From air cargo demands in the pandemic to sea freight diversion around the Persian Gulf, Fonterra’s new Chief Operating Officer, Anna Palairet, has a strong logistical bent.
She is responsible for all New Zealand manufacturing site and global supply chain operations, technical excellence, and global safety, quality and regulatory teams.
She re-joined the dairy industry in October 2022 as the director, global supply chain before being appointed acting COO in June 2023 and confirmed permanently in April.
She started at entry level with Fonterra around 2000 out of Massey University with a science degree as a market service officer for two years, matching orders from the Middle East with available stocks.
People who do that same role, although it has since been renamed, are within her global operations division and its 9000 employees.
She left to join Amcor, where a lot of Fonterra’s packaging materials come from, then to Carter Holt Harvey, followed by 16 years at Air New Zealand, in positions as general manager of cargo, property and infrastructure, head of sustainability and head of procurement.
The Air NZ roles were great rehearsals for the Fonterra COO position, especially GM of cargo during the covid pandemic.
“It was only two years by the calendar but worth 10 years of experience,” Palairet said.
Why a graduate in genetics and microbiology should make a career out of logistics, human resources, risk management and health and safety was explained through references to her character.
Palairet is a self-confessed people person with an engaging personality who loves the complexities, planning and leadership demands of her job.
“I have always had a love of solving problems, and found my interest captured early on by supply chain optimisation.”
Nearly 25 years later not only is she back at Fonterra as chief operating officer, but she has been appointed chair of Kotahi Logistics, the Fonterra-Silver Fern Farms joint venture.
At a recent partnership re-signing between Kotahi and Maersk shipping line, Palairet said the 10-year collaboration had kept NZ produce moving through significant and ongoing disruptions of global supply chains.
Among the aptitudes and skills needed in her role, she led with people management and the striking of balance in project management and expenditure control.
The main key performance indicators in her role are delivery in full on time – which has considerably improved since the end of the pandemic – plant optimum run times, reducing losses and increasing operating efficiencies.
“All the food safety and quality requirements are absolutely key.”
At the top of the risk hierarchy are cyber security and food safety, now even more tightly regulated since the 2013 botulism scare and the subsequent internal and external reviews of procedures and responses.
Crisis management is an ongoing priority in training after the lessons of past experiences, Palairet said.
She visits all Fonterra sites to meet managers, technicians and staff members.
A milk pickup run with one of 1500 tanker drivers has been a recent highlight to gain insight into the drivers’ working environment and interactions with farmers.
National Fieldays on the Fonterra site was another highlight, when “farmers never leave you wondering”.
Major upgrades of all business management software are underway in what is called the digital value chain, with expenditure of under $100 million.
“We are rebuilding these systems from the ground up, reducing 17 systems down to one, enhancing all our operations, lowering costs and delivering more for farmers.
“Our systems are by no means bad at present, but this is a big opportunity to simplify.
“This work is a big part of the co-operative’s commitment to annual cost savings.”
The disciplines and departments under Palairet’s wing are milk collection, processing, testing, packing and the technical and engineering support, including food safety and quality, employee health and wellbeing, and the processing improvement and environmental sustainability of all company operations.
Operating costs from business as usual are coming down but the transformational aspects do come at capital expense, she said.
“We are spending $1 billion on sustainability before 2030, two-thirds of that on decarbonisation and wastewater treatment at processing sites.”
Sites and plants are being decommissioned, three last financial year and a further four this year.
Last year it was Brightwater (Nelson), Edendale cheese and Longburn (Palmerston North).
This year two powder plants at Te Rapa and two at Waitoa are being retired along with 80 jobs, with redeployment available to all employees should they want it.
“All these moves are because of ageing assets and ensuring that efficiency of the remaining plants increases.
“We are also upgrading at two sites – for lactoferrin at Hautapu and caramelised milk powder at Pahiatua.
“Lifting skills and giving new opportunities for those skills is how we develop people in the plants.”
Palairet emphasised the regulatory control aspects of her division, working very closely with the Ministry for Primary Industries.
“All of that work is for the benefit of our customers and for the reputation of New Zealand in food safety and quality.”
Food safety is rigorously governed right up to board level, enacting the findings of the post-2013 review conducted by former director Sir Ralph Norris and a team of investigators.
Decarbonisation of processing is on track for the 2030 goals, where there is surety of electricity supply or energy alternatives.
Coal plants have resource management terms until 2031 and so Fonterra must phase out coal’s use in boilers by then.
“Farmers are doing an enormous amount of work on sustainability and we have to be doing the right thing by them and the company.”
Palairet’s predecessors as COO were Robert Spurway, from 2014 to 2020, now CEO of Graincorp, the listed company in Australia, and Fraser Whineray, from 2020 to 2023, now executive chair of Jarden.
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