Westgold Butter Ranked Best Supermarket Butter in Consumer NZ Blind Taste Test
Westgold butter has been named New Zealand's tastiest in a blind tasting conducted by Consumer New Zealand.
Westland Milk Products’ board chair, Pete Morrison has defended bonus payments to chief executive Toni Brendish and other top executives, criticised as having conflicts of interest.
Read: Westland’s biggest shareholder to abstain from vote.
Brendish is reportedly due for $680,000 and others would get up to $360,000 if the deal for the proposed takeover offer by Chinese giant Yili goes through.
In a statement, Morrison said the retention and incentive payments were put in place to cover the whole of Project Horizon – the 12-month process which sought investment partners for Westland and which eventually came up with the Yili deal.
Morrison says the payments only relate to senior executives. No incentives were offered to board members. He says a driving goal was retaining key personnel through a process that could result in significant change. It recognised the additional work required of them by the project and it protected shareholder value. “If senior executives had left during the process it would have presented a picture of instability and that would have undermined possible interest and proposals,” he claims. “It is important to note this is a normal course of action for such programmes.”
Morrison acknowledges that the information should have been included in the scheme booklet, but says this oversight was corrected immediately it was identified.
Amber Davy has won the 2026 Canterbury Young Grower regional title.
Carey Pawson-Edwards, a South Canterbury stock manager, has been named the winner of the 2026 Rabobank Management Project Award.
Nominations are now open for two directorships on the Ravensdown Board and will close at 5pm, Friday 24 July 2026.
AMINZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) have partnered to develop a new Farm Debt Mediation video series aimed at farmers, creditors, and advisors.
Taranaki is preparing to welcome the country’s top young farmers for one of rural New Zealand’s most anticipated events.
Horticulture New Zealand’s Board has welcomed the re-election of grower-elected directors Alistair Petrie and Doug Brown.