Speaker 1: Joda and welcome to Shared Lunch, brought to you by
Speaker 1: Chasis with Business Desk. My name is Rebecca Stevenson, senior
Speaker 1: journalist at Business Desk. Today we take a look at
Speaker 1: a favorite company of Chasy's investors, freight and logistics giant
Speaker 1: Main Freight, to talk about Watson store for the year
Speaker 1: ahead after some challenging times. We're joined by Main Freight
Speaker 1: Managing Director Don Breit.
Speaker 2: Investing involves risk you might lose the money you start with.
Speaker 2: We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. We also
Speaker 2: recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest. Everything
Speaker 2: you're about to see and hear is current at the
Speaker 2: time of recording.
Speaker 3: Welcome down.
Speaker 1: It's great to have you here in the studio. What
Speaker 1: people will be really keen to know about. What do
Speaker 1: you see as the state of play for the environment
Speaker 1: for main freight now? And has that deterioration in international
Speaker 1: freight rates and domestic freight tonnage turned.
Speaker 3: I think it's changed. I think we're getting back to
Speaker 3: some normalization after you know, terribly strong peak of freight
Speaker 3: tonnage movements over twenty two and twenty three. It's a
Speaker 3: hard road right now. Across most markets. There's no doubt
Speaker 3: that the state of the economy, state of retail has
Speaker 3: curtailed the amount of volume that's moving. But frankly that's
Speaker 3: good for us. You know, during twenty two and twenty three,
Speaker 3: we had far too much on We moved far too
Speaker 3: much freight for the sake of our people and for
Speaker 3: our customers, and service levels win as good as what
Speaker 3: we would like them to be. So to get back
Speaker 3: to some state of normality is a good thing.
Speaker 1: How important are those service levels to the business, And
Speaker 1: you know, we're you getting any feedback from customers through
Speaker 1: that period.
Speaker 3: Or services everything. Our quality is what we stand for,
Speaker 3: so we've got to get it right every time. You're
Speaker 3: only as good as your last delivery, as we would
Speaker 3: say to the team. So for us, it was a
Speaker 3: combination of things. You had such volumes of freight that
Speaker 3: you couldn't get space on shipping lines or airlines. You
Speaker 3: couldn't have enough warehouse space, so we had to have
Speaker 3: overflow warehousing to take care of that volume. And then
Speaker 3: the domestic line or requirements. You know, there wasn't enough
Speaker 3: rail wagons, there wasn't enough trucks on the road. There
Speaker 3: wasn't enough coastal shipping, so that caused delays and that
Speaker 3: upset customers, There's no doubt about it. But a lot
Speaker 3: of our customers were grateful, they were understanding and they
Speaker 3: realized that we were performing as best as we could
Speaker 3: in the environment.
Speaker 1: You've obviously mentioned their rail and that's you know, been
Speaker 1: a really huge story, I guess with iraqs and the
Speaker 1: kind of announcements and non announcements that have happened there.
Speaker 1: You know, what do you see as being a good
Speaker 1: outcome now for that scenario, Well, to.
Speaker 3: Get a decision would be good, wouldn't it. You know. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: we're all sitting in a question mark and there's certainly
Speaker 3: something that main for it doesn't like to do sit
Speaker 3: in a question mark, so we would like to understand
Speaker 3: where it's heading. Unfortunately, I think we've got politicians that
Speaker 3: think they know better than those using rail. Rail is
Speaker 3: a big part of what we do and we see
Speaker 3: it as an important part of the transport infrastructure of
Speaker 3: this country. Unfortunately, we've got politicians and bureaucrats who perhaps
Speaker 3: think they know.
Speaker 1: Better, and have you had conversations with you know, the
Speaker 1: Finance Minision, the people making those decisions and what are
Speaker 1: you telling them or what would you like to tell them?
Speaker 1: Who the financement, Well, they.
Speaker 3: Have I mean they have not made contact and they
Speaker 3: you know, I guess it's the way they behave. I
Speaker 3: suppose they think they do no better rather than the
Speaker 3: businesses that are at the cold face. And it's just
Speaker 3: not us, it's our customers and our competitors who I'm
Speaker 3: sure could offer some good advice as to what they
Speaker 3: should do. But no silence is golden.
