Although Hamilton expressed pride in the achievements of everybody – staff, farmers and customers – without referring to his own role in bringing the company back from the brink, I am certain his leadership style contributed significantly to the successful outcome of the capital-raising exercise.
Hewett and Hamilton have been the public faces of SFF’s campaign to achieve a workable capital restructure, which must have benefited substantially from their respective merchant banking backgrounds.
They were responsible for maintaining the support of the banking syndicate throughout the search for outside capital and negotiating the many and convoluted hoops the company had to go through before the deal with Shanghai Maling could be confirmed.
Running a business during such an extended period of uncertainty demands continual positivity, whatever is felt inside, and, without any giving reason to doubt his commitment to his role, Hamilton must have experienced a huge sense of relief at getting over the final hurdle in January.
To his credit, he has stuck with the business and, by the time he leaves at the end of the year, will have spent nearly 12 months longer than some might think he needed to.
As I have said on several occasions, the meat industry is tougher than most and success requires a particular combination of skills.
Hamilton’s background with Brierley-owned Huttons and Deutsche Bank provided relevant operational and financial experience, which he appears to have used to great effect, as well as people management skills.
In a company with such a turbulent and high-profile recent history in an industry as unforgiving as meat processing and exporting, the Hamilton and Hewett combination has succeeded in changing what they could change while maintaining the strategic direction towards the customer and the market.
Under previous management and direction SFF had struggled to achieve the desired strategic change above all because of the state of the balance sheet, notably high debt and too much capacity.
The decrease in livestock numbers made it impossible to retain market share and, as a result, plant throughput.
The crucial moment was the insistence by the banks on recapitalisation, which demanded a different set of skills – enter Hamilton, previously chief strategy officer.
Clearly, all options were on the table with retention of 100% farmer ownership preferred by most co-operative members but that was always the least likely outcome because farmers had already shown a lukewarm enthusiasm and capacity for the necessary capital investment.
Without any inside knowledge about the level of interest from other parties, the Shanghai Maling offer was so far ahead of expectations there was really no option.
Then it was a matter of obtaining Overseas Investment Office and shareholder approval, neither of which was without its share of problems.
The intervening period must have been frustrating for board, management and staff, in fact everybody involved who wasn’t anti the deal because nothing could happen until the obstacles had been overcome, deal approved and funds transferred.
In the meantime Hamilton had to provide leadership for the company while also focusing on shareholder meetings that confirmed majority support for the Shanghai Maling proposal.
The highlight of Hamilton’s tenure was the final decision from the OIO which saw the deal being finalised in January this year and he could have been excused for heaving a sigh of relief and signing off at that point.
To his credit he has spent another six months bedding down the new structure.
SFF is now well capitalised and making tangible progress towards its strategic goal of Plate to Pasture as well as being in a position to take some tough but necessary decisions like the closure of Fairton.
As chairman, Hewett has performed precisely as needed to ensure the correct board decision-making process and also deserves great credit for the company’s turnaround but he will probably look back and conclude the best decision was to appoint Hamilton as chief executive.
