Seeka Limited (SKLTF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. We were just trying to round up anybody who was late getting here. I'm Mark Dewdney. I'm the Chairman of Seeka. It's my pleasure to welcome you all here this afternoon to our -- we call it a stakeholder update, and we cover a lot of different audiences when we say stakeholders. We obviously have our shareholders, our staff our growers. And so I welcome you all and thank you for joining us today. Before I start, I will ask Turi, to please welcome us with a greeting and a prayer, and then I will come back and lead through the meeting. So Turi.

[Foreign Language] Who have joined us online. [Foreign Language], to all those who have gathered here in this room here today, the stakeholders, the founder, the family of Seeka, [Foreign Language] to all those who have passed since we've last passed our way, we acknowledge them. The likes of Mr. Jim Bulger, acknowledge a great New Zealand. We acknowledge his passing and the contributions he's made to this country. [Foreign Language] to, a great Chief of [ Maiden ] from Tiara and [indiscernible] and all iwi of New Zealand acknowledge him. And to all those from your families, from iwi, from communities who you know, new knew and loved since we last past that way. Our love and condolences go out to them and to all their families. [Foreign Language] to all of us gathered here Wonderful to see us all come together as far now. And today, the founder of Seeka. [Foreign Language].

Thank you very much for that lovely opening. Before I start the formal proceedings, just a couple of health and safety announcements. If the alarms go off or you smell fire or somebody in a yellow jacket comes in and says we in trouble we need to get out of here, then please make your way through the 2 exits here. Knowing Michael, he will be leading. And so just is the short follow, just follow him, and we'll assemble out there. And -- but I'm sure nothing will go wrong today. What I will do first is just run through a very quick overview to recap our business and how our performance has been over the last 12 months. I have a couple of financial announcements to make one, an update on our expected profitability for the year. And second, to just confirm a dividend that the Board has approved today. And then I'll pass to Michael. Michael will give you a complete run-through of the business' financial performance for the half year. and give you an update on various performances around the business and in the market. We'll then have questions and answers, which I'll get Michael to run given that the majority of the questions will probably be directed at him. And then we'll break and we'll have refreshments. So let's make a start. You all know our business well, being closely involved in it. There are 4 main streams to our business, our [ or-chiding ] service, where we lease orchards in our own name, and we manage orchards on behalf of growers. That business is designed to help us to bring supply in to fuel our pack houses as well as to provide excellence in service to the owners of the land who trust us to manage their orchards. The engine room of our business is our post-harvest service, full supply chain business from Orchard through our pack houses and then out to market, either on our own or through our partnerships. With Zespri, we have a fresh business, where we import product. We grow product, and we secure product from growers, and we sell those products into the New Zealand retail market and the Australian and Asian retail and wholesale markets. And then we have our Australian orcharding in [ Pacus ] business that is primarily based around Kiwi fruit that has a range of other different fruits on it. But over time, we'll focus, I believe, more on kiwifruit as we go forward, looking for complementary opportunities to grow kiwi fruit in Australia out of cycle with the New Zealand kiwifruit to odonto the Australian retail market or offshore into other international markets. Our business is founded on kiwifruit. It is the engine room of what we do. But we are also looking to diversify from kiwifruit. We all, as people involved in primary industry understand the risks that come if you have all your eggs in one basket. We will not step away from Kiwi fruit. But over time, I think we will progressively look to carefully and selectively expand our business beyond kiwifruit. When we look at the last 12 months, we're very happy with the performance that we've generated as a business. We're very proud of the work that our extended teams have done our management, our grower partners and our partners right through the supply chain. We've had an excellent operational performance. Our fruit quality has been good in New Zealand and offshore. Michael and some of our team have recently been in Europe. Where they've had an opportunity to have a very close look at fruit in the market and have reported back that overall, the fruit that has been produced, procured and supplied through Seeka is very, very good. Our financial performance has been excellent. 2 years ago, we reported a loss last year, a very good profit. And this year, our profitability is up again. We're continuing to invest. Michael will go through this in terms of our investments in automation, technology and generally improving the productivity and profitability of our operations. And we continue to try to ensure that we are doing the very best job that we can possibly do for all of our growers. Our growers are our life blood, we will only have a business if our grower partners have a strong business, and we are absolutely focused on continuing to strengthen the bonds that we've got with our grower partners. Profitability, we've already announced this to the market. But just to recap, we are currently guiding or signaling to the market that we expect our final net profit before tax for the year to be between $39 million and $43 million. That compares to just under $30 million for the last financial year, and that is an increase in guidance that we've put into the market in recent weeks. And that just reflects the the final quarter's performance has been stronger than we anticipated. Costs are under control margins are coming through as we've expected. It's reflecting the increased orchard gate returns that are being signaled by Zespri, and we're having a good season in Australia. So right across the business, we are tracking well, and we're very pleased with that. And as I said, Michael will go into more detail on that. And finally, from me, today, the Board have approved an additional dividend of $0.10 per share. The record date will be the 19 of December, and that dividend will be paid to shareholders either in cash or as shares through the dividend reinvestment program on the 19 of January next year. That will be imputed to the maximum available level that will depend, obviously, on individual's own tax situations, but we will be putting all the imputation credits on it, that we can. And then I expect that we will have a final dividend announcement, need to be considered by the Board in the new year coinciding with the end of our financial year. But that will be -- is I considered by the Board and announced in the new year. But again, nice to be able to share some of our financial success with our shareholders. We're very happy about that. So -- thank you. That brings me to a close. I'll pass over to Michael and Michael will run through all the details.