Speaker 1: So you'd like to see, you know, investment though, and
Speaker 1: some sort of security around.
Speaker 3: Rail well there needs to be some investment in particularly
Speaker 3: the Crook Straight Fairies. I mean, the current fairies aren't
Speaker 3: going to last much longer than twenty twenty nine. The
Speaker 3: port infrastructure has got a problem definitely, and picked in
Speaker 3: the napire Port is put forward to the government. We
Speaker 3: understand an interesting proposal about what could be done in
Speaker 3: terms of the Wellington port infrastructure for the rail fairies,
Speaker 3: but to date I don't think was you know, they
Speaker 3: haven't heard anything back from the government either, So you know,
Speaker 3: as I say, it's not just main fraid, it's also
Speaker 3: our competitors and other port players who can offer some
Speaker 3: good advice and some perhaps some views on what should
Speaker 3: be done for the long term, but at this point
Speaker 3: in time they don't appear to be listened to.
Speaker 1: It's obviously probably quite a sort of fundamental basics sort
Speaker 1: of part of the infrastructure that you need. But you've
Speaker 1: also seen, you know, a lot of developments. I guess
Speaker 1: around in terms of technology for freighting. You know, what
Speaker 1: are some of the innovations that you're seeing in the
Speaker 1: industry and also that you know main freight is adopting
Speaker 1: or looking at.
Speaker 3: Oh, the technology continues to evolve. I mean, if we
Speaker 3: go back to the early days in the early nineties,
Speaker 3: we had phone tracking and you know that was innovative
Speaker 3: at the time. But today, you know, we're have got
Speaker 3: technology on the dock, we have technology in the trucks.
Speaker 3: We're using AI to try and find efficiency for our
Speaker 3: customers and warehouses and across the supply chain. So it
Speaker 3: continues to evolve. It's exciting and our people love embracing it.
Speaker 3: I still think we probably spend more money on it
Speaker 3: than IBM. But as such as life in terms of
Speaker 3: what we.
Speaker 1: Do for our customers and what are some of the
Speaker 1: ways that you're looking to use AI or are using
Speaker 1: AI at the moment.
Speaker 3: Well, we can look to trends in terms of freight volume,
Speaker 3: and when freight VI in moves, we can look to,
Speaker 3: you know, perhaps where AI thinks shipping rates and air
Speaker 3: freight rates might go. It's just the trend that AI
Speaker 3: can provide for us. It gives us another tool to
Speaker 3: use on behalf of our customers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite interesting. It does seem to be a
Speaker 1: lot of that kind of predictive tracking. You know that
Speaker 1: in a lot of businesses, AI is actually a bit
Speaker 1: more fundamentally useful than perhaps the sort of more elusive
Speaker 1: ideas that are out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's useful. You know, we certainly wouldn't
Speaker 3: reject using AI. It has a role to play. You know,
Speaker 3: how deep that delves into the business of ours and
Speaker 3: of our customers remains to be seen. But while it's
Speaker 3: available and providing us with useful information data analysis, it's
Speaker 3: it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: And if we could talk just a little bit about
Speaker 1: your you know, divisions. You've obviously got transport, warehousing, air ocean.
Speaker 1: What's been happening in terms of those businesses? Are you
Speaker 1: seeing any difference I guess in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: freight volumes or waiting through your divisions.
Speaker 3: No, not really, I mean all three work together. And
Speaker 3: I guess where the big difference lies is that we
Speaker 3: need to build new warehouses, either own warehouses or for
Speaker 3: that matter, lease new warehouses, and we continue to increase
Speaker 3: the size of the warehouses that we have. We're learning
Speaker 3: all the time that we can't run with small warehouses.
Speaker 3: And we've just opened our latest warehouse in Sydney and
Speaker 3: more Bank, which is served by rail from the Port
Speaker 3: of Sydney to electric straddle carriers for the container to
Speaker 3: be placed at the door. It's capable of holding sixty
Speaker 3: six thousand pellets of product on behalf of our customers,
Speaker 3: and then we're using that as efficiently as we can
Speaker 3: for distribution of freight throughout Australia. I've just come back
Speaker 3: from Dallas and our warehouse there is two thousand square
Speaker 3: meters and yet you know when we look to our
Speaker 3: competitors in Europe that are building warehouses ninety thousand square meters.
