviction on the materiality of the result. That's it. That's it for me for Australia.
Okay. Would you like to add anything?
No.
Paul has also asked, "In what markets can the health and hygiene component of Skellerup be increased and enlarged?
The health and hygiene, since we're in this chunk of products we sell into what we characterize as a certification area, there's foam products that we sell that are used in all five applications. Most significantly, the growth in that area has been with the assembly of integrating plastic and rubber components into hygiene manufacturers for hand sanitizers. Some of you here may recognize the Purell brand, for example. That was an opportunity that came about for us, really from referral, which is the best way to win a business. A person in that firm had moved from another customer of ours, and the customer had a problem. When I say we, the real we was Sean Spacy and his team solved that problem for the customer, which opened up a new avenue of revenue for us with this customer. We still see further product opportunities with this customer.
It is an area, a relatively small application area for us. We do see good opportunities for growth, but the stronger opportunities for growth on the industrial side that we're focused on are the key big areas that we're currently in: potable water, wastewater, roofing construction, some of the foam opportunities. We have continued growth opportunities with a significant customer in the hygiene space.
Here's one final question online from Estelle Pilot Cook. Estelle has asked, great to hear about Skellerup's sensible approach to debt and its careful approach in international markets. As a general comment, agent experience can be invaluable, especially if there is attention to development and succession planning for those below. Please share more details about the changes at Wigram that are resulting in environmental and financial improvements.
It's quite a long, lengthy question. In terms of building people's capability, it was something we were talking about at the board meeting today and before this meeting. We've got some of the people I introduced before are relatively young in their roles. Dino Drgas is the head of our Agri Division, of which the largest business is based here in Wigram and Christchurch. We also have businesses in the U.K. and the U.S. that form part of the Agri Division. Over the past two to three years, we've put a pretty substantial development in building up our product development capability so that we are able to pursue the opportunities that Dino talked about with some of the innovation and some of the additional markets that we're in. We have a strengthened team from a manufacturing point of view, a strengthened team from an engineering point of view.
We've invested a lot in our customer and marketing-facing activities as well. One thing we haven't talked a lot about today is footwear, and that's certainly an iconic brand, as everyone here would know. The investment of people has been reasonably significant too because you cannot achieve growth without putting the people in place. From an environmental point of view, I think Tim really covered that off before, but with Wigram being our largest facility, that's where we've put our energies in as a first pass and as a first priority to working out where we can make sensible commercial investment to generate commercial productions.
There are no further questions on that.
Thank you.
All right. We'll now move to the formal business component of the meeting. Strap yourself in. There will still be an opportunity for you to ask questions of me, Graham, and other directors and executives about the business and performance of your company. We have three resolutions to be voted on today. The first two relate to the reelection of Rachel Farran and David. We have this directly as the third main order of this fix. I'll give an opportunity for discussion on each resolution, and we shall also monitor the online platform for questions. At the appropriate time, should you wish to raise a comment or question, please raise your hand, and we will bring a microphone to you or submit your question on the online platform.
By way of introduction, please spell out your name, whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder, and the name of the shareholder representative. As noted earlier, in accordance with the NZX listing rules, voting will be by poll. Those who are in supply should all now have a cut voting paper which was given to you when you registered. As noted before, online attendees can vote at any time. A number of shareholders have cast a postal vote or have appointed proxies to cast their vote ahead of today's meeting. I advise that the board is holding discretionary proxies which will be voted in favor of all resolutions. We move to resolution number one, which is the reelection of Rachel Farran. In accordance with the company's constitution, Rachel Farran retires at this meeting and being allowed to allot herself for reelection.
The board recommends Rachel to you as the director of Skellerup and unanimously supports your reelection. Before we consider the resolution, I'd like to invite Rachel to briefly talk in support of the reelection. Rachel.
Good afternoon. I'm Rachel Farran. I'm delighted to be seeking your support for reelection for Skellerup Board. I bring to the board over 30 years of experience as a Chartered Accountant and business advisor. I'm currently a partner in Media Wellington. My career's helped me focus on businesses growing sustainably, managing risk, and delivering long-term value. I've held a number of governance roles across a range of sectors, from infrastructure and technology to property and manufacturing. This means I have a broad perspective and a deep understanding of many businesses. Since I joined the board in 2022, I am a newbie. I have gained a strong understanding of the Skellerup Group, its businesses, its people, its purpose. I've had the privilege of serving as the Chair of the Sustainability Committee and a member of the Audit Committee.