Thanks, Mark. First the button. So let me just deviate slightly, if I might, for a moment. I'm sorry, Turi, I forgot to tell you. I just want to acknowledge the passing of Jack price. This week, Jack was a long-term shareholder. a long-term grower. He was a life member of the Seeka [ gross ]. I think they call them a patron -- patron. Him and Jeff were great friends of the company. She quite often used to come through disrupt any productivity that we might have had in the office, and he would stand back sort of chuckling away with as arms folded with a slick bank here that he had. It's a tragic loss, my condolences to the family and Greg. But he is must -- he will be most as a wonderful guy, one for family. So I'm sorry to give you a bad news, but that was just recently this week. Of course, hitting into the 6 months results a little bit old now. It's nice to have the wind at our backs perhaps a little bit. We've been through some hard times, so quite nice to have better results to be able to present to our stakeholders, shareholders and grows. 47 million trays packed pretty much on time, up 10% in New Zealand, 5,700 tonnes of fruit in Australia, up 28% and a very strong kiwifruit performance on the back of a new crop protection program we got running over the year. In terms of our revenue, $308 million in revenue, $83 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization; profit before tax of $59 million, our earnings per share is $0.90. We believe, we've done it. We believe that we've delivered excellent operational performance. Our growers have helped us. We had a very good growing season to be fear. The crop was excellent. Gross gave us nice clean crops to work with. We've had an efficient harvest management system running. Our post harvest was good. KKP machines added a lot to the dimension. We'll talk about what we're doing next, and we've given excellent quality produced to Zespri to the market. Our bank debt is down $131 million is down $40 million on the year earlier. We banked $65 million in July, which largely repaid growers advises. So that further improved our debt levels. And we have been -- and we are building our balance sheet strength and giving the company some resilience in case the tide turns. If it does to, and we don't want to be causing naked. And so we are managing to get our debt down, and we're happy about that. We are still investing though, our capital maintenance program is strong. We've got new automated pack lines in construction now for Kerikeri and [ Hokepek ], both of which are kiwifruit. And we've got a new citrus machine going to Orangewood and Kerikeri as well, gives us both additional capacity, the ability to pack it faster, better, smarter as well as get some cost efficiencies into the system. In terms of profitability, $308 million is up $24 million on June 2024, 10% lift and kiwifruit volumes to our post-harvest hotel for fruit excellent growing seasons of both -- across both New Zealand and Australia, $83 million in EBITDA, up $15 million the year before. Team has done a great job right across the business and optimizing our post-harvest engine, $59.4 million profit before tax compares to $45 million the year before. And we had a $0.90 EPS, which was pretty healthy, to be honest. In terms of the balance sheet, [ $3.7 million ] increase in capital employed compared to the half year and 2024, a $17.3 million increase in rod leased assets which is really investing in coal stores for post-harvest and some infrastructure in Australia. We have decreased the assets held for sale. We have sold the last Orchard in Northland. It has gone -- and while it was still held for sale, it has not held for sale in the books, Sharp Road is still on the balance sheet. It is for sale, but it's no longer categorizes for sale in our accounts. So in total, $562.7 million capital employed in the company. $130.6 million in bank debt, it's $40 million down at the same time last year. We banked just under $65 million in July. Our total facilities is $201 million. We are focused on getting those leverage ratios down. We have focused on making sure we've got headroom in our debt and funding arrangements. And so our team has done a very good job. The company is well placed now as a result of that. EPS $0.90 up from $0.41 in the PCP in the previous corresponding period. There was a deferred tax adjustment last year just to remind you. We've paid $0.30 in dividends to date this year, and there's a $0.10 dividend now announced. Of course, of that dividend, of the $0.30 that were paid, $0.15 relates to last year normally, but we've paid it in the current calendar year. So the $0.15 paid for the current year plus [ $0.10 ] brings us up to [ $0.25 ]. To answer a question that's really on the question sheet, the dividend policy for the Board is to normally pay between 50% and 75% of our tax profits by way of dividends. Take into account all the normal considerations that you would expect a board to take into account debt levels, capital expenditure, outlook for the company, solvency, all of those things. But normally, the Board would consider to pay a dividend of between 50% and 75% of profits after tax. Dividends would normally be paid in April and October, but the Board has decided to pay a dividend out of cycle because company's performance is slightly better than where they expected. And so the right thing to do is make it a distribution back to shareholders. Asset backing per share net tangible asset backing, $6.44 and so up 9%. And can shift at around [indiscernible]. So some movement, some distance between asset backing and share price, I just noted to you only. In terms of looking at the operating segments, I'll run through them quickly for you. I don't want to bore you too long. But in terms of revenue by operating segment orchiding business, $69 million in revenue for the 6 months. post-harvest business, where all the investment is the hotel for fruit in New Zealand, $205 million, $11 million in our retail services business, Seeka Fresh and $22 million in Australia. In terms of our Orchard business, we're growing key-free avocados and kiwiberries in New Zealand. It supplied 41% of the fruit that we handled and our engine room in our post-harvest business this year, our growers -- our contracted growers, our grower, our orcharding managers, all