Bega Cheese Limited (BGA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. We are about -- we have about a minute to go before the scheduled start time. So for those assembled in the room, it's probably nice to say -- for those that are not from Bega, welcome to the beautiful Bega Valley. It's been a bit dry in the Bega Valley over the last 6 or 7 months, particularly dry. And one of the things that happens when it gets very dry in the Bega Valley is that the kangaroos tend to come out, and they tend to be more on the road. So I'm very sorry for those attending that happened to meet with a kangaroo on their way here and [indiscernible] the car that's parked beside mine. So my apologies for that in the venue, and I'm sure the kangaroos more sorry than I am. But anyway, it is very nice to have you all here. Okay. We are now at our scheduled start time. So apologies for the formality bit every year. This is a live broadcast that is webcast, and it is very formal. So I'll be reading [indiscernible]. I would say please hold any questions that you might have until the end of the presentation. Welcome to Bega Cheese Annual General Meeting, which is being recorded and webcast. As we have a quorum, I now declare the meeting open. When you registered this morning, you will have received an admittance card. For all shareholders and proxy holders who are voting, you would have received a yellow voting card. If you're a shareholder who is not voting, you should have received a blue card. And if you're a nonshareholder, you will have received a red card. Yellow cardholders will be able to vote for or against resolutions and ask any questions they may wish relating to the business of the AGM. Blue cardholders will be able to ask questions but not vote. Red cardholders are most welcome at the meeting, but will be unable to participate in the proceedings. Further information regarding voting procedures will be provided prior to the commencement of the resolutions to be put to this meeting. For the benefits of all attendees at this meeting, I would ask that you identify yourself before asking a question or making a comment. At today's meeting, we have a number of formalities to deal with, including the consideration of the group's 2023 annual report, the adoption of the remuneration report, the election of directors and the modification of the constitution. I am pleased to welcome new shareholders and our long-term shareholders who know the company so well and have supported the strategy and directors of the company over many years. Let me introduce my fellow Directors, Patria Mann, Peter Margin, Terry O'Brien, Harper Kilpatrick and Rick Cross. Raelene Murphy is in an apology. I'm also pleased to welcome Sam Lobley, representing auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers; our legal counsel, David Ferguson and Laura Hartley from Addisons; and Nick O'Hagan from Link Market Services Limited and a number of Bega Group staff. I've received no apologies. We will now move on to the formal part of the meeting. I will be presenting the FY 2023 annual report with Bega Group's CEO, Pete Findlay. I think it is fair to say that the most appropriate way to describe the financial year 2023 is dynamic. We began the year with rapidly rising dairy commodity prices which saw farm gate milk prices go to record high levels while also dealing with significant inflationary pressure in all parts of our business. These factors require the company to be very agile and responsive to change. I'm pleased to report that we have managed significant variations, which ultimately included rapidly declining commodity prices in the second half of the year in a manner that has seen our branded business grow and the appropriate decisions made in our commodity business. Importantly, we continue to position the business for growth and remain confident in our strategy, even though we have seen some very dynamic circumstances in the last few years. The key messages slide, which for those following online is on Page 6, summarizes FY 2023 and the business approach that has brought us here and will take us forward successfully. The strategy that we have had in place for the last 6 years to transform from a largely commodity business to a branded business, beginning with the acquisition of the Australian Mondelez Grocery business right through to the more recent acquisition of Lion Dairy & Drinks with some of Australia's most iconic brands, has certainly delivered for the business particularly in the second half of financial year 2023 and looking forward. There were timing challenges in realizing some significant cost increases in the Australian market in the early part of the last financial year. Following the execution of price increases that appropriately reflected significant increases in farm gate milk prices and other input costs. The brands performed well, retaining their position in terms of market share and growing volume. The strength of the brand is the key to our future business success. We continue to invest in our brands, growth categories and higher-value products. Whilst we recognize the challenges in the bulk commodity area of the business associated with lower milk production in Australia and the disconnection of Australian farm gate milk pricing to global dairy commodity prices and have both impaired and begun to restructure that segment of our business, we do continue to see some -- we do continue to see opportunity in some areas of that business segment, particularly in nutraceuticals, dairy nutrients and the support of our branded business. We announced in FY 2023 that we are restructuring our overall business to accelerate the alignment of the organization to the branded strategy. It was important to speed up that alignment given the volatility of FY 2023 and the ongoing challenges in the bulk segment of our business. With regard to the commodity markets, we did see a continued -- a continuation of rapid price increases at the beginning of the financial year. Unfortunately, these prices were not maintained and we saw equally rapid falls in the latter part of FY 2023 with commodity markets decreasing by an excess of 30%. That, of course, impacted the performance of the bulk business. While historically, we would have seen farm gate milk prices reset to reduced commodity values in Australia, this year, we have not seen that happen. The increasing disconnection between the international commodity value of dairy products and the Australian farm gate milk prices, largely driven by a decrease in the volume of milk produced and the retention of significant excess manufacturing capacity in the industry, has caused us to make a decision to rightsize our commodity infrastructure with the goal of ensuring it is in a position to support our brands and take opportunities in the international markets and in the commodity and nutritional markets when they arise. The important decision to deal with challenges that we see across the industry in terms of milk production and overcapacity and rightsizing our commodity infrastructure has meant that we have brought to account a large noncash impairment on our commodity assets this year. Importantly, given the volatility and the changing environment and the great opportunities we see going forward, particularly in our branded business, our balance sheet remains strong. And I'm pleased to report that we finished the financial year with a strengthened leverage ratio of 1.6. Moving to the next slide. As is always the case, we think that it is more appropriate to discuss the normalized financial results for the year, which is a better reflection of the ongoing business operations and is particularly the case in a year where we had a large noncash impairment and asset sales. The comment that I would make regarding the noncash impairment is that it is not a reflection of the quality of the infrastructure that we own, but it is a reflection of the fact that the volumes of milk available and indeed, the cost that we have to pay for that milk is not seeing that infrastructure deliver financial returns that are consistent with historical performance, and these factors are likely to remain with us for some time. From a normalized point of view, it was a volatile and challenging year. The 2 key performance factors were the timing of realizing price increases in the Australian market that reflected milk price increases and other inflationary costs in our branded business; and then the rapid decline in dairy commodity prices in the second half, which, in combination, ultimately saw the company deliver a normalized earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $160.2 million. Pete Findlay will discuss in more detail the financial outcomes for the year. Obviously, from a statutory point of view, the impact of the noncash impairment was large and resulted in a statutory after-tax loss of $229.9 million. Perhaps the only other comment to make is that we have been pleased to be able to deliver a dividend of $0.075 per share for the full year although it is a lesser dividend than the last year. Given the circumstances of the year that we have been managing is appropriate, it appropriately reflects the challenging year we have had and our confidence in the business going forward. As we manage the volatility that can exist in a food and agricultural business, it is important to be confident in our strategy. Our strategy remains on track as we continue to build a strong and more stable branded food business. The circumstances of this year have reinforced the importance of the strategy and its acceleration to ensure we create value for shareholders and to become the great Australian food company creating great food for a better future. If I take you to this next slide, this is a great illustration of how far the business has come from fundamentally a small, largely commodity business into now what I would call an emerging branded powerhouse. I think that interestingly, as this page is presented, you see some of our most iconic brands there. And the arrow to the future is pointing to those brands, which is both metaphorically and literally true. We see the future in our branded business being full of great opportunities. That does include the fact that we think that our infrastructure, including our commodity infrastructure, will play a very important role in supporting those brands. There is no doubt that the brands, particularly in the second half of FY 2023, demonstrated their strength and the opportunity for us to be able to increasingly deal with the volatility in farm gate milk price and farm gate milk volumes along with other cost pressures. Pete will speak more about our branded strategy in his presentation. It is always important to talk about our approach to sustainability and circularity. We've obviously made commitments regarding Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions targets, and we're currently working with suppliers to understand Scope 3 emissions and the actions that we and our suppliers can take to reduce those emissions. Since our inception, we have aligned ourselves with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which drive a number of programs in the business. We continue to make good progress on sustainability and have strong momentum in the Bega Circular Valley project, which is -- which the Bega Group is a key supporter of. I would refer you to our sustainability report, which was released last week, which provides more details on the program -- on our programs and projects. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a small summary of the year from me. I'm pleased to ask Pete Findlay, our CEO, to come to the podium and present for the first time as CEO his perspective on the FY 2023 result. Pete has been with the company for a while. Initially, as CFO, I would say, Chief Financial Officer; and then Chief Operating Officer, and stepped up into the CEO role in February 2023 and has taken the challenge with both [ hands ]. I'm delighted with the executive team that Pete's put together and the restructure that he is implementing to make sure this business is in great shape for the future. I will hand to Pete and come back to you at the end of this presentation for questions and the resolutions to be put to the meeting. Pete?

