Sowing seeds of success
ON MARCH 15, Robert Spurway waved goodbye to his family in New Zealand for what was supposed to be a three-day trip to Sydney.
He didn’t see them again for more than eight months.
The chief executive-elect of GrainCorp had planned an Australian visit to attend a meeting of the east coast grainhandling giant’s shareholders to approve the demerger of its prized malting operations into a stand-alone, ASX-listed company called United Malt.
“It was literally on the 14th of March that borders started closing,” he said.
A week later, on March 23, Mr Spurway officially started as the 104-year-old GrainCorp’s new boss — the fifth chief executive since the former farmer-owned company listed publicly in 1998.
Now 10 months on, he reflects on the COVID chaos as a blessing in disguise. Marooned in Sydney, he was able to think about connecting with his growers differently.
He was able to get to know his people more intimately than most new CEOs by running more than 50 small group video sessions and taking multiple virtual site tours as GrainCorp’s operations — deemed an essential service — ground on during the pandemic.
The demerger also focused the company on what mattered, which is showing through in the bottom line.
In November, GrainCorp reported an improved financial performance following a year of significant transformation.
“COVID allowed us to think really clearly about what was important for people,” Mr
Spurway said. “That helped us manage and run the business in a clearer way than it was done previously. All of that has brought a sense of urgency and accountability in what we do.”
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences in December upgraded its Australian winter crop forecast to a bumper 51.5 million tonnes. The forecast was 7.4 per cent higher than ABARES’ September numbers.
“We are enormously excited about the crop that is significantly well harvested,” Mr
Spurway said. “We have now collected over 10 million tonnes into our network. It is shaping up from our perspective to be a very positive outlook.’’
Apart from the agricultural harvest business, Goldman Sachs also believes GrainCorp will make more money from its trading and processing businesses in 2021.
Mr Spurway said the bumper crop gave the company time to drive a strategy to grow the business to be more resilient and deliver stronger, higherquality earnings in the future.
Asked for his five-year vision for the company, Mr Spurway declares there is an opportunity for agriculture generally to be much more prominent in Australian business circles.
He wants to leverage the capabilities GrainCorp has already developed in the digital and technology space.
“I can see some huge growth opportunities … we have a number of small portfolio businesses within GrainCorp that have huge potential to grow with the right partnerships,’’ he said.