done an excellent job to grow great crops, great crop volumes and what was a good growing season, but still it was delivered and so I acknowledge it. 19.1 million trays of Class 1 kiwifruit in total. Sungold was up 15%, Haywards up 4%. $69.4 million in revenue is up 22% on the previous corresponding period. That's the first 6 months of last year. $9.7 million in EBITDA, up 199%. In addition to all of that, we have 70 hectares of kiwifruit coming into production in [indiscernible] First, real crops will be next year. We touched the edge of it this year and this year's harvest. But next year, we are looking forward to a more meaningful harvest of that Haywood fruit next year. And so that investment that the company has made over a period of years in conjunction with Cana and with iwi. -- will come into production and give us fruit to put into our engine later on this year. And breaking down the 19.1 million those of fruit, 9.8 million trades of SunGold and 8.9 million trades of Haywood. All well up on last year. In terms of the postharvest business, unborne sorry, arching, of course, run by Barry Panel. But in terms of our postharvest business, arranging the arrival of the fruit to our hotel, it's packing storage, putting it away kiwifruit avocados. Houseman is now on contract, Citrus for our New Zealand [indiscernible] generated 66% of our revenue in the first 6 months. It's all about supplying the markets and is where the market are predominantly with high-quality fruit to support the brand. And generate as much money back to our growth as possible. 47.1 million Class 1 trays of kiwifruit, up 10% in SunGold, 9% in the other varieties. $204.6 million in revenue is up 6%, $78.5 million and EBITDA is up 13%. We got 3 new automation projects underway. I'll update you on those again later in this presentation. In terms of Seeka Fresh, our retail services business, that's where we connect fruit to the high-paying market within New Zealand. We're selling the fruit that we grow ourselves or handle for our growers, kiwifruit, avocados, Kiwiberry, and ported Fruit -- can we crush. We also export that fruit -- some of that fruit to Australia for its kiwifruit and avocados or around the world as Avocados and Kiwiberry. So it's very dynamic business. As part of that business, we also import to New Zealand pineapples for papaya and bananas and increasing volumes, and we're getting stronger market returns businesses going very well, $1.5 million in EBITDA, up 39% on the previous corresponding period and continues to grow. Team has done a fantastic job under the stewardship of Kate Brian. During the period, we also acquired the assets of the previous Olivado business, which is an avocado oil manufacturing and marketing business in Northland. To be honest, we pushed into receivership to start with. And we bought the assets out of it under the stewardship of Jim Smith we have now got that business up and running again in Northlanders manufacturing oil now, and we will soon be bringing it through to market. In terms of Australia, John Dampers General Manager in that part of our business. It's all about growing packing and retail in kiwifruit and other Australian produce, European peers Asian peers only nashi, plums and jujube as an integrated orchid to market business, 5,300 -- sorry 5,703 tonnes of fruit last year, up 28%. Business has benefited from the new crop jection program that we have in that part of the world. For those of you who are kiwifruit growers, Actia has been a game changer for us there. So we're pretty happy with how that's running. And just as a current life current state update to you business over the year but break walks out [indiscernible]. So we're very happy with what we're seeing in that part of the world at the moment. Revenue of $22.2 million, up 14%; EBITDA, $6.4 million in 6 months up 32%. We've got new development orders over there as well at [ NZD 12.3 million ] invested in those, and it looks like we will be heading to the first crops across all blocks in Australia next year. really has taken a huge leap forward and we've hit about that. to my final slide, what are we focusing on doing right now? We're really focusing on making sure we're delivering operational excellence, continuing to do that to build our financial results to make sure we've got sustainable returns to our shareholders and to our growth. We are continuing to invest in our capital maintenance program. We've got big work underway in terms of our plant remand switch boards, which I've previously talked about in previous meters. We have invested in 3 new automated pipelines using Remon technology. The first of those is now installed in Orangewood or that is our citrus machine, complete with robot and infeed that is testing at the moment to be commissioned on the 25th of November. The Kerikeri machine is in containers and shipping at the moment from China. So it's on the water, expected to be here in about 5 weeks' time. . It will be installed through December and to be running at the end of December. We are waiting for the build-up to be shipped. It should be shipped from Europe later this week. Along with some other periphery automation that we've got from Europe for that machine as well. Finally, we've got our Hookerpack machine. Hookerpack machine is built. It was laid out in China and the factory. They've got it in testing. They expect to be setting it to us in the next 4 weeks by shipping, we expect to have it with us in December to be installed in January. So -- and all of those time lines are ahead of schedule. None of them are behind. So we're pretty satisfied with where we're at. We're very excited by the technology. We're excited by the speed of deployment that our partner, Reemoon have delivered to us. We're happy with the cost efficiency and the financial dynamic of those investments. We've got no hesitation at all having been through a full diligence process and seeing people and around the world to look at that equipment and technology being deployed. And so really, we're excited by it, gives us both cost efficiencies and gives us some capital expansion as well. So that's the end of my presentation. But I'm happy to take any questions from the floor. I do have some questions that were sent to me. Mark made me do the split because he's got the ability to delegate.