Thank you, Barry, for the introduction. And I'll move on to the next slide to discuss the momentum we feel we now have in our branded business. As Barry discussed, we're impacted by significant cost increases to milk -- through the milk procurement period of last year as well as spikes in crude oil prices impacting packaging resin, logistics and many other inputs. I was incredibly pleased with the team and the way our brands and categories performed in that period of significant upheaval. We're able to execute approximately $260 million in price increases during the first half of FY 2023 to cover the majority of the above cost exposure. Despite the significant price increases, we've been able to grow volume across our branded business by approximately 5%. As a result, we are very pleased with and feel it demonstrates the resilience of our brands and the way they resonate with Australian consumers. We achieved volume growth across most of our channels, in particular, core grocery and pleasingly, the convenience channel where our team did a great job with milk-based beverages, white milk and juices. The convenience channel experienced 20% volume growth and 30% value growth. Our food service channel benefited from our strong distribution team and our unparalleled coverage to increase field sales volume by 25%. As part of the restructuring program announced during the year, we have consolidated our branded business from 3 divisions into 1 and created specific grocery and non-grocery teams. We have brought together multiple sales teams, marketing teams, R&D teams, logistics and planning teams. During that process, we've eliminated approximately $20 million of annualized costs, of which $12 million will be realized in this financial year. We now have a structure that aligns with our strategy, enables us to win in all channels and creates a sustainable cost base moving forward. Additionally, we focused on capacity rationalization across our sites. During the year, we closed the Canberra milk processing facility while maintaining the use of the Canberra Milk brand. We've introduced a substantial amount of automation at our sites through driverless vehicles, robotic palletization and on-site packaging capabilities. This is reducing bottlenecks and resulting in better equipment effectiveness rates. In a challenging year, we have maintained a strong capital expenditure program with focus on our growing branded categories. We completed our Wetherill Park sustainable packaging project, which is blowing fully recyclable PET bottles on site, giving sustainability and cost benefits. These bottles have increased shelf presence and assisted with our outstanding milk-based beverage result for the year. We commissioned a new pouch line at Morwell at the end of FY 2023. This additional capacity is fully operational and will create significant product innovation and cost savings. The business commenced work on a digital sales platform to support the approximately 40,000 deliveries a week by our cold chain distribution network. This will replace a 15-year-old portal currently providing a less than satisfactory customer experience. The detailed design of the new digital sales platform will address more than 100 customer pain points. The Bega Group's focused innovation and marketing investment in high-margin and high-volume categories helped deliver volume growth during a period of unprecedented cost increase and the subsequent price rises required to mitigate them. We are celebrating Vegemite's 100th birthday in 2023, which has received terrific media exposure. It is noteworthy that Vegemite volumes actually grew in FY 2023 for only the second time in the last 20 years. Vegemite's 100th birthday means that we now have 4 iconic brands in our stables more than 100 years old, Bega, Vegemite, Farmers Union and Dairy Farmers. It is significant they all remain contemporary and grew in FY 2023, both in volume and value. Our milk-based beverages grew by 5% in volume last year and experienced double-digit value growth. We are pleased with the performance of our milk-based beverage brands and the way they are resonating with our customers, driving portfolio growth into channels such as convenience and hospitality. The Bega Group International business achieved more than $200 million of sales in branded products across Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the last financial year. Our focus in the international branded market has also been streamlined with our priorities being processed cheese, cream cheese and yogurts. And we expect that this part of our business will continue to grow as we consolidate distributors and increase presence in these local markets that are evolving rapidly. Bega Group's branded business now represents 85% of the group's total revenue. This chart demonstrates the evolution of the company over the last 20 years, moving from a business with less than 50% of branded revenues in 2016. Our future revenue and profitability growth will largely be driven by our exposure to our iconic Australian brands and less reliant upon fluctuating global commodity prices. Building on the previous slide, it is important to reflect on our brand shares in the Australian retail category. This data is from the total Australian grocery channel. We have retained our #1 position in yogurt, milk-based beverages and spreads despite an environment of significant cost increase and consumer financial pressure. These are categories that represent a sustainable margin profile and fit well with our manufacturing distribution capabilities. The Bega Group was also particularly pleased with the performance of fresh white milk. We were able to drive growth in this category for the first time in a number of years with volume growth across all channels, reaching 10% off the back of better distribution and additional functional benefits such as a new lactose-free offer. My last slide on brands is essentially a summary on how we will continue to grow these brands into the future. We will maintain our focus on growing core grocery through product innovation in our categories such as yogurt, milk-based beverages and spreads. We have a strong heritage in this space and have great brands that perform well and represent themselves with customers. We'll continue to tap into the natural growth in segments such as functional fresh white milk. While we've always performed well with core retail customers, we are still under-indexed in food service and convenience. As a consequence, there will be a renewed effort to winning on the street and competing in this space. We need to take advantage of our significant sales force, national cold chain distribution networks and strong distributor relationships. We know that when we bring focus to these opportunities and get the product offering right, we can win. Our new organizational structure allows us to package our full portfolio and range in this channel and gives us a natural advantage over our competitors. An example of this was our Dare iced coffee drink, which was the #1 impulse beverage brand in convenience in the last quarter. The performance was enhanced by the Dare Intense launch and demonstrates that when our sales team get behind an offering that appeals to a segment of the market, significant growth can be achieved. We will continue to streamline our sites, reviewing how they create maximum value and deliver a better outcome for our customers in their specific geographic areas. We anticipate further margin improvement in our branded business through