New Collection and Sales Benchmarks Set

5 July 2004

Fonterra Sets New Collection and Sales Benchmarks in Record-breaking Season

A greater ability to match production to market needs has contributed to Fonterra setting new milk collection and ingredient sales benchmarks during a record-breaking 2003/04 season.

Chief Operating Officer Jay Waldvogel says a record spring peak volume of 70 million litres a day and good Autumn grass growth underpinned record milk flows in the past season.

Fonterra collected more than 14 billion litres of milk, the equivalent of 1,201 million kilogrammes of milksolids. The amounts exceeded the previous best performance in 2002/03 by 4.6%.

"Overall, we collected more milk, sold more milk products and generated more revenue than we have ever done previously," Mr Waldvogel says.

Fonterra Ingredients sold a record 2,442,000 metric tonnes of product in 2003/04, beating the previous mark of 2,390,000 metric tonnes in 2002/03. Ingredients sales generated revenues of USD$5.1 billion for the season, exceeding the previous record of USD$4.4 billion for 2002/03.

The achievement followed a record year-end performance in sales of more than 250,000 metric tonnes during May, earning NZ$1 billion. Both figures are a record for a single month.

Mr Waldvogel says Fonterra decided more than a year ago to drive down and tightly manage its inventories. That created an environment where the Co-operative could work towards its product receiving the best price in the international market.

"We have a clearer view of demand, better management of inventories to meet that demand and a much greater ability to match production to market need. We are also sourcing third party supply to complement our New Zealand production, adding significantly to our ability to meet customer demand."

"And we have achieved this excellent performance while the market and prices have remained stable."

Mr Waldvogel says the basis of Fonterra Ingredients' success has been the platform of excellent planning and execution complemented by a superb performance by the entire supply chain. "The results have been outstanding and are a credit to the work and commitment of the entire Fonterra Ingredients team.

"This benchmark season shows the potential of Fonterra coming through," he says.

ENDS

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