Farmlands Acquires NRM

Farmlands Acquires NRM

Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited has announced they have acquired the brand and business of NRM, an iconic New Zealand agricultural brand in the animal nutrition business. Farmlands, in partnership with commercial pig and poultry feed producer Mainfeeds, bought the New Zealand feed milling assets of Viterra, which became available for sale following the global acquisition of Viterra by Glencore.

The purchase will be completed over the next two months.

Commenting on the acquisition, Farmlands Chairman Lachie Johnstone said, “The purchase of NRM will deliver significant benefits to shareholders as part of the co-operatives animal nutrition strategy. Nutrition and water are increasingly recognised as two of the keys in furthering the development of agricultural production. Animal nutrition has a key role in increasing production whilst minimising the impact on the environment. Through our ownership of NRM we will deliver greater value to our shareholders through the economies of scale this acquisition brings to our existing nutrition operations which include the Farmlands owned Reliance and McMillan feed brands.”

Farmlands Chief Executive Brent Esler said, “Farmlands has been a major customer of NRM, and we are also a significant manufacturer of stock feeds in our own right. This will greatly accelerate the development of our national feed strategy to our shareholders following the March 2013 merging of Farmlands and CRT. The NRM volume will deliver major efficiencies in manufacturing and distribution of product nationally, not only to our 55,000 shareholders through the 80 store Farmlands network, but also to all other customers of NRM.”

NRM is one of the largest and most experienced feed manufacturers in the New Zealand market. The business was incorporated in 1889 as Auckland Roller Mills Ltd, and the Northern Roller Milling Company (NRM) name was adopted in 1899.

The Wiri and Levin feed mills are the major assets and these are being purchased by consortium partner Mainfeeds. Farmlands will own the NRM brand and all the associated intellectual property and other milling and blending assets of the company.

Farmlands Chairman Lachie Johnstone further commented, “The addition of the NRM brand will further the co-operatives objectives of delivering greater value to farmer shareholders. As a co-operative all of these benefits are returned to our shareholders through better pricing, and through bonus rebate distributions of the operating surpluses.”

ENDS

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