site and product consolidation. On our next slide, we've shown some of this data before. However, I think it's important to revisit this information, particularly in light of FY 2023 and the year we are currently in. It goes some way to explain the industry circumstances and our response. Milk production has been largely in decline since 2002, and milk production in FY 2023 was approximately 8 billion liters, down from almost 12 billion liters 20 years ago. During that period, we've seen relatively minor rationalization in industry manufacturing capacity. In fact, in some instances, we've seen new capacity commissioned. The impact of milk production decline and overcapacity in the industry has meant less volume available for infrastructure that was originally designed to service global dairy commodity markets. Increasingly, competition for milk in Australia has driven farm gate milk prices to a point where there was a significant disconnection between Australian farm gate milk price and dairy commodity markets. Historically, when commodity prices rose and fell, we could see the farm gate milk price broadly mirror these returns. In terms of our business, the above impact is reflected through the impairment of our commodity assets and the decision to accelerate our organizational restructure and rightsizing of our commodity infrastructure. Our commodity business will continue to struggle in FY 2024 as the disconnect has further widened this year. It's important to note that within our commodity business, we do have 2 different streams. We have a nutritionals business, which produces lactoferrin, infant formula and high-value milk powders. That part of our business is remaining reasonably stable; and other products, in particular, bulk butter, bulk skim milk powder, whole milk powder and cream cheese will suffer significantly in FY 2024, which is what has largely driven the impairment in our bulk business. Our endeavor this year is, to the extent that we're able to deal with the challenge of the dairy commodity markets and reshape our commodity infrastructure for FY 2025 and beyond. What we want to do is transition our commodity sites to a far more agile cost base that we can respond to changed market conditions, which will enable us to be far more able to deal with farm gate milk price and volume fluctuations. We think that there is a way forward for the bulk segment of our business. But in the FY 2024 year, it will be challenged and the key reason why our earnings will be relatively flat year-on-year. Let's go to the next slide. This graph illustrates the circumstances I've been describing. The red line shows dairy commodity prices from an index point of view. The green line shows our farm gate milk price in the manufacturing states, predominantly Victoria and South Australia, which traditionally has been connected to global commodity prices. The graph also illustrates the major grocers' private label milk price, which impacts a lot of the retail shelf price for the dairy in this country. It is self-evident that the Australian farm gate milk prices are at the moment, not connected to international commodity markets, but on a more positive note, are reflective of the returns in the Australian market. Farm gate milk prices remain elevated. The company paid a record price in FY 2022 of $7.14 per kilo milk solids reflecting commodity markets at that time. That increased again to $9.55 per kilo milk solids in FY 2023. The increase in farm gate milk prices was supported by a sharp rise in commodity prices which, as I previously mentioned and as demonstrated on the graph, was disappointingly followed by an equally rapid fall, meaning that overall, the farm gate milk price in FY 2023 was not reflective of the commodity returns. Farm gate milk prices for FY 2024 have only dropped marginally below the $9.55 per kilo milk solids in FY 2023 despite the ongoing decline in commodity prices, which are now more reflective of the FY 2022 returns. Hence, the challenge to our commodity infrastructure and returns in the bulk segment of our business. As mentioned, the more positive news from this graph is that farm gate milk prices are reflective of Australian milk retail prices. And as I've described, we are heavily exposed to that. and are very happy with the farm gate milk prices and how they align with our domestic branded business, particularly our shorter shelf-life products, fresh milk, yogurt and milk-based beverages. The Bega Group is now down to 19 sites with the rationalization of our Canberra facility. We are pleased to have a geographic spread of sites and a comprehensive market reach. However, we must continue to consider how our sites integrate within our network and how we might optimize their operation in the future. It's important to note our dairy infrastructure is interdependent and supports our brands and markets. Therefore, our bulk sites still play an important part in our strategy. As we model the growth in our domestic business over the next 5 years, we will require Koroit and Tatura in our network to manage the seasonality of milk. They are integral to growing our domestic branded business. While it is disappointing to impair high-quality assets, it is important to develop a strategy that positions those assets well for the future. Our focus will be to change our commodity sites in a manner ensuring they have the flexibility to be able to cope with any disconnect between farm gate milk pricing and global commodity prices. We will continue to focus on higher-value commodities and nutritional products. Our lactoferrin business remains strong. We believe we have the ability to evolve our nutritionals business to be well positioned to take advantage of some of the potential rationalization opportunities that are evolving in Australia and international markets. Management will continue to optimize the connectivity between our large bulk commodity sites, which manage excess milk produced in peak season. Moving to the financial outcomes for FY 2023 and our profit and loss slide. I will focus on the normalized table on the left-hand side of the page. The normalized earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was $160 million down or 11% year-on-year. Pleasingly, our revenue grew 13% with our branded segment of the business growing by 16%. Within that, volume attributed a little over 5% of growth with value driving the remaining 11%. While we were happy with the performance of our branded business, it did not take -- it did take time to execute the price increases required to deal with the uplift in farm gate milk prices and significant inflation impacts for virtually all other inputs into our business. These were largely part of our new cost base from the 1st of July 2023. The bulk segment's revenue increased 8%, but it really was a tale of 2 halves. First half FY 2023 had very strong commodity prices, which, as I've mentioned a number of times, declined rapidly in the second half FY 2023. Depreciation and amortization was a little under $102 million. Net finance costs were almost double in the year, and that is a reflection of increased interest rates. This slide is a reconciliation between our statutory results on the left-hand side of the page and our normalized results on the right-hand side of the page. We have normalized the sale of our Vegemite Way site in Port Melbourne and have also removed the $276 million pretax asset impairment and the cost of restructuring. The other cost line at under $5 million is related to Software as a Service. The