November 3, 2025 • 5 mins
Spring Sheep Milk’s chief executive, Nick Hammond, has been appointed Zespri’s new chief strategy officer. Hammond will be replaced at Spring Sheep by chief operating officer Thomas Macdonald in November. Macdonald replaced Hammond as chief operating officer when he took on the top job, and has also been with the company since it was started.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a young guy going places. He's spreading himself right
around the world. He is now effectively the boss of
the Spring Sheep Milk Company. His name is Thomas McDonald.
First come across him in twenty eighteen when he won
the Zander McDonald Award. Thomas, you've been with us the
Spring Sheep Milk Company for ten years since it's inception.
(00:20):
Get it right, and you're celebrating ten years today in Shanghai.
Good morning or good afternoon, New Zealand time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, thank you very much for having
me on. We're up here in Shanghai. Yeah, celebrating ten
years off springsheet, which is a fantastic milestone. We'll have
all of our customers, stakeholders and business partners in this
market coming together. So a really big moment for us
as a business one to reflect on what's been a
really neat journey.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is there any money in milking sheep?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, there is. Yeah. We've seen a really exciting I
guess value chain created for New Zealand and that's probably
one of the main things that's kept me so interested
in this business over the last ten years. We've got
genuine opportunity here to take a New zealain Land use
take that through an innovative factory and a team doing
wonderful things there and take it here into market in
(01:09):
places like Shanghai, Vietnam, Malaysia and around the world. As
you know well, we have focused on in for formula
as a business at Spring Sheep, and that's a value
chain that is adding value to each of those parts
that I've mentioned to the value chain and actually driving
a real neat future for the primary sector in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, as I said, we were mentioning about cows and
spreading the pea more evenly around the pastures to reduce
the environmental footprint. One of the real advantages you guys
have with sheep as the environmental footprint is much less
than with bovines.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's exactly right, and I think you and I have
spoken many times over the years about the reasons why
farmers in New Zealand may be interested in milking shoo.
That's certainly one of the reasons. I think as we've
developed the model over the past ten years, it's become
very clear that sheep milking has ait diversification of an
existing business. Also, succession has been a really big thing
driving out business swords are seeing another generation come back
(02:04):
home onto the land and set up a new industry.
So here, for a various number of reasons, we've got
a great and very innovative group of farmers now with
us milking about thirteen thousand sheep every day.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Have you got farmers who are effectively operating a hybrid
model dairy cows and sheep.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, we do, I'd say. You know, when we started this,
we thought they'd be quite a few sole source from
sheep milking farms, and probably as it's turned out, for
the range of factors around environmental divestification and succession, we've
seen a really common model emerge of perhaps the one
generation having cows on the platform and a second generation
developing their own sheep milking business. And that model seems
(02:44):
to have a real complementary land use to it, which
is fantastic to see it emerge, and it probably is
today one of our front running farming models.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Your chief executive, Nick Hammond has stepped aside, You're now
the boss at Spring Sheep. He's been appointed zespri's new
chief strategy officer. So that's a feather in his cap
and a good promotion for him. You been with the
company for ten years. This is a natural progression for you.
You're quite young, if you don't mind me saying so,
to be a chief executive.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well done, No, thank you very much, Jamie. It's been
a real privilege to be involved in this business across
when I think about our genetics business, working with our
very innovative farmers, and time leading our factory and manufacturing operations,
and then get to be up here and market it
is a wonderful business. It's an absolute privilege to lead
it across all of those various teams, and I'm absolutely
(03:35):
looking forward to the challenge ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So where's the future for milking sheep?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
We are very much looking to the future in all
of our Southeast Asian markets right now. So we're up
here in Shanghai. We're attending CIE, which is one of
the large trade shows for consumer and branded goods up here.
The best way I can describe it to you is
that we spent the last ten years building the platform
to establish sheet milking as an industry in New Zealand.
Focus for the next ten years is really scaling that
(04:02):
and taking these branded products we've developed more and more
consumers right around the world. So that's going to be
a big focus of mine and of the team both
based up here in China and our other markets and
back home in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And you're going to be moving beyond infant formula.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, we have to a certain extent already, Jamie. So
we've got a food service and ingredients business as well,
and at the moment we've currently got a change program
which is in I guess the product development stage that
we're working on as well. So sheep milking, as many
of your listeners would know, as a wonderful raw material,
we've got the option to do things with it. The
first focus of the business has been getting to that
(04:37):
initial scale and the powders. And as we look to
the next ten years, I guess the world's the oyster.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
As they say, you enjoy the big trade show in Shanghai.