The regular visits we have to the Skellerup sites have allowed me to see firsthand the pride of our manufacturing teams, the innovation in our products, and the loyalty of our customers. Whether it's the global reach of our Industrial Division or the iconic status of our red brand gummies here in New Zealand, Skellerup is a company with both heritage and ambition. During my last three years, one of the highlights has been the highly successful, seamless transition of the CEO and CFO roles. We are lucky to also have our reelection today, the previous Managing Director, who will be a continued valued ongoing board member, hopefully. This transition has demonstrated the strength of our strategy, the resilience of our operations, and the dedication of our people.
I will continue to work to ensure governance is future-focused, our risk is managed soundly, and our sustainable ambitions are embedded in a commercial manner as to how we operate. What really sets Skellerup apart is its connection to everyday people, including everyday New Zealanders. I'm sure you saw the story earlier this year about the dairy manager from Westport. He was out herding cows one morning when he was struck by lightning. He passed out and couldn't see for several minutes, and his quad bike wouldn't start. He got up, grabbed his torch, and kept working because, as he said, I quote, "The cows aren't going to milk themselves." Later, he credited his Skellerup gummies, specifically the Quattro Moro, which is over there, for saving his life.
The thick rubber soles lightly insulated him from the worst of the strike, even rang Skellerup to say they're the best gummies he's ever had. It's stories like this that remind us what Skellerup stands for: quality, reliability, and a deep connection to our customers. Whether it's surviving a lightning strike or providing precision-engineered products for potable water systems, our products are trusted to perform. I do remind you that Skellerup is a lot more than just gummies. Our products and geographical locations are extremely diverse. If reelected, I will continue to advocate for strong governance, strategic investment, transparent communication, and a board culture that is collaborative, diverse, and aligned with our strategic goals. Thank you for your trust and support and your belief in what we can achieve together.
Thank you, Rachel. I will mention that we've got a lot of free pair of gummies available that I think. Dino's out himself on national radio being asked to give special advice as to what clothes best to wear with a pair of gummies. Nice journey. I now move as an ordinary resolution that Rachel Farran be elected as our director of the company. I'll now pause for any questions on this resolution and again will take questions from the floor first. Okay. Are there any questions online?
There are no other questions on this resolution, Mr. Chairman.
There appear to be no other questions relating to that resolution. Thank you, Kim. We turn to resolution number two, reelection of David. In accordance with the company's constitution, David retires at this meeting and, being eligible, offers himself for reelection. The board recommends David Mair as the director of Skellerup and unanimously supports his reelection. Before considering this resolution, I'd like to invite David to briefly talk in support of his reelection.
Thanks, Sean. Obviously, I'm seeking reelection for the board after a rather long period of time as a director. Just before I start, something Rachel mentioned, and I'm not sure that people understand the SOE of this as being the change and the successful transition from when I was managing David a year ago through to Graham. He's done a fantastic job. He became CEO. Tim Runnalls became CFO, and we have Kim down the back, keeping reviewing questions at Rig Financial Controller. There's a lot of talk about transition even on the board, but the reality is we have a very good process for dealing with this. I'm delighted how well the transition's been. Sir Salman Khusheg, when I sat back, he gave me a compliment. He said, "Mr. Mair, you have proven competent.
Graham, you've got about 12 years to prove your competence." Anyway, the other thing I'd like to say. I think for most boards, there are a number of purposes, but number one is to choose the CEO, and another one is to ensure the reputation of the company is held up. I'll just tell you a little story. Again, I had the pleasure yesterday of visiting one site at Wigram, and I had a 1-hour session with Dino Drgas and also with Graham. We were talking about the development team because the future of this company heavily depends on a lot of new people that he had just been testing. One of the things I heard independent of these people was that Dino has been giving some lectures at Kennedy University, and we have a process where we are getting an opportunity to get the best. Isn't that wonderful?
The reputation of Skellerup is growing, and that's really important to all of us. Not a couple of other comments, but anyway, I'm a big Warren Buffett fan, as many of you will know, and he believes there are three critical things that make a good director. Number one, you must think like an owner, and do you want to listen to me? That's David Cushing who always has that shareholder mentality, that ownership mentality. I aspire to do the same. I love both shares in companies. I've got NZD 3.6 million reasons for the management team here to continue to perform, and I'm sure they will. It's not just about me. It is about the company as a whole. The second thing is your directors work incredibly hard. We read the board papers. We engage in a healthy discussion about things, but we make decisions.
Those decisions, in general, are to support the management team. It works really well. The third thing, I think, is you need to have a particular interest in the business. I love this business. Rachel mentioned the keyword is connection. I feel connected. I'm seeking reaction. Thank you.