Speaker 3: So we've got a long way to go, but it
Speaker 3: plays an integral part of the supply chain for our customer.
Speaker 3: What's in our warehouse then gives us the ability to
Speaker 3: either control the air freight and the seafret into the
Speaker 3: warehouse and of course the outbound in terms of transportation
Speaker 3: to the retail store.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Australia there of course and Sydney. You know,
Speaker 1: you have had the stated ambition around Australia of wanting
Speaker 1: to grow the business bigger than New Zealand. How is
Speaker 1: that tracking you know, And are there any sort of
Speaker 1: potential opportunities that you see in Australia and what are
Speaker 1: the issues for main freight?
Speaker 3: Oh well, of course I'm not sure. It's an ambition
Speaker 3: and being a proud key that we don't want the
Speaker 3: Aussies to be bigger than the New Zealand business, but
Speaker 3: it's just a matter of size of the market and
Speaker 3: it was always going to come. And the team in
Speaker 3: Australia have done a marvelous job of growing business and
Speaker 3: in fact, in this current financial year they will be
Speaker 3: bigger than the New Zealand business for the first time ever.
Speaker 3: And you know, frankly, we still have us for small
Speaker 3: market share, so we've got a lot more to grow.
Speaker 3: It's exciting. We're intensifying their network throughout Australia. We've found
Speaker 3: a nice little niche for ourselves and are providing good
Speaker 3: services for our customers. That could be better. We've got
Speaker 3: a long way to improve our profile, but it'll come.
Speaker 3: And those that said to us in the early two
Speaker 3: thousands to come home because we couldn't get Australia right,
Speaker 3: we're wrong. And you know, we have found our way there.
Speaker 3: And I think if you look at what we're doing
Speaker 3: in America and Europe, we're probably in the early stages
Speaker 3: in the US, like we were in the early stages
Speaker 3: in Australia in the early two thousands. So all three
Speaker 3: of those markets have potential for growth for the business.
Speaker 1: A lot of people like to pick up on New
Speaker 1: Zealand companies that have kind of founded in Australia or
Speaker 1: found it difficult. You know what differences I guess do
Speaker 1: you see in the Australian market, And how do you
Speaker 1: see that mainfreight is succeeding? There is anything that you're
Speaker 1: doing differently.
Speaker 3: We're passionate, we're ambitious, We've got great people working for us.
Speaker 3: I think the lesson we learned in Australia is that
Speaker 3: you need Australians running the Australian business and that's helping
Speaker 3: us as we grow around the world. We learned some
Speaker 3: valuable lessons by being in Australia in the early days.
Speaker 3: But it's just a matter of making sure that you
Speaker 3: look after the customer and that your integrity stays intact
Speaker 3: and you do as you promise. And I think our
Speaker 3: team there have been marvelous at growing the business and
Speaker 3: as I say, we're really only just scratching the surface
Speaker 3: of what that market's got available to us.
Speaker 1: We've also gone into India. How's that going? And you know,
Speaker 1: what differences do you see there as well? Or are
Speaker 1: you just applying that same You need local people mindset.
Speaker 3: Well, it took us five years to get ourselves open
Speaker 3: there and the bureaucracy of the paperwork is unbelievable. But
Speaker 3: again we needed a local that we could trust, that
Speaker 3: could grow the business for us, that we had respect for.
Speaker 3: So that took time to find that individual and it's
Speaker 3: slowly slowly as we find our feet there. It'll take
Speaker 3: a long time before we've got something of size, but
Speaker 3: at least we're established. It's main threat. It's trading with
Speaker 3: the rest of the main threat network around the world.
Speaker 3: And it's we see it as having potential just like
Speaker 3: China did in the early days.
