Seeka replaces Seeka Kiwifruit Industries, the name dating back to the company’s formation in 1995.
In recent years Seeka has branched out into selling the likes of bananas, avocados, cherries and pineapples and bought a big orchard in south-eastern Australia where it is growing substantial volumes of nashi and European pears as well as kiwifruit.
Seeks had one of the best returns of any company on the NZX over the last two years – up by 95% when dividends were added to share price appreciation – but the name change and refreshed branding were long overdue, chief executive Michael Franks said.
The change expressed the group’s commitment to a growing range of stakeholders.
The new brand-tag “select excellence” was important and the group had spelt out its strategy to be clear about what it aspired to do so it would be motivated to behave in a way that the goals would be achieved.
Seeka now had annual revenues of about $200 million when commission selling was added to its own core activities, after starting out with $8m in 1995.
It was the biggest kiwifruit grower in NZ and now in Australia and one of the biggest post-harvest operators in the NZ industry.
One of the strategy targets was to continue growing in kiwifruit and to increase domestic market share, Franks said.
As well as growing in size and further expanding product varieties, it was also targeting increased earnings per share.
A safety and people focus, value-accretive investments and vertical integration were part of the strategy.
Seeka had 95ha of kiwifruit production in the 240ha of operational orchard land in Victoria and had started new plantings, Franks said.
In the latest growing season, Seeka’s first as owner, it produced 580,000 trays of Green fruit, below budget because of a hail strike shortly before harvest and very hot, dry growing conditions.
“We were still profitable so were reasonably satisfied,” Franks said.
The orchard had access to plenty of water from the Murray-Goulburn irrigation scheme but temperatures in the 43C had an impact.
Nashi pear production in Victoria was 1432 tonnes and there were 1791 tonnes of European pears, which were big volumes.
Seeka had also acquired the Kiwi Crush drinks processing business in NZ and was working out where in the Bay of Plenty a technical centre and processing plant would be established. That was part of the group’s value-added focus.
“It is sold frozen to hospitals for patients in post-operative care and also for people coming through harsh treatments such as chemotherapy,” Franks said.
“We like it that it helps people who are sick.”
At its latest strategy update, Seeka told shareholders after-tax earnings for the year-ended December 31 were expected to be $7m to $8m, up from $4.3m last year. Earnings a share were expected to be between 44c and 50c, up from 29c earlier.
