Farmer tough champion for dairy
JOHN Wilson was Fonterra’s former chairman who led the company through some of its most tumultuous years.
He died on January 28, aged 54, after an illness.
Mr Wilson stood down from the top role at the company in July after a serious health scare.
In a note to the cooperative’s farmerowners, his successor, John Monaghan, said Mr Wilson was a man whose dedication and commitment to the cooperative ran deep.
‘‘We owe John and his family a debt of gratitude for all the time, energy and sheer hard graft he gave us as a farmerowner, inaugural chairman of the Fonterra Shareholder’s Council on merger, as a farmerelected director from 2003, and as our chairman from 2012,’’ Mr Monaghan said.
‘‘John always brought dedication, commitment and deep dairy knowledge to each of the representation and governance roles in which he served. On behalf of his fellow farmers he was the ultimate advocate for what we stand for.
‘‘We have lost a friend, colleague, leader and champion for our industry much too soon. Our thoughts and deep gratitude for all that he contributed go to his family and friends.’’
When he stepped down, Mr Wilson said it had been a privilege to serve as chairman of the company.
‘‘It has been a privilege to serve you as chairman and give something back to this great cooperative that continues to give my family and me so much,’’ Mr Wilson said last year.
His leadership was praised as ‘‘inspirational’’ during what were tumultuous times for the coop.
Less than a year after taking over from previous chairman, Sir Henry van der Heyden in 2012, Mr Wilson found himself in the thick of a serious food safety issue in the form of the WPC80 false botulism scare and precautionary product recall.
Extreme volatility in world dairy markets followed with Fonterra’s farmgate milk price hitting a record $8.40/kg in 201314 before slumping to well below breakeven in each of the next two seasons.
Many farmers were dangerously close to failing before Fonterra came up with a soft loan scheme, which was enthusiastically taken up by the majority of its members.
Then came the $755 million purchase of an 18.8% stake in China’s Beingmate Baby and Child in early 2015 — a company that has struggled to perform.
But his support of the loan scheme was praised, and as a Te Awamutu dairy farmer himself, he was regarded as a blunt speaking advocate for the sector.
After Mr Wilson announced his resignation in July, Federated Farmers national dairy chairman Chris Lewis said Mr Wilson could leave the company feeling proud of the role he had played in guiding the coop in a time of volatile international markets and a host of local challenges.
‘‘He’s done a tremendous job and gives 100%,’’ Mr Lewis said.
‘‘He has always been fiercely supportive and proud of his coop shareholders and the work they do. Fonterra is based in Auckland but John has been very clear that a big contributor to the fact New Zealand has a thriving economy is because farmers across the nation get up to milk cows every day.’’
A close friend of 25 years, Tatua Dairy Cooperative chairman Stephen Allen, noted Mr Wilson’s ‘‘incredible mind with a sharpness that could sit you on your backside in an instant’’.
Speaking at the funeral, Allen saluted his friend’s huge work ethic and tireless pursuit of security for future generations of Wilsons and his beloved dairy farming businesses in the Waikato and Canterbury.
‘‘Some say he had a hide like a rhino. Well, he needed it.’’
Mr Allen said Mr Wilson was a champion for New Zealand who lived his life behind ‘‘an ironclad shield of privacy’’, particularly regarding his beloved family over which he ‘‘was really as soft as butter’’.
He is survived by his wife, Belinda, and daughters, Sophie, Victoria, Tessa and Libby.
❛ Some say he had a hide like a rhino. Well, he needed it