other item that has been normalized is the change to a consolidated tax entity, which will further add to the efficiency of our business in the future. This is a normalized EBITDA waterfall that moves us from FY 2022 to FY 2023 result. On the left side, in the prior year, we made $180 million of EBITDA. The next 3 columns focus on the branded side of the business. The first column represents the cost increases, which were most significantly impacted by the farm gate milk price, but also included inflationary impacts on all other input costs, totaling $290 million. The cost increases were largely with us from the beginning of the year, and although the business reacted as quickly as it could with multiple waves of pricing generating $256 million of in-year price increases, and on a full year run rate, $35 million of additional pricing from those increases will be realized in FY 2024. There was a $28 million benefit in FY 2023 EBITDA from the volume growth in our branded business. In terms of the bulk segment EBITDA, we've not highlighted price or volume changes. We've simply sought to demonstrate the year-on-year impact of the farm gate price disconnected to global commodity prices being $18 million. Put simply, what the table demonstrates is the incredible strength of the brands to respond to almost unprecedented circumstances and the fragility of the bulk commodity business in current milk supply circumstances. This slide demonstrates the story of a year of 2 halves, reflecting the quarterly performance and associated brand momentum and commodity impacts experienced in FY 2023. The blue line is our branded segment EBITDA margin performance, obviously, quite impacted in the first quarter with cost inflation and then growing strongly as our price, mix and innovation initiatives begin to take effect. The orange line is the EBITDA margin performance of our bulk segment, which displays the peak commodity pricing, which occurred in October 2022 and then followed a strong downward trend for the remainder of the financial year. Unfortunately, this has continued in FY 2024, which continues to challenge the business in the short term. Operating cash flows for FY 2023 was $8 million. Inventory increased by $110 million, largely reflecting the increase in input prices and a slower sell-down of stock at the end of FY 2023 as compared to FY 2022. We finished the year with inventory of $430 million, the equivalent of 7 to 8 weeks of stock, which represents a relatively normal trading position for us. Our cash flow was obviously enhanced by the sale of our Port Melbourne site and the winding up of the Vitasoy joint venture. We continue to have a strong balance sheet. Trade receivables are in line with sales and inventory values -- and sorry, and inventory value has increased for the reasons described previously. Lease liabilities and right-of-use assets have increased, reflecting the impact of the sale and leaseback of the Port Melbourne site and the decrease in value of the property, plant and equipment reflects a noncash impairment of our commodity assets. I think it is important to reflect on where we are today and how I see the business. It has been beneficial to spend time at each of our facilities and in the market with our teams to see how we present our products and consumers -- see how we present our products to consumers across different channels, both in Australia and overseas. The leadership team and I are energized and feel positive about the tools at our disposal. There are headwinds in our bulk commodity business. However, I believe we have a path forward and we create a stronger, more agile business as a result of the restructuring and rightsizing approach we are currently taking. Our branded business is where all of our momentum will come from over the next 5 years. We have market-leading iconic brands that resonate with our customers. Our products have the right price points to meet the evolving customer propositions to be relevant into the future. We are confident we can grow our branded business with its current context -- within its current context and additionally into adjacencies that we're very excited about. Both of our branded acquisitions are performing ahead of business case. The Mondelez grocery business has been an outstanding acquisition, and the Bega Dairy and Drinks business in 2H FY 2023 exceeded our expectations and continues to perform well through the early part of FY 2024. In terms of our infrastructure, we have a network of integrated manufacturing and milk processing sites that can manage seasonal milk and will have the capability to optimize milk solids value. Despite the challenges in global commodity markets at the moment, we have the opportunity to reshape our commodity assets, ensuring they can support our brands in the long term and take advantage of any positive changes in the commodity markets. There is a plethora of opportunities for further brand innovation and efficiency programs driving margin improvement. We feel we have fresh white milk, which is a significant part of our volume heading in the right direction from a growth and profitability perspective. Yogurt, milk-based beverages and spreads are still growing, and we have tangible opportunities in almost all of the channels and categories we operate in. We believe that the brand contribution we have seen in 2H FY 2023 and into the first quarter of FY 2024 can be maintained. It will be this contribution from the branded business in FY 2024 that counters the commodity headwinds that we have already explained and take the business forward through FY 2025, FY 2026 and beyond. The bulk commodity business challenges will be with us for the remainder of the year and particularly impact our first half in FY 2024. And we expect our normalized FY 2024 EBITDA will be relatively flat and in the range of $160 million to $170 million. We are pleased with our strategy and the underlying strength of our business and believe we have dealt with external circumstances well in recent years. These have included the impact of COVID-19, significant supply chain disruptions, unprecedented cost increases and then a disconnection between highly volatile dairy commodity prices and farm gate milk prices in Australia. However, the hard work and decisions made ensure we are still in a position to create shareholder value into the future. And we believe that this opportunity is not currently reflected in our share price. We are already starting to see benefits from the restructure program announced in June 2023 and have confidence in the strategic initiatives currently being implemented. I remain confident that within the time frame of our current 5-year strategic plan, FY 2023 to FY 2028, we can expect to increase our EBITDA to $250 million plus with a return on funds employed growing to 10%. This will be primarily driven by our branded business. We think the business, including the changes we will be making to our bulk commodity infrastructure over the next 12 months, will be far less exposed to farm gate milk price volume and volatility. I'm confident we have in place the people, the organizational capability and the business structure in a way that will enable strong growth in the future, not just across our grocery business, but into the non-grocery channels where we're still significantly underplayed. I look forward to the next 5 years with a great deal of enthusiasm and optimism, and I think we will start to see the changes in our business during FY 2024 and beyond. I'll now hand back to Barry.