Okay. I'll take one. So I had a question from Selenia Corporation, who's asked me about the clarification updated dividend policy. So Mark has already outlined the dividend has been announced today considered and announced by the Board today and that the next time that the Board will consider it as at end of the year for a dividend in the normal cycle to be announced in February for payment in April, if there was one determined to be payable. And I have outlined that the dividend policy of the Board is to pay between 50% and 75% of NPAT in the normal course of business, having considered all of those matters that you would expect a professional and publicly listed board to consider in making such a determination of such an announcement considering a dividend. I've got a question here about future marketing expansion. Well, at the moment, we don't have too much future marketing plans through expansion. We are focused very much on our Seeka Fresh business and growing that. And we have got momentum in that business and connecting produced through to both the New Zealand domestic market and into the international market. And we have, of course, got our programs in Australia selling Australian produce largely within Australia and only exporting because of capacity or capacity constraints, really. So at the moment, we don't have to -- we don't have anything beyond that. We're fully deployed Jay Jon?

You give any [indiscernible] well discussed. You take on any [indiscernible].

We -- so the question was do -- apart from the internal growth that we described were invested into ourselves, do we pick up any growth from our position. In the normal course of business, JJ, 5% of growers might come and go by web both death and marriages. And so we do pick up growers. We have got an expanding book. We have grown market share. But pretty much when you get to the scale that we're doing, it's hard to grow it significantly. And so pretty much, it's a status quo for the moment. but we're always looking at ways to do it. We're always looking at ways to finance it. We look to wait a big steel borrow or confuse -- and if we can confuse them, we're more likely to give them, I think. But yes, we're always testing our team -- and we've got a team of people who do that. I got a question here about innovation and waste management. It's not only a question just from [indiscernible] asking about that. Well, in terms of waste management, we've got a full sustainability drive happening within the company. we are looking to recycle as much cardboard waste and recyclable waste as we can. We are doing innovative things in and around our bio-waste, the dust, the here, the leaves that we might get when we fiancee and run across the brush rollers. We do have a commercial won farm here on site at Seeka 360. So rather than taking that bio-waste hundreds of kilometers away to dump in a landfill, we stick it through the catalytic bioreactor here at the back of the site, the catalytic bioreactor is on [indiscernible]. We take the wound castings and put it back into the orchard to displace using artificial fertilizer. And it's something which has worked pretty well in diverted waste and putting it back into the ground and actually improving soil health by doing that. So the answer is that we are doing that, Nick, thank you for the question. Take any one or the full before I keep read them out, please. There's a microphone coming.

I'd like to applaud you on your grasping of automation, that's fantastic. One question, however, -- the -- you're relying on Chinese technology, which is probably far better than anything you'll find. But if the world cuts up rough politically, how vulnerable are you a withdrawal support? And can you run these things without them?