Speaker 1: And are you able then to just offer that, you know,
Speaker 1: to your existing customers in areas where main freight already
Speaker 1: is Is that an sort of value add on country
Speaker 1: that your customers wanted to see.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's no doubt about that. In fact, making sales
Speaker 3: calls in America just last week, you know, it was
Speaker 3: during some a number of the conversations with these potential
Speaker 3: customers who just added that we've opened in India or
Speaker 3: they've opened in India, and did we have the ability
Speaker 3: to help them out in India? Now we can't do warehousing,
Speaker 3: we can't do transportation, but we can provide them with
Speaker 3: their in ocean services. And it comes as a surprise,
Speaker 3: i think to a lot of them that hear this
Speaker 3: little business from New Zealand's actually got its foot hold
Speaker 3: in twenty seven countries around the world, and India is
Speaker 3: one of them. But it's part of the network that
Speaker 3: we have, which we are trying to intensify that network
Speaker 3: around the world as we grow, and it'll take time.
Speaker 3: We have a one hundred year horizon, so we're not
Speaker 3: in any rush. But as we open in each in
Speaker 3: a new country. It provides new opportunities for us.
Speaker 1: Who else is on the horizon? Are there any other
Speaker 1: jurisdictions or countries that you'd like to be in?
Speaker 3: You know, the Nordic region is certainly attractive. We're in
Speaker 3: the Americas, of course, Canada, Mexico, Chile, but we don't
Speaker 3: feel like we've actually found our feet, particularly in Mexico
Speaker 3: or Canada, or for that matter, of America. I mean, well,
Speaker 3: I think we've got seventy two locations across America, but
Speaker 3: still relatively small. If you convert the revenues that we've
Speaker 3: got in America to New Zealand dollars, that's a billion.
Speaker 3: So in New Zealand terms it's quite large, but in
Speaker 3: American terms it's really small. I think the biggest competitor
Speaker 3: there has revenues in the mid twenty billion mark. So
Speaker 3: we've got a long way to go.
Speaker 1: And you know, what is it like there? You know,
Speaker 1: going to the US Because a lot of people say,
Speaker 1: you know, New Zealand companies need to be ambitshias and
Speaker 1: just get there and go there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good advice, but I think if you get
Speaker 3: something half right, but you need to be prepared that
Speaker 3: you can service the whole market. So I would suggest
Speaker 3: some caution about how big and how quickly you try
Speaker 3: and grow in America. And that's certainly been our problem,
Speaker 3: as customers have asked us if we have a network
Speaker 3: across the country. We've developed it, but don't necessarily have
Speaker 3: enough freight to fill it. So those are teething problems
Speaker 3: for us. And as I said earlier, I think it's
Speaker 3: a bit like what we had in Australia in the
Speaker 3: early two thousands. It'll just take time for us to
Speaker 3: grow that market.
Speaker 1: Would you do partnerships in the US to try and
Speaker 1: you know, bolster your offering there.
Speaker 3: We're not We don't have a closed mind to partnerships,
Speaker 3: but we're not the best of partners. We are pre
Speaker 3: strong on who we are and what we stand for.
Speaker 3: You know. Part of that network intensification is pick it
Speaker 3: up on a blue truck, delivered on a blue truck.
Speaker 3: So we don't necessarily want to be dealing with agents
Speaker 3: who don't think like we do, who don't necessarily have
Speaker 3: the same service levels. It's the same ethics, the same
Speaker 3: integrity as what we think we have.
Speaker 1: But never say no capital expenditure. If you're looking to
Speaker 1: spend what are you going to be spending on.
Speaker 3: Well, we've said to the market it's two hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty million this year, two hundred and fifty million next year,
Speaker 3: and I think they would be right, the Annusk community
Speaker 3: would be right to carry that through for the next
Speaker 3: couple of years after twenty six. That's investing in the
Speaker 3: network that's at this point in time. That most of
Speaker 3: that is New Zealand and Australia. A brand new facility,
Speaker 3: cross Dock facility and Brisbane being built and new cross
Speaker 3: stocks actually here in New Zealand, Hastings Nelson just completing
Speaker 3: completed some new sites here in Auckland, so plenty on
Speaker 3: and it's exciting because actually when you have a new facility,
Speaker 3: you're attracting new freight growth and new customers and that
Speaker 3: just you know, the shareholders should look at. That is
Speaker 3: confidence that we have in terms of growth and how
Speaker 3: we feel about the future, which is quite positive.