Thank you, Pete. I'm sure you'll all agree that was a comprehensive outline of the activities that Pete's undertaking in the last year and indeed the way we've been positioning our business. We're now at the part of the meeting where I can take questions. If everybody is okay in the room, I'd like to deal with the ones that we've received earlier first and then -- and that may answer some of the questions that the room has, but then move to answering questions from the floor. I think it is probably fair to say that -- and I would suspect that it extends to everybody in this room that people are disappointed in where the share price sits today. And therefore, some of the questions that we've received are, of course, in that area. We'll talk in the latter part of the meeting around the election of -- or the reelection of Peter Margin and Terry O'Brien. But one of the questions from a shareholder who is clearly disappointed in the value of their shares, and I'll perhaps put them together is, why Peter and Terry were putting themselves forward for reelection in a period where we've seen substantial reduction in value in the share price. And that question then extended to the Board members in general and the CEO in terms of whether we would think that we need to be replaced given the performance of the shares over the last 10 years, but I think what they're really particularly talking about is in the last few years. I'll answer that from here. I think Pete probably mentioned a number of them in his presentation. But I think that anyone that was close to the company over particularly the last 3 years would recognize the extraordinary volatility that is needed to be managed and the stewardship required to manage it. It began, of course, with COVID-19 and COVID-19, an unprecedented set of circumstances, not only around what was happening with our consumers, but what was happening with our entire supply chain across the world, our ability to have goods delivered to us or indeed our ability to deliver goods around the world and in Australia came with significant costs, not to mention the cost of the safety of staff, the disruption of the operations of the business, the disruptions to the customer base, all needed to be managed in a very calm and controlled way. And I think that it's well documented that the business managed that as well as anybody could expect. And we moved very quickly from that to a situation in Ukraine and Russia that created yet more disruption in supply chains, extreme volatility in global commodity markets, some of which you have seen in your daily inputs in things like fuel and energy costs. But also, first, a concern around what global dairy commodity markets might look like in terms of the expectation was that they would decrease, and we were beginning to manage that when, in fact, they increased quite substantially, only to be followed by very dramatic decreases. Again, that had to be managed very, very carefully. When we were seeing those decreases happen, as Pete mentioned in his presentation, we saw we didn't need to pass on the increases associated with farm gate milk price and all other costs and that took some period of time to get that into the market. And as Pete mentioned, the brands, it performed extraordinarily well. Again, cool, calm, experienced heads were required to make sure we manage that circumstance. As we came into this financial year and indeed at the beginning of this calendar year, we saw a major drop-off in global commodity prices, which could not be reflected in farm gate milk prices and was not reflected as we came into FY 2024. Again, how you manage those circumstances requires experience. It requires the experience that comes with having worked through many commodity cycles. It requires the experience of knowing how to react in a domestic Australian branded market and an international market as those variations occur. So I would say that when -- I would probably make 2 comments, and I'll allow Terry and Pete to speak for themselves when their election comes up. But I think this company sits here, still able to perform what Pete outlined to you, the future that we look forward to, the infrastructure that we own and control, the quality brands that we own, mean that we're a very strong company going forward despite the fact that we've had to manage significant volatility, significant volatility, unheard of volatility. It gives nobody any pleasure to see the share price where it is. And as Pete mentioned, we don't think it reflects that opportunity going forward. But we do think that it was careful stewardship that saw us not join the many companies that have come before us that have misstepped in times of pressure and indeed no longer exist anymore. And the important thing for us, as I stand before you at the 124th Annual General Meeting as a company, that a calm head that looks to it to position itself for the future is why we are actually sitting here after 124 years, and that requires experience. That requires combined knowledge and a combined devotion to strategy that is what preserves us to this day. So sorry, that's probably a bit longer answer than I actually expected to give myself, but I think that -- it does need to be directly addressed. I understand that shareholders are disappointed with the share price. And I am one of the shareholders. But I would say that I think the circumstances are well documented and well understood. And it is important that we look forward with the confidence that Pete just outlined. Another question on shares, which is perhaps not one that I can -- that I have the power to do anything about, but the question was, are Bega Cheese shares being short sold? The answer is yes they are at about 5%, which is not -- it's between 4.5% and 5%, which is not a historic high level. We have seen them being shorted much higher. And then the shareholder went on to say, why is short selling even still allowed in Australia given the detrimental effect it has on companies and investors. I probably agree with the shareholder, but I'm not a regulator. So I can't really pass any comment on that. And I don't think the regulator would appreciate me passing comment on it. But I think we're all very aware of what short selling can do to various companies, and it has, in fact, done over time. The only other question that we received from shareholders prior to the meeting was, what more can be done to respond to our climate change crisis. We've outlined some of it there. As I said, we referred to our sustainability report. I think I would make this general comment. The bigger group, because of its long and intimate association with our dairy farmers and indeed, because of our ownership of our supply chain and our full infrastructure, we've always been very focused on sustainability and how we go forward from -- right from on farm -- right through to the final customer. And there are a number of initiatives that we have, internal business that cover everything from packaging to water management to emissions and many others that are outlined in the sustainability report. On top of that, we are the organization that started the Bega Valley Circularity project and are the prime move behind it. And I would say for locals as a launch on the 9th and the 10th of November around the circularity center and the various projects are here. So here, I mean, the reality of that project is that it actually seeks do what has not been done anywhere else in the world, and it seeks to integrate all our activities in this valley from forestry right the way through to the Asterias and fishing industry and everything in between. And that integration will show us how to better use resource. And it's not just about what that project does. I mean there are big and small things that we can all do. When we look at on the Kalaru golf course, I was talking to Tony Allen before it started. Its wastewater management that sees that course look the way it does, and that occurs across the valley, reusing resources to maximize what you can get out of them is one of the key things around circularity. I would say there's much more to do. We are very focused on what we can achieve and what we can lead. But we do need government and regulators to also get on board. It's interesting that sometimes when we're talking about change, we tend to talk about punitive regulation. There are constructive regulations that government can also do. And one of my little pet problems at the moment, if you like, is that the [indiscernible] seaweed. So Australia has the biggest coastline in the world. Seaweed is an amazing product. That is one of the fastest sequesters of carbon that you can get. And it can be used from everything from fertilizer to animal feed to human feed and pharmaceuticals. We don't have a discernible seaweed industry in Australia. And if I have one of our locals here that has tried to start an at-scale seaweed operation in this Valley, which we would say was fantastic, create jobs, create resources in a dry period, probably create a feed source for animals, create fertilizers rather than bring it from around the world, can't get through the regulatory barriers and been trying for 4 years. So we need to make sure that when we think about climate change, we think about the positive things that we can do and how regulation can affect us to the positive things as well as just punitive regulations to try and create a change. So we will -- you can be assured that we will do our best, and you can be assured that we will be doing the work with our suppliers that we need to do. And you can be sure that we'll be doing the work with the community to create innovation and indeed an example for others to follow. So that's all the questions that I've received prior to the meeting. So happy now to take any questions from the floor. Tony?

