Divisions on Fonterra
Fonterra farmers are divided over whether board chairman John Wilson should ‘‘catch the next cab out of town’’, as Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has demanded.
At the Fieldays in Hamilton, views ranged from ‘‘shareholders should be left to deal with it’’ to calls for Wilson to stand down to refresh the leadership at the top of New Zealand’s largest company.
Wilson has been on the Fonterra board for four terms and chairman for the past two. He is the highest-paid director in the country, receiving $405,000 for overseeing a company of 22,000 employees and with sales revenue of $19.2 billion.
‘‘I’m worried about the absolute absence of accountability for the enormous amounts of dough that the current Fonterra chairman has presided over,’’ Jones said.
During a visit to Fieldays, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Jones had made clear his comments were made in a ‘‘personal capacity’’.
However, National’s primary industries spokesman, Nathan Guy, responded that it was an ‘‘outrageous’’ attack and now was not an appropriate time for Wilson to stand down.
‘‘You’ve got the chief executive leaving, and Michael Spaans who has recently passed away was being groomed for the leadership. It’s a big job, indications are John Wilson’s standing again, while there have been some issues that need to be addressed, I think now is not the time for change, right now the board will be looking for continuity and stability.’’
A Reporoa farmer whose family has been dairying for 100 years said Wilson should go.
‘‘If there’s a new CEO being appointed there should be a new chairman to appoint him or her. If the new CEO is there for six years or so, John isn’t going to be around for that long, why should he stay. We need new blood, ‘‘ he said.
‘‘Farmers should do what they’re good at producing milk and let the value-add part do what it needs to do. That business has to start driving dollars into our business and not cents. Farmers would be a lot happier, they’d only be paying their CEO $4 million a year rather than $8m.’’
Last year chief executive Theo Spierings was paid $8.93m, a 57 per cent jump from the year before.
Spierings’ earnings were made up of a $2.46m base salary, superannuation benefits of $170,036, and performance payments for 2016 and 2017 of $1.83m and $3.85m.
A Te Kuiti farmer said shareholders were ‘‘perfectly capable’’ of dealing with the leadership issue when they vote later this year.
He was confident the dairy cooperative could turn around the poor performance of its Chinese partner, Beingmate.
Under Spierings’ and Wilson’s tenure Fonterra made a $750m investment into Beingmate, which it has now written off to the tune of $405m.
‘‘Australia has turned around for Fonterra and we’re not moaning about that. I think China could turn around, and now Fonterra has more say on the Beingmate board.’’
The farmer said there should be a new chief executive every six years, and there should be a better succession plan.
Board members are voted in by the 10,500 farmer/shareholders, but the chairman is then decided by the directors.
A Fonterra spokesman said Wilson had not signalled whether he would stay on or stand down.