fresh milk

The first buyers are coming at $2.29 - $2.30 and queuing to sell at $3.00. Analysts Buy recommendations saying sell at $2.50 may be a bit light based on this opening sentence.

6/08/2009 4:00:00 AM
WARRNAMBOOL Cheese and Butter is gearing up for a record year after company chief John McLean achieved his first goal -- winning back the lost milk.
The company lost about 250 million litres of milk in a exodus of farmers in April.

Farmers left in droves after WCB slashed farmgate prices in a bid to fund a proposed $105 million cheese joint venture with National Foods.

Yesterday, Mr McLean said the company had re-secured most of the lost milk -- about 200 million litres.

Mr McLean retired from WCB in 2007 but returned as its interim chief executive officer on April 14, with his main aim to rebuild trust with farmers.

His strategy appeared to have worked after WCB secured about 100 million litres last week alone from returning farmers and new suppliers.

"We are very pleased that we have got our core business back. We look set to produce about 90,000 tonnes of product this year -- it will be one of the busiest years the company has ever had," he said.

Mr McLean has also committed to head WCB for at least another 12 months. His departure date is up to him, with the search for his successor halted until he choses to restart the process.

"Sometimes I think I'll be here for another two minutes," he joked.

"But I have given an undertaking that I will stay on as interim chief executive officer until the company is back on track. At this stage we are just taking it one day at a time."

WCB anticipated it would process between 900 million and a billion litres of milk this year.

Mepunga farmer Robert Haberfield was one of the WCB suppliers who left the company in April. He returned on Saturday and said it was a business decision.

"I went to Murray Goulburn and when the opening prices came out the difference between Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Murray Goulburn was significant -- it was a no-brainer," he said.

"For us, even without any WCB step-ups, it meant either breaking even or not.

"John McLean has had a significant impact in attracting back farmers and the opening prices have given us some confidence."

Garvoc's Sheryn and Ricky McDowell, whose families were lifelong WCB suppliers, also returned to the company last week.

Mrs McDowell said she and her husband reluctantly transferred to Murray Goulburn in April.

"What WCB did really hurt us, we were quite upset by it. We didn't talk for about a week," she said.

"We are a young family with two little boys and financially we couldn't afford to stay with WCB. I just hope John McLean stands by his word.

"He's not going to be there for that long and there is a lot of hob-knobs from Melbourne (who head companies) these days.

"We will be watching closely what they (WCB) are doing.

"We don't want to see anything like that happen again."