Wools of NZ partners with Asthma & Respiratory Foundation
Wools of New Zealand says it has chosen to partner with the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ in an effort to educate Kiwis around the health benefits of wool carpets.
Wools of New Zealand (WNZ) has posted its first after-tax profit of $1.48 million for the year ending June 2016, but former chief executive Ross Townshend is keeping up the pressure.
The company’s maiden profit results from a 16% improvement in wool sales, helping lift revenues past $30m for the first time -- to $31.5m, the company says.
Operating profit increased to $681,000, a turnaround of $1.16m from the previous year’s loss of $493,000.
The company sold 5.5 million kg of shareholders’ wool during the year, reflected in an increase in Wool Market Development Commitment (WMDC) income to $2.6m, from $2.2m in 2015.
Commenting on the WMDC, chairman Mark Shadbolt says “at the time of our capital raising in 2012 the WMDC was critical to driving our marketing initiatives and investments. By 2014 we’d reduced our reliance to 20% of revenue and this year this has fallen to 8%, in spite of the WMDC’s increase in real terms.”
But Townsend says the claimed net operating profit includes $2.6m of WMDC “donation”.
“So without that – or in real terms – this is a $2m loss, not a profit. When WMDC runs out mid-2018, WNZ will be broke,” says Townshend who is a shareholder and former chief executive of the organisation.
“The directors need a Plan B, as I stated recently.”
Analysis by Dunedin-based Techion New Zealand shows the cost of undetected drench resistance in sheep has exploded to an estimated $98 million a year.
Shipping disruption caused by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea has so far not impacted fertiliser prices or supply on farm.
The opportunity to spend more time on farm while providing a dedicated service for shareholders attracted new environmental manager Ben Howden to work for Waimakariri Irrigation Limited (WIL).
Federated Farmers claims that the Otago Regional Council is charging ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities.
Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.
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