Yes, it's a great question. Thank you. As part of the negotiation that we held to bring the new technology into New Zealand, there was a number of aspects that we considered. Firstly, with the installation of these new machines, we've got on site in New Zealand support personnel here from China for 2 years. So onboarding the machine. So for 2 years, their people will be here. They are establishing stores and stocker parts here within New Zealand. And so that's all been handled and actually looking for sites now to buy it, so they can establish those warehouses. As part of the onboarding and the purchase process in the pre-acquisition inspection. We've seen a team of a harvest people including electrical engineers to China to make sure that things like electrical filings were all standard into our electrical standard to make sure that if we did have a problem, we can just take those out and switch them out. So really, most of the machine is, I think, poor best described as generic. Some of the technology they are bringing us like the tri-head cameras out the gate smart. This is like BYD, what BYD is doing to the electric car world, it is beyond smart. It's a lot cheaper than what we could buy [ Euro 4 ], and we're getting state-of-the-art and leading technology with these people. To the extent that if we wanted to make a change with one of the European manufacturers to machine or unit automation, it would take us maybe 18 months together with Reemoon, we get it in 10 days. and we get the next iteration of it tweaked in the next 10 days. And then within 30 days, we've got technology running the way that we want it. And so at the moment, I've got no hesitation staying in front of the stakeholders and shareholders and saying, I believe this to be a very good technology and relationship that we've built. Okay. We've got some more questions?

Just following that for a little bit. Ken may turn it off from a disc in China from -- through the Internet?

So cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a big thing, and they are able to help us because the actual -- the technology is using AI -- and we're actually using AI a lot now with things like inventory management and trying to work our work fruit to ship next to the market. they can't turn the technology off. The way that -- under the contract to the AI will be learning to help us improve how the operations run. I've got another question here asking me about could an indication be given about the new licenses being issued by Zespri and what that might mean on Seeka. And so the answer is we don't know yet at the moment what Zespri is doing in terms of new license release. We know that they are considering new read license release, but we don't know whether they're going to say yes to that yet or not. We are waiting like everybody else. As I understand the new varieties that they are considering, they are complementary within the harvest period that we've got right now. So the target had a certain week when we've got a lull in production. Weeks 15, I think, Kate, I hope she's good nodding over the here. And so we're just waiting to see what will look low to release. Are there any other questions from the floor? We've got one more in front of me I've got a question here about the risks from climate change. And so I might just talk about that slightly wider. The risk from climate change, if you think about it, we are in [indiscernible] climate change now. We're actually experiencing the risks. And say there are new varieties coming now, which are better suited to the growing conditions that we're heading into. And there are new rootstocks being produced that will help us in the case that we have a problem with the part of the plant that goes below the fruiting Scion, the bit with the roots in the ground. I've recently come back from Italy and witnessed the 2 more that they've been through with a new disease they've got the called Maria. They've got completely different growing conditions and completely different sales. But -- and so the issue they've got the, I believe, is specific to the conditions, the soils in the water. But they have developed new rootstock there as well as Bounty and Bounty can handle it, that is actually adapting. So actually, we're in a process of adaptation at the moment in and around climate change. We're in it. Things are changing, growing techniques are changing. And so I think actually we're well placed to continue to counter any risks that we've got from climate change. Are there any last questions before I hand it back to Turi or you. Yes, there was one more keep on going on. I get more than [indiscernible]?