Speaker 1: You've had a really strong track record I guess on
Speaker 1: sustainability and you know, talking about and being reporting about
Speaker 1: what you're doing. I mean, yeah, there been any interesting
Speaker 1: surprises that have come out of that work. For you
Speaker 1: and what do you see the kind of key challenges
Speaker 1: for mainfreight in terms of that sustainability picture.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the interesting thing is that we haven't
Speaker 3: actually got on our soapbox and shouted about what we
Speaker 3: did from a sustainability point of view. If you look
Speaker 3: at what Bruce did in the early days, he was
Speaker 3: always recycling wooden palettes and plastic and the likes in
Speaker 3: each of the facilities, and then he found a water
Speaker 3: tank light which was an old milk tank lying on
Speaker 3: the side of the road and thought about recycling water
Speaker 3: off the roof. And today that's a big part of
Speaker 3: what we do with our new facilities. If you think
Speaker 3: about the new sites in Dandinong, the new site in Adelaide,
Speaker 3: the sort of eighty to eighty five percent off grid
Speaker 3: for solar power and water, and the new sites in
Speaker 3: Dallas and Chicago are exactly the same. Mind you, the
Speaker 3: Texans thought that we were nuts putting solar on the
Speaker 3: roof when they're pointing to the ground saying that's where
Speaker 3: the gas is. But it's our view about what we
Speaker 3: can do and what we can control in terms of sustainability,
Speaker 3: and if we had more companies particularly here in New
Speaker 3: Zealand that actually recycled the water off there, if we
Speaker 3: wouldn't have a problem with shortage of water during drought years. Anyway,
Speaker 3: for us, there's plenty of challenges. I mean, we are
Speaker 3: running electric vehicles around town in some of the major
Speaker 3: cities in New Zealand and Australia, but we can't get
Speaker 3: electric vehicles to run efficiently long haul. You know, we're
Speaker 3: still waiting on Tesla's long haul vehicle to operate in
Speaker 3: the States. I think we've had an order place now
Speaker 3: for three years. Still nothing on the horizon. We've got
Speaker 3: two electric trucks to what they call draage off the
Speaker 3: wharf in Long Beach. We've been waiting six months for
Speaker 3: written it's just been for both of them and they've
Speaker 3: been delayed another month. So it's frust that's frustrating for
Speaker 3: us because we would like to be more efficient in
Speaker 3: terms of sustainability across the supply chain for our customers.
Speaker 3: I think the other interesting thing is the legislation that's
Speaker 3: changing in Europe. If you are a company that owns
Speaker 3: or employees two hundred people or more, you have to
Speaker 3: report your emissions carbon emissions from next year on. It's
Speaker 3: a legal requirement. And therefore what we have done and
Speaker 3: what we've reporting is turning heads in terms of customers
Speaker 3: and looking to I suppose supply chain experts like ourselves
Speaker 3: who are taking sustainability seriously.
Speaker 1: So it becomes a key selling point.
Speaker 3: You think there is absolutely no doubt. And in fact,
Speaker 3: a sales call we made in New York a couple
Speaker 3: of months ago, we produced our sustainability report on paper,
Speaker 3: the most sustainable paper we can find, and placed that
Speaker 3: on the table with the managing director of that business
Speaker 3: and he picked it up, flick through it and said,
Speaker 3: this is exactly what we're looking for. And one month
Speaker 3: later they've awarded their ocean freight out of Germany to
Speaker 3: US into the United States. So clearly it strikes a
Speaker 3: chord with our potential customers and we're winning business. As
Speaker 3: a consequence.
Speaker 1: Bonuses were a little bit down obviously, you know, because
Speaker 1: of the results and the climate that you've spoken about.
Speaker 1: You know, what sort of feedback do you get about
Speaker 1: that for staff? You know there our team members, do
Speaker 1: they understand the picture?
