Hurrell said it has been a complex job.

“These things are not simple,” he said. “They’re not easy tasks. But you know what you’re tasked with doing and you just get into it and do the best you can.”

The turnaround has earned Fonterra plaudits from the Government and ratings agency S&P.

Speaking at Fieldays last year, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor thanked Hurrell and the co-operative’s board for getting Fonterra “back on the right track” after going through “a rocky road”.

S&P analyst Sam Playfair said this week the ratings agency has been “really impressed” with Fonterra’s improvement over the last five years.

“They’ve done a lot of work to repair the balance sheet and it’s in a really strong position,” Playfair said.

Hurrell said the balance sheet was in an even better position than Fonterra had anticipated, which was not a bad thing given the cost of debt had risen significantly.

The financial buffer that it has built up gives Fonterra the flexibility to hold more inventory if needed, and pay cash-strapped farmers earlier in the season by bringing forward the advance rate.

“The strong position that the co-operative is in enabled them to be able to do that without putting too much pressure on the rating,” Playfair said. “We think the balance sheet is in really strong shape to deal with the next period of time.”

To be sure, Fonterra still has challenges ahead.

The co-operative is talking to farmers about setting a target for Scope 3 carbon emissions, which cover those it is indirectly responsible for. About 90% of Fonterra’s emissions are behind the farm gate.

Hurrell has warned farmers that both the co-operative and farming businesses risk not being able to access debt funding in the future if they don’t meet banks’ sustainability expectations, and it also risks losing valuable customers and facing trade barriers in its overseas markets.

Playfair said sustainability was a big issue facing Fonterra and its farmers, and it was not going away any time soon.

Still, he said the co-operative was positioned really well to be able to help farmers work through that.

“They’re doing a mountain of work in this space and have been for a little while now,” he said. “We don’t think they’re a laggard. It’s becoming more important and we think the co-operative is doing everything it can to address these issues.”

Hurrell said sustainability was both a challenge and an opportunity for Fonterra.

“We see our chance to take the great milk that we produce in New Zealand and the great carbon position that we hold now, and look at how we maintain that and actually leverage it more in the future,” he said.

Fixing the co-operative’s finances had opened up options for the future.

“It gives you choice, it gives you options, it gives you the ability to do things in an environment where if you’ve got a stretched balance sheet, you can’t,” he said.

The country’s dairy industry is transitioning away from decades of significant growth in milk production to a future of flat or declining milk volumes.

That has focused Fonterra on stepping up innovation to get more value from every drop of farmers’ milk.

“The portfolio review that we had to undertake was forcing us down a path at a great pace to do things to get our balance sheet in order,” Hurrell said. “Now we’re in a situation around how do we then innovate and grow and become sustainable for the next 150 years.”

He said it involves a change of mindset, but one he is embracing.

“I enjoyed it then and I’m enjoying it now – at a high level that hasn’t changed. But the things you are doing are completely different. They use different muscles internally.”

This month, Fonterra announced the formation of a new standalone nutrition science business which will invest in global start-ups where it sees opportunities for growth.

The unit has already invested US$10 million (NZ$16m) for a minority shareholding in San Francisco-based Pendulum, a biotech company which is pioneering the next frontier of metabolic health through its microbiome-targeted products.

The co-operative is also looking to innovate within its own business.

“Innovation doesn’t just turn up as a new product or a new package, or a new brand, it often becomes a different way of processing your milk,” Hurrell said.

Fonterra was innovating behind the walls in its factories to remove costs and do things smarter, he said.

“That’s where you’ll see the next wave of value that’s created by the co-op, and that will turn up by way of earnings and milk price,” he said.

While the day-to-day detail of his job may be changing, Hurrell said the overriding motivation remains the same.

“When you go into your office and roll up your sleeves and say, right, what am I tackling today, it does take a different muscle to do that,” he said. “But when you stand back, though, and say, what are you here to do, you’re here to deliver prosperity for farmers, communities, our staff, employees, and New Zealand as a whole. If that’s the lens by which you look at it, that hasn’t changed.”