{"id":613974,"date":"2026-09-28T04:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613974\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T04:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:32:17","slug":"synlait-focuses-on-its-south-island-roots-after-string-of-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613974\/","title":{"rendered":"Synlait focuses on its South Island roots after string of losses"},"content":{"rendered":"Synlait is in the midst of changing its balance date to December 31 to align with its majority shareholder, Bright Dairy.<\/p>\n
Chairman George Adams said the result reflected a difficult first half, followed by a second half in which a return to operational stability flowed through to an improved financial performance.<\/p>\n
He said it had been another challenging year for Synlait.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first-half performance was affected by the impacts and costs of the 2025 manufacturing challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Acting chief executive Leon Fung said the half showed Synlait was making progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have plans to navigate the challenges ahead and rebuild Synlait, with diversified revenue streams, so the company is more resilient and better positioned for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are on the right track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing the right thing but don\u2019t want to overpromise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Synlait released a \u201cstabilise, simplify and scale\u201d roadmap to recovery in March.<\/p>\n
Material released with its results showed Synlait\u2019s performance was strongest when it was a South Island-focused business based in Dunsandel – the company\u2019s net profit came to $82.2m in 2019.<\/p>\n
Fung told the Herald he was encouraged by the half-year turnaround but said it was a \u201chuge\u201d loss for the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason I\u2019m taking the cautious approach now is that it does take a little bit of time to be firm on the operation\u2019s stability and operational excellence that we are aiming for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can concentrate on Dunsandel, where Synlait\u2019s roots are, and we are confident that we are doing the right thing,\u201d Fung said.<\/p>\n
A2 Milk, Synlait\u2019s main customer for infant formula, became a manufacturer in its own right when it bought Yashili\u2019s facility at P\u014dkeno last year.<\/p>\n
However, Synlait remains a2 Milk\u2019s only supplier of Chinese-labelled product destined for the PRC \u2013 by far a2\u2019s biggest market.<\/p>\n
Synlait has a highly sought registration to supply China.<\/p>\n
Registration lasts for five years, and the company is in the process of re-registering.<\/p>\n
Fung said Synlait and a2 had been working together for many years, and that Synlait had contributed to a2\u2019s Milk\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see the relationship lasting a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fung said Synlait was now a much simpler business.<\/p>\n
In advanced nutrition, Synlait said, it secured a new Middle East customer for the commercial supply of base powders in 2027.<\/p>\n
Fung has been acting chief executive for four months now after replacing then CEO Richard Wyeth.<\/p>\n
Synlait has gone into a selection process for a new CEO and Fung is a candidate.<\/p>\n
The company paid its farmers $9.69 per kg of milksolids (kgMS) in 2026, the same as Fonterra.<\/p>\n
Together with a 38c milk price incentive scheme, the payout came to $10.07\/kg,<\/p>\n
Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Synlait is in the midst of changing its balance date to December 31 to align with its majority…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,74,138,57471,7224,1644,38020,29188,3011,3273,12518,2514,302,685,5342,39608,111,139,69,1118,90,57472,1523,34687,1240,42909,43211,39193,1530],"class_list":["post-613974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-after","tag-business","tag-cautiously","tag-dairy","tag-financial","tag-focuses","tag-formula","tag-four","tag-future","tag-infant","tag-island","tag-its","tag-last","tag-losses","tag-manufacturer","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-optimistic","tag-over","tag-roots","tag-south","tag-string","tag-suffering","tag-synlait","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}