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Speaker 1: Right now though. It is the story of Sindlay. The

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Speaker 1: dairy company has shaken off its troubles from twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: four and returned to profitability four point eight million dollars.

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Speaker 1: That is the profit it's posted for the first half

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Speaker 1: of the year. That compares pretty favorably with the ninety

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Speaker 1: six point two million dollar loss the company posted last year.

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Speaker 1: Tim Carter is the acting CEO. He's with me now,

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Speaker 1: High Tim, Hey, Ran, how are you good? Thank you?

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Speaker 1: So it's been a very troubling time for you guys.

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Speaker 1: This must be a welcome result, albeit a modest one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look today as really as a positive news day

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Speaker 2: for Cinley. We've announced the return to profitability in the

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Speaker 2: first half, as you've mentioned, and given the position Sinley

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Speaker 2: was in twelve months ago, this really is a considerable

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Speaker 2: commercial achievement and something we're really proud of.

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Speaker 1: How did you do it?

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Speaker 2: Look a heck of a had a lot of hard

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Speaker 2: works gone in but probably four key areas of focus.

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Speaker 2: Our advance nutrition demand has been really strong, which is

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Speaker 2: really pleasing. That's really helped I think our North Onland asset,

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Speaker 2: which has been a real drag on the p and

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Speaker 2: l over the years, we've started to optimize that and

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Speaker 2: although there's a long way to go, that's certainly certainly

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Speaker 2: reduced the losses. So that certainly helped, you know, training

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Speaker 2: conditions across commodities globally. The lead bucket that we talked about,

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Speaker 2: the skim and fat lead bucket, that's there along with

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Speaker 2: FX as has been the other driver, and the fourth

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Speaker 2: one is just prudent cost management. You know, we're really

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Speaker 2: focused on that era in our business and making sure

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Speaker 2: that they were optimizing spend and optimizing our operation.

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Speaker 1: In particular, you mentioned the North Island asset drag. I'm

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Speaker 1: assuming you're referring to Pocono what's happening with it.

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Speaker 2: So look, you know, the big fix there, Ryan is

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Speaker 2: all about volume and new customers, and so what we're

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Speaker 2: be enough to do is really target that plant for

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Speaker 2: advanced nutrition. And what that's meant is we we've no

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Speaker 2: longer taken a raw milk into that facility. By doing that,

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Speaker 2: it's allowed us to reset our cost space. And right

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Speaker 2: side that, what we've also done is through new customers,

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Speaker 2: we've got a little bit more volume through that plant,

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Speaker 2: and so that's certainly helping us. As I said, the

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Speaker 2: real silver bottlers, get more volume through that plant, the

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Speaker 2: efficiencies will come and then we ideally we want to

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Speaker 2: get that into a positive contributing factory.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, does it make sense to have it as a

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Speaker 1: non milk product factory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, you know right now that is the right

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Speaker 2: option for us. As I said, it stops the decline

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Speaker 2: or stops the losses or reduces them. So that is

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Speaker 2: the right decision. And look, we look at our customer

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Speaker 2: based on our new business development in particular, we bring

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Speaker 2: that in and through a funnel. And look, we have

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Speaker 2: some really good customers that we're qualifying right now, but

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Speaker 2: I think in twenty twenty six if we can realize

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Speaker 2: them and that demand, some of that volume will go

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Speaker 2: through there. So it absolutely makes sense.

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Speaker 1: For now you've said, and you said it reduces the losses,

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Speaker 1: not stops the losses. So presuming it's still loss making,

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Speaker 1: is it for sale? Would you sell?

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Speaker 2: Look like anything? Right now, we're not actively selling it,

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Speaker 2: but sure if a credible offer came in, would certainly

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Speaker 2: recommend the board considerate. But you know that's more of

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Speaker 2: a hope strategy right now. As management, our job is

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Speaker 2: to increase the demand, optimize the cost, base and get

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Speaker 2: it back to profit.

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Speaker 1: Fair enough. Now let's talk about the suppliers. How many

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Speaker 1: suppliers are still wanting to get out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think what's interesting there our farmer progress

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Speaker 2: is you go back six months ago, we probably had

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Speaker 2: a milk crisis. Right now we're in a really good

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Speaker 2: position when we look at the twenty sixth season. You know,

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Speaker 2: we have ample milk next year coming our way when

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Speaker 2: we go to twenty seven and we can now say

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Speaker 2: that we have a majority of our milk in the

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Speaker 2: South Island no longer undersease, which is really promising. And

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Speaker 2: we also have a lot of interest from new milk

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Speaker 2: down here in the South Island, whether that's coming from

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Speaker 2: existing farms with different processes or interesting enough conversions. There

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Speaker 2: seems to be a few conversions in the pipeline down

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Speaker 2: here as well, and that really interested in our in

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Speaker 2: our offer and what's something they can do for them. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're really confident we have momentum. What's really

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Speaker 2: important for those farmers that that have that are still

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Speaker 2: under ceased was today's announcement. You know, the feedback has

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Speaker 2: been that, you know, we just want to know that

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Speaker 2: that you're doing well. You're back on track and is

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Speaker 2: the future. So you know, this announcement today will certainly help.

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Speaker 2: That will help give those farmers confidence. And we're looking

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Speaker 2: forward to the next week and seeing those cease ceases

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Speaker 2: being pulled over the over that period.

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Speaker 1: Do you that's what you're hoping will happen. Have you

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Speaker 1: had any indication yet since announcing today's result that that

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Speaker 1: will happen?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And you know, every every hour, every day, Ryan,

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Speaker 2: that number of changes in terms of what's coming. And

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Speaker 2: so we are very confident in terms of those ceases.

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Speaker 2: And remember we have a majority right now that is

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Speaker 2: not under cease. It's about closing out the rest.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And what about Donald Trump? Do you lie wake

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Speaker 1: at worrying about him and his agricultural tariffs?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, I think you know there's so much under

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Speaker 2: on there, Ryan, But is you know what is going

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Speaker 2: to happen around taris what does that mean globally? And

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Speaker 2: then what does that mean for supply and demand? You know,

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Speaker 2: everything from tariffman in US probably even through the foot

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Speaker 2: and mouth out of Europe. And what does that mean

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Speaker 2: and if that spreads further, what can that do to

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Speaker 2: mill flows in Europe? And then ultimately what does that

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Speaker 2: do for supply globally? So those are all I think

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Speaker 2: anymal process in New Zealand right now I was watching that.

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Speaker 2: I think we're well placed to navigate that, but it

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Speaker 2: is obviously an ongoing concern coming.

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Speaker 1: This is first half, Obviously second half looking not well.

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Speaker 1: Things aren't looking great for the full year. Would it

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Speaker 1: be fair to say no.

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Speaker 2: No, I don't think that's fair to say. I think

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Speaker 2: what we're what we're trying to say here Ryan is look,

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Speaker 2: the second half won't be quite as strong as the

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Speaker 2: first half, but overall the EBITDA performance for the full

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Speaker 2: year will be a significant improvement year on year, and

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Speaker 2: I think that's really important. You know, we do have

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Speaker 2: some headwinds, so talk about the mickstream returns that swapped

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Speaker 2: from a skimm and fat lead bucket through to a

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Speaker 2: whole book lead bucket, and so that just presents a

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Speaker 2: few headed winds. But the key messages is the end

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Speaker 2: of year is still looking really really promising. It just

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Speaker 2: won't be as strong as the first stuf.

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Speaker 1: All right, Tim, Nice wrapping with you there. Tim Carter,

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Speaker 1: acting sin Lea's CEO with us returning to profit.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

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