It's probably 20 years ago since I've been to the meeting. And I remember, Mr. Chairman, I'll start again. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to be here today. It's probably 20 years since I've been to an annual meeting. And the reason for that, of course, is that I was a very, very strong deregulation. [indiscernible] as far as intended value as a business basically when that grow. But as a part of [indiscernible], I hope that I took at this point in time and that's my readmission as far and part of a very [ Simon ] is a very, very committed to the dairy industry, it's for him to remain in the industry and perhaps for his children or whatever to continue, and we thought that [indiscernible], you well know Mr. Chairman to keep those young men out there in our area on farms. But all I'm hearing today is not much different to what I heard 20 years ago. It's about people in the industry who are reactive and not proactive. We hear today a little bit of excuses, reasons why we've had to redesign what we do within the company as a result of the recent milk rise. That milk rise should have been in the system and proactively looked upon years ago. Commodity prices, commodity markets have never been the sage of dairy farmers. The modem in the [ stage ] of companies, they certainly want the [ stage ] of dairy farmers. And the cost of running farms today is no different to the cost of you own the business, Mr. Chairman. We have escalating costs on farms beyond our control. But at the end of the day, the dairy farmer gets what's left over when this company pays all those bills and does all the things that it has to do. And that's the reality. So when I go to the pub on a Friday night and talk to the farmers, we talk about what we call the pub test. Is this company really doing as well as the glossy magazines predict in terms of the pub test? 7.5% -- $0.075 dividend doesn't cut the mustard. The price of the farmers really doesn't cut the mustard in terms of longevity for my son and any of his children. And that's the reality of it. I'm sorry to say that, but that's the reality. So that make excuses being proactive, getting the products that actually return money to the company that can be then transferred back to farmers -- in other words, profitability -- because you can't expect young men and young women to turn up on their farm 7 days a week and receive a price decline as we got this year. Now I know the big adjustment was -- and I congratulate the company for doing it. 12 months, 18 months ago, that was a significant and the best rise we've had since deregulation. And that gave me [ heart ] because I knew then that okay, we might have a chance for the smaller farmers to survive. But this year, the price actually went back. And that business on God's earth could exist in that circumstance. So don't come here making excuses. Come here telling us tell us that we are proactive. We are out there fighting for you. We're going to make extra profits, increasing turnover. The customer base is good, blah, blah, blah. And that if you're a farmer, you have -- you're able to say to your son, stick with it, son, because things are moving forward. I hate to be pessimistic, Mr. [indiscernible] but that's -- I'll tell you for a long, long time to survive and I want my son to survive. And I know you do too Mr. Chairman, but we've got to be proactive.