Michael, yes. Given that it appears that Seeka is -- I'm not going to say holding it up, but we're certainly providing a higher quality crop by the time it gets to market. How do you think we could leverage that to either grow seekers market share or improve the profitability of Zespri and grows as a whole. It frustrates me seeing it. You consistently highlight it. I'd just like to know what more could be done?

Yes. Thanks, Alex. And so I might be biased, but genuinely, having just come back from the market you don't need to look at the statistics. You can just look at the fruit. The fruit that were delivered to Zespri, the marketer, the quality is noticeably better and different than what the rest of the industry is delivering. That might be because of our handling technics that might be because we only conventionally handle our fruit. It might be because we've got things like the AI tool running or our processes might be all true. The only way that we'll leverage a benefit out of that is to actually get Zespri to put more costs on poor quality fruit and more incentives on good quality fruits that differentiates itself money talks in our game for grow gets more money because through the handler that delivered a better slice of fruit then we'll get more gross. And so of course, the people who are on the other side of that conversation will be resisting that suggestion at all costs, but that's the way to get there. I've got a question -- I've got 2 questions at the back.

So I'm just mindful of the employment status at the moment. That lots of industries are struggling to keep the doors open because they have staff how Seeka focused in that area. And we having to worry about having -- not having enough pickers and that for our product?

Yes. That's a wonderful question. Thank you. The -- during COVID, this was a desperate place to be employed and a district placed to be the CEO of. We were 1,100 people short on particular days in the season. That has largely turned around. If you come to us during the season, you -- on any given day, you'll get a job. We are largely full. We started this year full before the season had a waiting list. We haven't had that in 10 years. And so the employment situation in New Zealand is completely different. We have -- while we still hire a lot of RSE workers, we're backed off the number that we bring in so that we can hire more New Zealanders. We do occasionally have problems with reliability, but we are doing things to make this like the go to committee prizes, gifts, rewards, attendance, recognition cultural days tomorrow's allowed shutdown the company. And there's all sorts of things happen like that to make it a great employee where people want to be employed and want to work. So at the moment, labor supply is freed up. We don't have an issue with labor at the moment and long mark continue. Nick Read at the backs got a question.

I've got a question online from Ian. So Ian says, congratulations on the great half. Is there any chance of any additional profit upgrades before the financial year ends?

So that's a wonderful question. Today, we had a Board meeting and management has advised the board that we are operating within the range. We need to be reasonably outside the range to have a guidance change -- so at the moment, the guidance is what the guidance is between $39 million and $43 million profit before tax. It will be a record for the company if we can achieve that. And we have had not changed the guidance today. And if we do need to change it, we'll let you know. There's another question.

Yes. So Peter Elenio says asks in terms of core store capacity, does the company have the ability to do much more than it did last season?

Well, Paul crown, Jared bites are about the fit. But the answer is we do have some extra capacity. This year, we -- while we were full for periods, we weren't truly full. We did lease pallets or thereabouts of 3,000 pallets of core store space to Eastpac on a commercial rate on a commercial basis. So there is some more space yet left in the system. We are looking at technologies, which may actually allow us to squeeze more capacity out of the existing footprint before we have to think about building more. We are looking at racking solutions, racking technologies, which would mean the entire coal store is able to have fruit in it without having to have a center or to put forklifts in and out to get the product in and out of that cold store. Understanding, of course, airflow is important and that we would have to work out exactly how we maintain the temperature of the fruit was in those stores. So there may be technologies for us to squeeze a bit more out this only but were at the moment. I've also got a question from [indiscernible] in trust. In fact, what I'll do is I'll go to the [indiscernible] final Trust meeting if I can get myself invited and answer those questions directly because they're more related to trust and background and career and industry and those things rather than a meeting for the stakeholders. Rob, one more go on.

There's been some interesting articles in the paper recently about ways -- to loan the dirty money, in other words, paying employees cash for the work that they do, the cash, of course, having come from the likes of illicit drug sales. Question is, can see be absolutely sure that none of its contractors are involved in these sort of dirty deals?

