Will Burrett: Landcorp Chief Operating Officer on the Government zeroing in on the company's performance

Simeon Brown has told various Government-owned companies they must explain why they are failing to deliver their cost of equity and how they will improve their returns.

The Minister for State Owned Enterprises told several of the SOEs - including NZ Post and Landcorp - that they've been underperforming over the last few years.

Landcorp was also singled out because its CEO's pay climbed from $760,000 in 2021/22 to $927,000 in 2023/24, but company’s profit nearly halved to $36.3 million dollars during that time.

Landcorp's Chief Operating Officer Will Burrett says the company's had to go back to basics - and they're not the only agricultural entity that's had to scale back. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
The government zeroing in on Land Corp as an example
of state owned enterprises that are underperforming. It singled out
a number of soees that it says has performed poorly.
This is Treasury over the last five years and the
worst performers are New Zealand Post met Service, Cordier and Landcorp.
LANDCRP was also criticized for the big pay package of
its chief executive. The CEE couldn't come on the show tonight,

(00:39):
but we have Will Burrett, the Chief operating officer of Landcorp.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hi, Will good right here, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Thank you. Do you think that CEO pay or CE
pay should go up when profits fall as dramatically as
your profit has.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
I'll look them. I'm not here to talk about my
boss as a salary, but talk about it just hypothetically.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Let's say, any old, any old SOE, should the performance
of the ce be tied to the performance of the
of the SOE.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Look, I think that's that's for a matter of the
board to work with a ce I'm here to talk
about our performance and where we're heading moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, tell me about your performance, good or bad.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Look, we've been on a journey, to be honest, hither
and that's pretty cliche, but you know, I'm really proud
of the last day, en months and where the business
has just laser focused on on core business principles of
you know, animals, pasture, wastage and and internal optimizations. So
you know, we've we've we've come a long way. We've
focused on our structure, on our systems and the performance

(01:43):
culture that I think we're already starting to embed some
really good things.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
And if you're focused on doing your business properly, what
have you got rid of? There wasn't part of.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
That, I think just noise, you know, I think we
have Well, look, we've we've gone back to basics. If
I'm honest, you know, we're not the only agricultural entity
over the last week while it's had to reset itself,
focused capital allocation back to the core, strip away some
noise from the business and actually, well look it's it's

(02:14):
actually just focusing on the core principles of farming. So
going back to basics.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Making sure we have you stripped away.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, we've focused on putting capital back into the business
heather and.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Not has somebody told you not to give specifics?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
No, not at all?

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Do you not know what?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah? We have stripped away noise, so and what is
I'm just going to.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Try one more time and then I'm going to give up.
What is that noise?

Speaker 3 (02:42):
But we've we've focused capital back into behind farm gate
rather than post farm gate, So we've we've reduced you know,
palming food, that's that's been consolidated down and where we
are driving you know, the other areas of those post
post farm gate investments harder. But then behind farm gate,
which is the bulk of their investment in the asset

(03:03):
across the two billion assets were focused on driving physical
performance which we can control and we can control costs.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Do you still milk deer?

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yes? We do?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Is that a good idea?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I look, that's something that you know you ask around
the purpose of PAMU and we are here to try
and challenge some things.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
See problem though, isn't it will because a normal father
farmer is not going to faff around milking deer, are they?
They're just going to get on with doing sheep and
beef and dairy and do you think maybe is that
part of the problem that what we think you are
is the government's farmers, but what you think you are
is experimenting.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
We've got to put a percentage of the asset that
we've got into things that are going to trial and
test system designs and potentially new horizons.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
That are you forced through through legislation.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
To do that. We are forced to make sure that
we're driving a return, and that's what we're focusing on.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, no, no, no, Well, are you forced through legislation or
through regulation, or through any kind of rule to put
a percentage of what you are doing into you know, experimenting.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
I'd say we are trying to help the industry and
seeking out you. Okay, that's from of these things.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So you're just doing that wacky stuff of your own.
Bat Now, we had we had Grant McCallum on who
you'll be aware of as a farmer himself but also
National Party MP. So let's be honest, right, he's got
some skin in the game here. They're obviously lining you
people up to sell you down, so he's doing he's
doing the government's job here, but he reckons that you
guys should be providing a net operating profit of maybe

(04:40):
minimum hundred MILLI, but you know, closer to two hundred
million and it's only twenty mil So how how do
you explain.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
That we've we've positioned a record profit coming out this
financial year of between forty one and fifty one million.
That'll be firmed up and later later of August, I
think late August will be confirming that. And then we've
we've got an sci that we were or a statement
of corporate intent, which is effectively our budget hither over
the next three years that we'll be landing with the

(05:08):
Minister later on this month, so that paints the pathway,
and that pathway speaks directly to our focus back on
the core business. So you know, I'll probably let those
numbers speak to themselves when they come out.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Okay, well, thank you, appreciate your time. That's Will Burrett,
the Chief operating Officer of land

Speaker 1 (05:28):
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