Thank you very much for your time at Thomas McDonald,
the newly minted chief executive of Spring Sheep Milk. Well
done and good luck to your previous spots, Nick Hammond
and his new venture with Sesbury.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Jemmy. Thank
Here's a young guy going places. He's spreading himself right
around the world. He is now effectively the boss of
the Spring Sheep Milk Company. His name is Thomas McDonald.
First come across him in twenty eighteen when he won
the Zander McDonald Award. Thomas, you've been with us the
Spring Sheep Milk Company for ten years since it's inception.
(00:20):
Get it right, and you're celebrating ten years today in Shanghai.
Good morning or good afternoon, New Zealand time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, thank you very much for having
me on. We're up here in Shanghai. Yeah, celebrating ten
years off springsheet, which is a fantastic milestone. We'll have
all of our customers, stakeholders and business partners in this
market coming together. So a really big moment for us
as a business one to reflect on what's been a
really neat journey.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is there any money in milking sheep?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, there is. Yeah. We've seen a really exciting I
guess value chain created for New Zealand and that's probably
one of the main things that's kept me so interested
in this business over the last ten years. We've got
genuine opportunity here to take a New zealain Land use
take that through an innovative factory and a team doing
wonderful things there and take it here into market in
(01:09):
places like Shanghai, Vietnam, Malaysia and around the world. As
you know well, we have focused on in for formula
as a business at Spring Sheep, and that's a value
chain that is adding value to each of those parts
that I've mentioned to the value chain and actually driving
a real neat future for the primary sector in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, as I said, we were mentioning about cows and
spreading the pea more evenly around the pastures to reduce
the environmental footprint. One of the real advantages you guys
have with sheep as the environmental footprint is much less
than with bovines.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's exactly right, and I think you and I have
spoken many times over the years about the reasons why
farmers in New Zealand may be interested in milking shoo.
That's certainly one of the reasons. I think as we've
developed the model over the past ten years, it's become
very clear that sheep milking has ait diversification of an
existing business. Also, succession has been a really big thing
driving out business swords are seeing another generation come back
(02:04):
home onto the land and set up a new industry.
So here, for a various number of reasons, we've got
a great and very innovative group of farmers now with
us milking about thirteen thousand sheep every day.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Have you got farmers who are effectively operating a hybrid
model dairy cows and sheep.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, we do, I'd say. You know, when we started this,
we thought they'd be quite a few sole source from
sheep milking farms, and probably as it's turned out, for
the range of factors around environmental divestification and succession, we've
seen a really common model emerge of perhaps the one
generation having cows on the platform and a second generation
developing their own sheep milking business. And that model seems
(02:44):
to have a real complementary land use to it, which
is fantastic to see it emerge, and it probably is
today one of our front running farming models.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Your chief executive, Nick Hammond has stepped aside, You're now
the boss at Spring Sheep. He's been appointed zespri's new
chief strategy officer. So that's a feather in his cap
and a good promotion for him. You been with the
company for ten years. This is a natural progression for you.
You're quite young, if you don't mind me saying so,
to be a chief executive.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well done, No, thank you very much, Jamie. It's been
a real privilege to be involved in this business across
when I think about our genetics business, working with our
very innovative farmers, and time leading our factory and manufacturing operations,
and then get to be up here and market it
is a wonderful business. It's an absolute privilege to lead
it across all of those various teams, and I'm absolutely
(03:35):
looking forward to the challenge ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So where's the future for milking sheep?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
We are very much looking to the future in all
of our Southeast Asian markets right now. So we're up
here in Shanghai. We're attending CIE, which is one of
the large trade shows for consumer and branded goods up here.
The best way I can describe it to you is
that we spent the last ten years building the platform
to establish sheet milking as an industry in New Zealand.
Focus for the next ten years is really scaling that
(04:02):
and taking these branded products we've developed more and more
consumers right around the world. So that's going to be
a big focus of mine and of the team both
based up here in China and our other markets and
back home in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And you're going to be moving beyond infant formula.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, we have to a certain extent already, Jamie. So
we've got a food service and ingredients business as well,
and at the moment we've currently got a change program
which is in I guess the product development stage that
we're working on as well. So sheep milking, as many
of your listeners would know, as a wonderful raw material,
we've got the option to do things with it. The
first focus of the business has been getting to that
(04:37):
initial scale and the powders. And as we look to
the next ten years, I guess the world's the oyster.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
As they say, you enjoy the big trade show in Shanghai.
Thank you very much for your time at Thomas McDonald,
the newly minted chief executive of Spring Sheep Milk. Well
done and good luck to your previous spots, Nick Hammond
and his new venture with Sesbury.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Jemmy. Thank
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