Murray Goulburn (MG) chairman Phil Tracy has apologised to suppliers at the company's annual general meeting held in Melbourne yesterday, and said he intended to resign once a new managing director and the new board members had settled into their roles.
“The past six months have been incredibly challenging, and as a chair that weighs heavily on me,” Mr Tracy said holding back tear.
“But I’m quite heartened by what we’ve heard today; it is critically important the co-operative stays together. It’s important that the suppliers, shareholders and unit-holders work as one.”
Special director Peter Hawkins has also advised his intention to retire from the board – meaning the company is now looking for a replacement for him as well as continuing its search for another new special director.
Mr Tracy also flagged a review of the current payment system and the board structure.
"While as a board, we did what we could with the information that we had at the time, we know that the outcomes of that period have been devastating for suppliers and for that we are deeply sorry,” Mr Tracy said.
"As your chairman, I am responsible for the stewardship of MG and am therefore ultimately accountable for its performance."
But Mr Tracy said positive signs were emerging in international dairy commodity prices.
The company remained committed to its value-add strategy and would continue to ‘pull every lever’ within its control to manage costs and deliver the best possible farmgate milk price to suppliers.
Mr Tracy flagged a review of the current payment system based on an annualised milk pool, given two of the only three step downs in the company's history had occurred in the past eight years.
He said MG was also committed to the introduction of the proposed commodity milk price index, which it believed should be independently managed and tailored for the benefit of all participants in the Australian dairy industry.
Mr Tracy said the company was still finalising its selection of a new managing director.
"We can advise is that we have received significant interest in the MD role and also have a very strong internal candidate in interim CEO, David Mallinson," he said.
Mr Mallison said MG was also looking at decoupling the corporate and retail brands or Murray Goulburn and Devondale respectively, but that “...no decision had been made”.