Thanks for the commentary, Tony. And I think what I would -- quite frankly, I'll respond to that in the only way I can. So you've never seen a business that's more proactive. You've never seen a business change and transform more than this business. That's gone into exactly what you said. Fresh dairy, fresh yogurt, fresh brands. This company has done that. This company is exposed because we are in food products, and we are in agriculture, and I'm not going to sugarcoat things that cannot be sugarcoated. We live in a global supply chain. There is enormous amounts of dairy products being imported to this country as we speak now from New Zealand. You'll say it shouldn't happen. I'll say it shouldn't happen, but it's happening. And if we stepped away from the more emotive thing around, say, a dairy farmer, most dairy farmers are also beef farmers, and we've seen what's happened with the beef markets and the sheep markets over the last 12 months. And to say that you can completely insulate yourself from them would not be genuine by me. But what would be genuine by me is to say that we have transformed the company into fresh products, which Pete's outlined, into brands that we've outlined. This is not about us making excuses. We are not making excuses. There has never been a company more proactive. And as many would know that have a long memory, there's a very large number of dairy companies that don't exist today because they weren't proactive. There is a reason why Bega exists. But I, like you, look to the future. And I, like you, have a son that is running a dairy farm and actually have 6 grandchildren that I would love to see there. So we are, of course, interested in sustainability across the entire supply chain. And as you quite rightly say, that means profitability across the entire supply chain. It is no good if our customers are not making any money because that will not -- that is no good if our consumers are not buying our product. It is no good if the processor is not making enough money to reinvest to grow and be proactive, as you said, and it is no good if the farmer is not making money. That balance has changed over the years. In fact, the latest dairy farm wanted to -- stats show very good positive returns for farmers last year, which is great. That is what we want. What Pete was demonstrating there, which was perhaps missed was that in terms of our branded business and its alignment to the Australian marketplace and the premiums and the profitability from that part of the business, it is strong. In terms of the area, which is why there is an impairment in the commodity part of our business that is more aligned to the international market, it is not strong. And we cannot insulate ourselves entirely from all of that, inclusive of the impact of those lower commodity prices in the Australian market. Now we are seeing those commodity markets start to improve. I think the positive thing that we would say that as far as the farmer is concerned, is that the biggest impacts of those commodity markets have not been felt on farm in dairy, anything like the way they have been felt on farm in beef or in farm on sheep or other areas. But I -- the one thing I would disagree with is the argument about whether we've been proactive or not. I think the whole point of what we've been doing and what we've built has always been about trying to stay ahead of that curve, and I think it's a great demonstration that we've done that. Any other questions?

