CBH stalwart says goodbye after 40 years

Colin Tutt took time to sit down with Farm Weekly and reflect on his working life before finishing with the co-operative last week.

He described his career as an incredible journey and a privilege and honour to work for the growers of WA.

Mr Tutt started with CBH as a harvest casual and stayed on for a second year with plans to go to university that never eventuated after being offered a position in the CBH cadet supervisor's course.

Growing up in Narembeen and going to school in Merredin, Mr Tutt said he had the connection with rural life and growers from the beginning.

It was the challenges as a leader and managing the network that had to be learnt.

At 19 he started in Morawa in a supervisor role before moving to Moora and managing the Mogumber, Watheroo and Wubin sites.

"I had to learn about leadership really quickly," he said.

"Managing people a lot older than you is really tough - you learn a lot very quickly."

His big move up the ranks came with a role at the Kwinana terminal where he was exposed to the logistics side of the business with shipping involved.

"I learnt a lot about logistics and leadership and it was a great experience," Mr Tutt said.

He was then stationed out at Corrigin in a superintendent role across 35 sites for two seasons before relocating down to Lake Grace.

"Lake Grace was a good experience, it's a very tough area to manage," he said.

"Infrastructure was well down in its capability and it was an opportunity to really learn and test my leadership capabilities and develop them.

"Lake Grace was good, it was tough work but quite rewarding with a good bunch of growers and good directors."

He was then sent to Geraldton as the port superintendent and managed a season he still remembers as a career highlight, with the region's biggest harvest on record at that point.

From there, Mr Tutt and wife Vicky took an opportunity to move on exchange to Canada, living in Calgary and Vancouver, before returning to Geraldton.

He then took a leap and applied for the CBH assistant general manager role knowing he wasn't qualified.

"I was hoping to get the next role up because I was down the pecking order, but I thought I was too low to get that job," Mr Tutt said.

"(Long serving chairman) Mick Gayfer rang me up one night and when you get a phone call from him it means big trouble, but he said that they had appointed me to that role and it was a bit of shock.

"It was really difficult to understand what happened because it was so quick.

"I said to Mick 'I think you've made a mistake' and he said 'well if you think you've made a mistake then you better get off your backside and get here quick'.

"I was still quite young then and inexperienced in the leadership capability for that role because it's a lot different to what I was doing."

However, this gamble started Mr Tutt in what he believes is "the best role in WA".

His title changed to general manager of operations when the company restructured in 2002.

Two years ago he and his wife went to move east with the CBH venture and he helped current general manager operations David Capper take on the role before eventually returning to the west when the venture fell through.

Mr Tutt said the past 20 years had been a big growth period for CBH and made his role tough but rewarding.

"I think in the last 20 years we've had really big leaps," he said.

"I think we transitioned out of wool dominating agriculture in WA and people moving more and more into cropping.

"We had those huge shifts in production and in more recent times, in the last 10 years, we've had this new generation of youth come through ag.

"They're well educated, smart and they're not running a family business anymore, they're running a corporate entity of a farm.

"They're smart how they farm and what they're after so we've had huge changes from the sheep days to sheep and cropping and we've transitioned now to the domination of cropping in WA.

"We went through deregulation of the grain industry six years ago and that had a huge impact.

"I think CBH is still transitioning from that regulated world to that deregulated environment where we need to be.

"We're not quite where we need to be so we still need to reshape the system to adjust to all of those changes."

Mr Tutt said the majority of these changes needed to come about in supply chain changes.

"The biggest challenge coming at the moment is that our cost basis is difficult to manage," he said.

"Costs are always under pressure in any company so that's really difficult for us. The network needs a total reshape because it was built in a regulated world and today we work in a deregulated environment.

"The supply chain lacks capability and where it's falling down is the ability to get tonnes to port really fast when the market wants it and that's what's driving the entry of competition.

"The network reshaping is important for the future of CBH."

Mr Tutt was in the lead role when rail was introduced to CBH and he acknowledges the ongoing saga between CBH and Brookfield Rail is a hurdle that needs to be cleared.

But he maintains understanding for all players in the mix.

"I think you have to respect what both parties are trying to do," he said.

"Brookfield is trying to get the best commercial outcome for their business, they have a lease and commitments to their own shareholders and we have a commitment to our grower shareholders in WA and sometimes those commitments are opposing.

"There needs to be some common ground and people need to find that middle ground that works for both parties.

"One thing we need to do in WA is recognise that rail is a critical component of how we move grain to port so we must have growth strategy in place for rail today that looks after tomorrow.

"Rail needs to have improvements with respect to productivity. We don't want to see productivity declining and I think it's fair to say productivity has gone in certain areas because of ageing tracks, because tracks were built earlier in the century and Brookfield is trying to deal with old infrastructure.

"It's been very frustrating for both parties to find an outcome that delivers what each party needs and then there's the government sitting over the top of the lease agreement as well."

"There's an interim agreement in place now which is good and hopefully it gives another 12 months for both parties to sit down and make sure they put an agreement in place that commits to increased productivity in place in WA.

"It's the linchpin to exporting grain out of the ag areas."

Mr Tutt said in the coming months he would take time out to relax and enjoy the slower pace before seeking roles less demanding of his time.

He said he owed his wife some holidays and thanked her for her support over the years.