Pyne Gould Guinness launches foray into North Is

Pyne Gould Guinness launches foray into North Island

Pyne Gould Guinness Limited’s (PGG) recent employment of 10 stock agents in the Waikato is the forerunner to further expansion in North Island.

The South Island-based company has always made it clear that it sees the North Island as an expansion target and will continue to assess opportunities when they arise in the future.

Hugh Martyn, PGG chief executive, said the whole dynamics of the rural servicing industry in the North Island are undergoing major changes.

“Just as this opportunity arose for us in the Waikato, we expect others to occur as a result of the changes taking place at present. The timing of our expansion into the North Island will be dictated by the opportunities that present themselves, not the need to achieve certain goals in a given timeline,” he said.

Pyne Gould Guinness has roots back to the earliest days of New Zealand settlement , over 150 years as a rural servicing company. It has 10eight separate divisions including farm supplies, seeds, insurance, wool, livestock, (which includes the standardbred and , velpool businesses), irrigation and plumbing, finance, and real estate. To date its only other North Island operations areinclude a turf operation in Auckland and a horticultural supply companybusiness with field staff in Hastings. PGG also has North Island representation for its Seeds division and conducts standard bred sales at the Karaka sales centre.

The 10 agents, who will begin with PGG later in April, will service Waikato dairy and sheep/beef farmers. They were previously employed by Williams and Kettle (W&K) but were offered jobs with PGG after W&K was taken over by Wrightson. It had been PGG’s initial intention to take over W&K, but was out bid by Wrightson.

“These 10 agents have incredible experience and knowledge of the Waikato dairy and wider farming industry. They are well respected in their fields of expertise and we know that there are farmers out there who want to deal with companies like PGG rather than others at present in the marketplace.
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“We believe that PGG will be well received offer a very attractive alternative in the rural servicing industry in the North Island. and wWe see this initial step in the Waikato as part of our expansion plans the start of a whole new era for the company in the North Island. We will continue to pursue other opportunities as they ariseare happy to talk with other groups with view to further expansion,” he said.

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