Speaker 3: Well? Of course, we put up the profits every week
Speaker 3: on the notice board and the cafeteria, so everybody does
Speaker 3: understand how we are performing, and they do realize that
Speaker 3: actually the bonus is based around profitability and more profit
Speaker 3: than what we made last year. Naturally, they all encountered
Speaker 3: those peak periods of twenty two and twenty three and
Speaker 3: benefited accordingly. I mean, the bonus, Paul, I think out
Speaker 3: of twenty three or twenty two was ninety four million
Speaker 3: across the world. This year, I think it's twenty seven million.
Speaker 3: But the good thing is that if you're open and
Speaker 3: honest with your people, they understand that actually, when you're
Speaker 3: not performing as well as what you did a year ago,
Speaker 3: the bonus won't be as big, or in fact, in
Speaker 3: some cases there isn't a bonus for Yeah, that's the
Speaker 3: part of it. Whilst we share the profits with those
Speaker 3: that make them, it's actually it has a capitalist intent
Speaker 3: of about how much money we make. You can't share
Speaker 3: a bonus unless you make a profit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. And just in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: looking forward, I guess you know you've had had this
Speaker 1: weird bubble through COVID that you've mentioned already, But do
Speaker 1: you see the picture settling down at all with you know,
Speaker 1: the kind of economic climate that we're in and sort
Speaker 1: of the uncertainties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a tough economic climate, there's no doubt in
Speaker 3: different countries are in different stages of it. I think
Speaker 3: I think New Zealand's probably in the worst situation. You know.
Speaker 3: I wonder whether the Reserve Bank governor has actually been
Speaker 3: looking at the economy from small businesses and how they've
Speaker 3: been performing. He seems to be working from data that's
Speaker 3: a little bit outdated to make his decisions. It certainly
Speaker 3: this pain in this economy, whereas in Australia, certainly they
Speaker 3: are feeling the pain in their view. Yet our business
Speaker 3: continues to grow very well there, so trading continues to increase. Look,
Speaker 3: it's still exciting for us and we've been in this
Speaker 3: place before with tough economies. It makes us a better business.
Speaker 3: It makes us having to work harder to look at
Speaker 3: our cost structures, make sure we're delivering high quality services
Speaker 3: and make sure we're on the front foot meeting customers
Speaker 3: and growing sales.
Speaker 1: What excites you most, you know about the future.
Speaker 3: Oh, the business. It's just fun every day. We're so
Speaker 3: lucky to have such great people, such great customers. And
Speaker 3: you know, whilst it might be quite tiring, but We
Speaker 3: get to travel the world to be a part of
Speaker 3: our customer's supply chains, which are all different, are all interesting,
Speaker 3: and you're learning something along the way. And you know,
Speaker 3: our people have got that ability to grow a wonderful
Speaker 3: business over a long period of time. There's nothing more exciting.
Speaker 1: He do have some new people, you know, you've got
Speaker 1: obviously a new CFO coming on board, but you've also
Speaker 1: seeing some of your directors, long serving directors leave and
Speaker 1: there has been a little bit of criticism I guess
Speaker 1: in the past about Mainfrey and how long your directors serve.
Speaker 1: You know, I guess what is your view more broadly
Speaker 1: about director tenure and are you pleased with the people
Speaker 1: that you're bringing on Well, I.
Speaker 3: Don't think that we've got a new CEO. He worked
Speaker 3: for twenty two years for us and as an assistant
Speaker 3: to Tim Williams, who has just left, so I'm not
Speaker 3: sure he can call him new after twenty two years
Speaker 3: with us. But in terms of new people sitting around
Speaker 3: the board table, Hailey and have joined us, and we're
Speaker 3: so pleased to have them around the table. And Richard
Speaker 3: had completed twenty eight years with us, and I think
Speaker 3: that equated to one hundred and seventy two board meetings,
Speaker 3: which are a little unusual. They're not a half day
Speaker 3: meeting here in Auckland in some boardroom where you might
Speaker 3: have a glass of gin at the end of the
Speaker 3: board meeting. They are difficult meetings. They are taken all
Speaker 3: around the world. The next board meeting we have starts
Speaker 3: in Houston, goes to Dallas, then is in Chicago and
Speaker 3: finishes in the Netherlands in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. So for
Speaker 3: two days work, the directors are away for probably two
Speaker 3: or more weeks, so it's a lot of hard work.
