MFT
29/07/2015 16:10
ADDRESS
PRICE SENSITIVE
REL: 1610 HRS Mainfreight Limited
ADDRESS: MFT: Mainfreight Annual Meeting 2015 Chairman & MD Addresses
MAINFREIGHT LIMITED
CHAIRMAN'S AGENDA
&
SCRIPTED ADDRESS BY
THE CHAIRMAN, AND
MANAGING DIRECTOR'S
PRESENTATION
20th Annual Meeting
4.00 pm, Wednesday 29 July 2015
CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS
Ladies and Gentlemen, your Company has performed satisfactorily over the past
year.
Our net profit before abnormals increased by 7.7% or $6 million on increased
sales of 6.8%. We also achieved global revenue of $2.054 billion for the
year, a number not surpassed by many New Zealand companies.
Operationally, the year was quite difficult, especially in New Zealand, where
in Christchurch we completed the rebuild of our facilities, while continuing
to work on the same site with the builders. This was a long, frustrating and
costly project, which affected us for nearly two years. Now with completion,
we have much work to do to regain our place in this important market.
Similarly, at Westney Road in Auckland where we extended our warehouse and
incorporated chilled storage, the builders had to work around us and we had
to work out of temporary sites at excessive cost for most of the year.
These two wonderful new sites, plus our new rail serviced facility in
Hamilton, have set us up superbly for the future. They have also added close
to $8 million to our annual overheads, primarily in interest, and provision
for depreciation, and these costs are likely to take six to eighteen months
to absorb.
We have additional new facilities to build in Auckland and Christchurch
within the next two to three years, but these are likely to be of a lesser
scale than those built in 2014-2015. We are also building a 46,000m2
facility in Epping, Melbourne due for completion by April 2016.
I awoke on Friday, July 10th at 6.00am, to news that the Government was
considering closing down the railway system.
Within a few hours it became clear that this was not being considered by the
Government. It was a "recommendation" amongst others, which Treasury had
made to the Government, before their latest budget. Included in the advice
was "close down the rail network and launch a year-long public relations
consultation to soften up the public for the pre-ordained decision".
Apart from Government and Treasury's appalling treatment of rail since its
sale to the smirking merchant bankers in 1992, who made hundreds of millions
for themselves,
- to its sale to Toll Holdings, latterly taken over by "Japan Post",
- to its repurchase by Government to try to ensure its survival, and hundreds
of millions of profit to Toll (now part of "Japan Post").
Yes, apart from - what about realising that it is extraordinarily damaging to
our country to not understand that our transport infrastructure is screaming
out for a strategy that considers road and rail (passenger and freight) and
ports.
Without rail, our opportunities for passenger transport are restricted, our
desperation for more roads intensifies to the point of impossibility, and our
options for port locations become hopelessly restricted.
How on earth could Treasury not see these connections, and our Government not
see the need for an overall strategy? Does no-one understand that having a
dozen ports, allows the overseas shipping companies to play them all off
against each other for price and service, mostly while the local ratepayers
provide the ports' finances.
At this time last year, we had not contemplated the large fall in dairy
prices, and its likely effect on New Zealand. Neither had we seen the
collapse of iron ore prices in Australia, and its effect on the economy.
There are but the most meagre signs of growth in the USA and Europe, and
lately some uncertainty in the China economy.
Such is the global business community in which we operate, and passionately
love. We love this business because it is tough, the competition is fierce,
and it takes huge energy to win - and Mainfreight is good at winning
I hope that you have all read and enjoyed our annual report and the July
newsletter. There are those who would have us publish these things online,
or send hard copies only when requested. Let us keep up the power of the
physical written word, the insights provided by great photography, and the
value of family and friends browsing these publications.
Our profits in every country have improved on the previous year, as they did
also in the year prior to that (with the exception of Europe). We believe
that even with the global headwinds and increased overheads, we will be able
to report record profits again in this current year.
Before moving on, I would like to acknowledge Sir Don Rowlands at this, our
twentieth annual shareholders meeting. It has been some months now since Sir
Don's passing, and this I think will be the first time Sir Don has not been
present at our AGM.
He was our long-time colleague, friend and mentor and is very sadly missed.
We are very pleased to have Lady Coralie here today.
Fellow shareholders, I would now like to ask the Group Managing Director, Don
Braid, to give his presentation.
Group Managing Director's Presentation
Please refer to separate PowerPoint slide presentation.
For further information, please contact Don Braid, Group Managing Director,
telephone +64 9 259 5503, +64 274 961 637 or email [email protected].
End CA:00267653 For:MFT Type:ADDRESS Time:2015-07-29 16:10:05