Okay. So let me give you a reasonable answer and not give you a dishonest one. We have a compliance team and compliance team goes and touches every contractor in this company, touches them for safety, employment practice wage record compliance. And if you want to get paid by us, you have to be cleared by that compliance team, and you will be audited by them. Understanding that you might also be ordered by Zespri, you might also be ordered by the labor inspector and the NBIE, but to be paid by us, you must be audited by our compliance team and they -- find you fit or they will stand you down. And if they send you down, Nicola Neilson Nielsen, the CFO will not pay you. I can't guarantee you that doesn't happen. But I can guarantee you that we are doing everything consistent with making sure that we are abiding by the standards that people expect us to abide by being a publicly listed company where we're steering public money and don't want to be anywhere near that kind of behavior. But I couldn't guarantee completely that it doesn't happen because we're a big company and we're going to cross a wide range. We're doing more than what's reasonable to make sure it doesn't happen. One more, well, it can be as many as you like the beer is going to stay colder it's in the fridge.

As you pointed out, our share price is a bit low at the moment. And you've probably noticed there's been a few takers at a cure market how vulnerable are we? And do you have means of buttressing yourselves?

That's kind of true. But we're less vulnerable today than we were when the share price [ $2.30 ] and the price is up something like 78% in 12 months. And we have paid a dividend and the company has seemingly got some positive momentum behind it. And if you think about New Zealand, really, it's one of the shining lights to be honest in the share market, it's just behind scales. And so I think there's 2 answers. We're always vulnerable people are willing to have a go or benefits of share price, we all benefit. We've got a loyal group of shareholders. We will grow our shareholders. We've got Cornerstone shareholders who enjoy the company, I believe. And so therefore, I don't feel particularly vulnerable, but we were trading at such a discount to [ S-Bank ] and we're making the money, then I guess someone might have a go.

[indiscernible] shareholders will decide.

Yes, at the end of the day, it's up to the shareholders, so correct. I'll hand you back to Mark, if I can sit down. Thanks so much. .

Thank you, Michael, you did that extremely well. Finally from me today, just 3 thank yous. First, thank you to all of our growers. Now we appreciate that you all have a choice of who you work with and who you supply your fruit to and we truly are grateful that you choose to work with us. Michael spoken a lot about quality, quality and having the best quality fruit will be the thing that at the end of the day, protects growers and allows Sika the best opportunity to do well on your behalf. So I just urge you all to continue to focus everything you can on ensuring that you grow and supply us with the best fruit possible, and we will do the same through our business. But thank you for your support, and we look forward to another hopefully very good season next year. Second, thank you to our shareholders. We appreciate and understand that a couple of years ago, our results were -- not good. And we appreciate very much the fact that shareholders supported the business and stood behind the business as we took a lot of steps to sort the issues out that we were facing most of them were driven off a lower volumes, but our debt got too high, and we had to -- we had -- our earnings were not high enough at the time that we had that -- did, it's nice to see the share price appreciating and it's nice to be able to share some of the profitability back with shareholders by way of dividends, but thank you for your support. And finally, thank you to all of our staff, Michael's team and every single staff member that works for us throughout our business in New Zealand and Australia. We haven't got a business without our people. And I wouldn't want to have anybody other than the team that we've got running this business in charge of it. I think we've got wonderful people. They know the business extremely well. Their passion is just questionable, and we saw that today from Michael. So Michael, well done. Thank you to your team. Keep up the good work. On that note, I will ask Turi, to close the meeting, less the food and the drink that we're about to have. And please come and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Thank you.

[Foreign Language] First, for the Chairman to chair, knowledge him for his [ money ]. [Foreign Language] knowing our quarter big on meaning, [Foreign Language] money flying around, [Foreign Language] the final thought, [Foreign Language] may the car be widespread. [Foreign Language] may the color of the sea be the hub of Greenstone. [Foreign Language] may the glimmering and the shimmering of the stars guide us on our way as we leave today. I'll place the food. [Foreign Language] for this food we're about to have. We [Foreign Language] for all the conviviality that we're going to enjoy [Foreign Language], we enjoy it in his name. [Foreign Language], for those online, [Foreign Language] our love and our care and our regards to you, to everyone in this room, [Foreign Language] enjoy the rest of the day.