Good morning, Mr. Chairman. My name is [indiscernible], I'm a shareholder. I've got a question to do with your energy costs because I noticed you have mentioned energy costs, that's where we're talking about electricity, gas, fuel. But there's no indication of what sort of performance or what sort of impact factor. I think would you be able to put a percentage to it rather than a number because I know the number might be...

Yes, yes. Peter, Gunther being here, who's our new CFO. So Gunther or Pete, would you -- I don't know whether you'd like to...

[ 20% to 30%, no more than 30%. ]

Yes. So about a 20% or 30% increase in the year that in terms of energy.

And what was your percentage improvement in lowering our energy costs through your sustainability initiatives and so forth?

What you'll see in our sustainability report is that we actually showed some graphs in that, that's been released over the last 60 days. And our intensity of carbon emissions and energy has fallen by several percentage points. So I have look at [indiscernible] to come out.

Yes. Unfortunately, I haven't read that.

It'll be -- it's in the single digits. So compared to a 20% -- compared to a 20% or 30% rise, the improvement would be in the single digit zone.

Okay. I've got 2 other questions that probably aren't related to financial year '23 per se.

That's fine.

One has to do with the milk workers striking. Are there any impacts there -- expected impacts to Bega?

So if you -- obviously, the current round of strikes which have got a lot of publicity and you would have noticed Bega Group is not in that round.

Correct.

But to be fair, we did have strikes in Penrith. When was it, Peter? About 2 or 3 weeks?

2 to 3 weeks ago.

About 2 to 3 weeks ago. So you did see some supply impacts. Our sites are on separate EBA. So Penrith was an isolated site that went on -- that was on strike 4, 6 days, Pete? Around...

Around 6 days.