Speaker 3: In terms of the tenure, we're looking for people to
Speaker 3: in all parts of the business to have a career,
Speaker 3: so why not around the board table. And in fact
Speaker 3: some of the rubbish that you see even in terms
Speaker 3: of the government departments where term is three years, well
Speaker 3: you know, quite frankly, our directors will still be learning
Speaker 3: the business after three years, so why not give them
Speaker 3: longer time at the table to guide the business for
Speaker 3: the long haul and to understand it better and rather
Speaker 3: than be there for a short term and knowing nothing
Speaker 3: making crazy decisions.
Speaker 1: Why do you have your board meetings? You know you
Speaker 1: do hold them all over the place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, why not. You get to meet our people, get
Speaker 3: to see our network, get to meet our customers, get
Speaker 3: to see the land and the buildings that we're putting
Speaker 3: our precious capital into. It allows the directors to be
Speaker 3: really well informed and to be as close to the
Speaker 3: business as those that are serving our customers. It's a
Speaker 3: really important part of what we do.
Speaker 1: You mentioned, of course you knew board members that have
Speaker 1: come on, but you know, one thing that you have
Speaker 1: spoken about is wanting to bring more women in to
Speaker 1: your leadership ranks. You know, how are you going to
Speaker 1: achieve that?
Speaker 3: We're getting there? I mean, I think in the early days.
Speaker 3: I mean remembering that there's three hundred and thirty seven branches,
Speaker 3: and a branch manager is really in charge of the
Speaker 3: business and has a P and L to answer to.
Speaker 3: So therefore we've the idea is to increase the number
Speaker 3: of women at that leadership level where they can have
Speaker 3: the most impact in the business. And from there the
Speaker 3: stars will continue to flourish and we'll find them in
Speaker 3: the senior management team. Just unfortunately we haven't got that
Speaker 3: many in that senior management team. But we're working really hard.
Speaker 3: We've doubled the number of branch managers that are FEMA,
Speaker 3: and we have some great women in the business that
Speaker 3: will do wondrous things for us in the future.
Speaker 1: Would you encourage women to get involved then in the
Speaker 1: freight industry? You know, why would it be appealing? Do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 3: Because it's a whole lot of fun, it's interesting, it's
Speaker 3: different every day, and just like we would say to
Speaker 3: men there that messaging is no different to men or women.
Speaker 3: It's a fun industry. It's a lot of hard work.
Speaker 3: But if you want to have some fun and work
Speaker 3: hard and learn along the way, than Mainfred's to your career.
Speaker 1: One of the other things that people often notice about
Speaker 1: main Freight, of course, is your inspirational messages on your warehouses.
Speaker 1: You know, how did that come about? And who's in
Speaker 1: charge of packing them?
Speaker 3: Oh, everyone has the opportunity to submit their saying, but
Speaker 3: actually the reality is they're on the back of every
Speaker 3: one of those trucks that they might follow on the
Speaker 3: motorway or on the roads, and then we pluck those
Speaker 3: and put them on the sign at the airport. So
Speaker 3: there's about twelve hundred. We're really careful as to who
Speaker 3: submits and what they submit more importantly, but they're a
Speaker 3: bit of fun. They're a bit of soul searching, bring
Speaker 3: a smile to the face, or actually change the mind
Speaker 3: of someone as they are starting their day or finishing
Speaker 3: their day. It just might bring an intelligent message that
Speaker 3: prompts a thought process for them.
Speaker 1: So have you got a favorite inspirational quote yourself? And
Speaker 1: have you submitted any?
Speaker 3: Look? I guess I have the pleasure of being able
Speaker 3: to vet the ones that are submitted, and often it's
Speaker 3: a yes or no pretty quickly. I look, there's so many.
Speaker 3: The man at the top of the mountain didn't fall there.
Speaker 3: The one on the building as I got off the
Speaker 3: plane Saturday morning was the optimist sees the donut, the
Speaker 3: pessimist sees the hole in the donut. But I suppose
Speaker 3: the best one, and I can't remember it word for word,
Speaker 3: But it's life is not about arriving into the grave safely,
Speaker 3: but actually slating and saying, holy shit, what a ride.
Speaker 1: Thank you John for joining us, and thank you everybody
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