Silver Fern Farms & PGG Wrightson Meat Industry Merger Approved

Farmer shareholders of the producer cooperative, Silver Fern Farms, have approved a merger with PGG Wrightson, a stock and station agent, to vertically integrate part of the New Zealand meat industry.

The hybrid business organization will meld the farmer cooperative, SFF, with a 60 years-long history of sheep & beef meat processing & distribution into export markets with the stock exchange listed corporate PGG Wrightson, itself a merged entity over the years of several major stock & station agent firms that engage in livestock procurement for freezing works as well as selling farm inputs, transacting rural real estate, and lend working capital to farmers.

A SFF-PGGW entity will vertically integrate the supply chain "from plate to pasture" with livestock purchase contracts being secured between farmers and PGG Wrightson agents to supply SFF meat works. The use of "from plate to pasture" is mean to symbolize a more demand-driven perspective of the new company, though in practice it will still be a supplier so a more accurate, not to mention logical, slogan would be "from pasture to plate".

Vertical Integration of new meat company, SFF & PGG Wrightson Summary of Business Case, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2008. click pic for larger image

Silver Fern Farms barely secured the required 75 percent super majority of farmer shareholders required to approve the merger, with a 75.62 percentage vote in favour.

The new entity will have a 50:50 share capital split between SFF and PGG Wrightson. PGG Wrightson's NZ$220 million payment will provide a capital injection that boosts shareholders funds to $510 million and the equity ratio to 80 percent. Offseting this is the potential loss of farmer control. While farmers will have a 50 percent representation on the new board, farmers are unlikely to vote as a bloc, based on historical experience, and the separation of ownership from control phenomenon may be expected to bias board control towards the PGG Wrightson bloc over time where its directors on the new board may be expected to speak with one voice in favour of PGGW interests.

The New Zealand meat industry has been trading in a tough global environment in recent years. Sheep numbers have fallen from a peak of 70 million in the early 1980s to just over 40 million. High interest & exchange rates, increasing production costs, and excess processing capacity, have reduced the profitability of meat exports.

SFF and another meat processor, Alliance, had contemplated a horizontal merger of meat processing facilities to reduce excess capacity but those talks broke down. The executives of the new SFF-PGGW entity have indicated that they would consider further consolidation of the industry with Alliance to improve the profitability of the meat export sector.

Early Arrival of Godwits - Kuaka at Christchurch Estuary

The Press in Christchurch reports that the first godwits have arrived from Alaska at the Avon-Heathcote estuary some two weeks earlier than expected, causing concern as to why they left their northern hemisphere grounds so soon.

Feeding sites used by the birds on their way north to Alaskan breeding grounds have been steadily eroded by human development in recent years.

So far some 122 birds have been recorded arriving at the Estuary in recent days. Since the non-stop trans-Pacific flight commonly totals 11,000 km, the new arrivals are reported to be eating ravenously to regain body weight loss.

Pasifika English - New Zealand

Pasifika English

A similar adaptation of English, as Maori have done, by Pacific Island communities in New Zealand, such as Samoan, Cook, Nuiean, and Tongan, results in Pasifika English with additional influence on younger Pasifika English (and Maori) speakers from African-American hip-hop. More here

The New Zealand animated TV series Bro'Town captures some of the Pasifika English dialect:

Bro'Town clip

Another Bro'Town clip addresses the interface between social services & Pasifika peoples.




And another one on race relations, that have not always been cordial, between Maori & Pasifika peoples:

Maori English - New Zealand

One of the developments that can occur when an indigenous people's language is lost over time and a foreign language is adopted by the indigenous people is that in the process of adopting the majority language the group creates its own characteristic form in the new language, that is, a new dialect influenced by their former language. See a full discussion here.

The late, great Billy T James, Maori entertainer and comedian, recalls his bro' Prince Tui Teka:

Prince Tui and the Takeaways video

And Billy T James in one of his Te News skits, delivers the news in Maori English:



And a further clip, with a weather segment bonus:

The Kiwi Accent - It's A Changing...

The Kiwi accent - a primer - and how Kiwis are throwing off the cultural cringe of trying to parrot the Queen's English:



TVNZ One News, 24 May 2007

And a less "scholarly" take on the Kiwi accent pointing out some of the distinctive characteristics of the Kiwi accent and distinguishing it from the Aussie accent. Don't confuse the two, or you'll hear about it...


March 2008

Flight of the Conchords to Ground TV Series

The Flight of the Conchords - the music-comedy duo of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement from Wellington, NZ - have indicated to British magazine Q that the second series of their HBO show Flight of the Conchords currently being filmed in New York is likely to be their last. Both performers wish to broaden their horizons with new ventures in music, acting, and script writing.

Q magazine said the pair were the "cult hit of the moment", "New Zealand's biggest export since those films about hobbits".

It's Business Time for Bret and Jemaine:

Canterbury Cricket Want Hagley Oval as Test Cricket Venue

The Canterbury Cricket Association (CCA) and New Zealand Cricket want Hagley Oval located in Hagley Park to serve as the CCA’s headquarters and the provincial and test cricket venue in Christchurch.

They'll have to move the sheep first.... Actually, this is North Hagley Park, the Oval is in South Hagley Park and the sheep are long gone. Postcard by Muir & Moodie circa 1905

Christchurch has been denied a test venue since Canterbury cricket was no longer able to use Lancaster Park, now AMI stadium for its games or for test cricket over a decade ago. Since then Canterbury games have been played at QE II's Village Green – a wind swept, sunburn bowl.

Canterbury Wizards v Northern Districts, Jan 6 2007 at the QE II Village Green

Moving the venue back closer to the centre of the city would be a return to the location of Canterbury cricketing activity at the club level over many decades. Spectators might enjoy some more tree shade too.

Perhaps too the cricketing elite will be more comfortable back in Hagley, adjacent to the Christ College sports grounds, and away from the less affluent suburbs of the north-eastern coastal suburbs. The well-heeled will have an easier time of it coming in from the upper class neighbourhoods of the north-western suburbs and be able to enjoy their cricket in a more "English-like" setting. Christchurch is still a class-divided town.

The CCA says Hagley “will be a Cricket Oval not an Entertainment Venue with AMI Stadium continuing to host International One Day and Twenty20 Internationals. At Hagley, we envisage low grass embankments and sympathetic refurbishment of the existing buildings for facilities and to house Canterbury Cricket’s offices.”

The Christchurch City Council will hold a meeting on September 11 to consider whether to recommend the Hagley Oval be adopted as Canterbury’s cricket venue.

Let's hope the Christchurch Council & Canterbury Cricket don't hit their stumps on this one...