I now move to the board of resolution. I bet David Mair being re-elected as a director of the company. I have also had questions on this resolution, and again, we'll take questions from the floor first. Kim, are there any questions online?
There are no questions online, Mr. Chair.
There are two to be answered, the questions. No questions instead. We'll move then to the thought issue of resolution number three, which is the remuneration of the auditor. This is a standard resolution which we present to every year. Ernst & Young are the existing auditors of Skellerup. Using section 207(t) of the Companies Act, 1993, Ernst & Young are automatically reappointed as auditors in the ensuing year. The board seeks the approval of shareholders to be authorized to fix the remuneration of Ernst & Young for the 2026 financial year. I now move as an ordinary resolution that the directors be authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors for the year ended 30 June 2026. Are there any questions on this resolution from the floor? Good. Are there any questions online?
There are no questions online.
Excellent. Thank you, Kim. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our formal session discussion of the resolutions. If you wish to vote on the resolutions, whether in person or online, you should do so now, as I will shortly close the voting. Once the votes have been cast, they will be counted by the company share register, which is Computershare. The results of today's meeting will be released to the NZX upon completion of verification and voting. I will now theatrically call to allow you further time for finalizing votes. Just wait for 10 seconds. I'm waiting for the vote. Right. Voting is now closed to those of you here in the room and on Computershare to click the voting buttons. We now move to general and more informal lines of nature of business.
At this point, we will open the floor to any questions on Skellerup Holdings Limited's performance and any other matters shareholders may now wish to raise, including questions submitted online during the course of the meeting. A reminder, please state your name and whether you are a shareholder or proxy holder. I will take any questions, general or otherwise, from the floor first. Do we have any? Sir, I'm sorry. What were you doing?
Thank you. Richard Thompson, shareholder and handled along with my wife. We have a family trust company that has invested with Skellerup for something like, I want to say, 2004. It's over 20 years anyway.
Thank you. Please enjoy.
I congratulate the board and the executives and all the employees of Skellerup who are providing a terrific return over those years. I do have a question. It's flying on from the first of the online questions. Graham, you were asked about Australia. The examples you gave, I think I interpreted correctly as both being in the industrial division, Sydney and Melbourne. Do you see any opportunities for the agri division over there? They must milk quite a few cows.
We can see that the opportunity to answer is it's a much smaller market. Dino's view, and Dino should be able to answer that. Thank you.
Yeah, there are opportunities. I think it has to be separated between dairy and footwear. The dairy industry in Australia is under a lot of strain for climate reasons, but also for political reasons. It's approximately a quarter of the New Zealand dairy size, but we are a strong player in Australia. We have had a strong distribution partnership with the company in Melbourne for many years. Is there much growth to be had in dairy in Australia? Probably not. Frankly, I think it's not a wise investment of our resources to try and squeeze the last few % out of that. Footwear really is where we see more opportunities for agri. We have to be cautious not to essentially export the red brand to Australia. Australia does not like it to succeed, but our footwear product range is much broader than that.
As you can see on the table here, the Quatrain range and the safety range is where we've had some great success. We continue to focus on Australia as a potential growth market for that part of our business. Thank you.
Was there a question over here? Any other questions? Are there any questions online? Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Apologies.
Yeah, I picked up on points over the years from the media. One of them was the ability of the U.S. dairy industry to crank up its production. I'd be interested to hear your comment on that.
You keep talking to us about it.
Thank you. I'm in Christchurch. The U.S. dairy industry productivity I don't think is likely to crank up dramatically. I hope that it hasn't been misunderstood. My point earlier was that the Indian dairy industry currently operates at approximately a fifth of the production efficiency of the U.S., basically putting the U.S. right on top in terms of production efficiency. Countries like India, which is not just a large, but currently the largest single dairy producing country in the world, are not so at the very bottom, but fairly low down that range. We expect productivity gains to come out of parts like India, Eastern Europe, South America, the Middle East, and even parts of Africa. The U.S. production efficiency is relatively high just because the U.S. has had a focus on industrializing its dairy production for much longer.
It's embraced a fairly standardized operation model, which is not pasture feed like in New Zealand, but essentially grain feed. There are cow breeds like Holstein and the likes that are extremely efficient at converting starch and glucose-based plant matters into essentially fat and protein in milk. There's not a hell of a lot more to be gained there. Yeah, I think that answers it. Thank you.
Sorry. Was there any other questions from the floor? Okay. Now, Kim, any questions online?
No online questions, Mr. Chairman?
No. Okay.