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Brent Esler, CEO
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Good turnout for the 48th Annual General Meeting of CRT
The annual general meeting of CRT was held in Alexandra on Tuesday 9 August. There was a good representation of shareholders from throughout Otago at the meeting as we acknowledged 25 years of trading under the CRT brand.
There was good input from shareholders on various areas of CRT’s performance and this reflects the real strength of the co-operative model, with people being prepared to give their time to travel to the meeting to voice their views or to have their questions answered directly by the board and executive.
At the meeting, the results of the recent directors' elections were announced, with incumbents Murray Halstead (Southland ward), and deputy chairman Joe Ferraby (Tasman / Marlborough / West Coast wards), being successfully reappointed, and chairman Don McFarlane, (Canterbury) being reappointed unopposed.
Resolutions were approved for an increase in directors’ fees, the first for three years, and also for the board to have discretion to appoint a third independent director within the total board size of 10 members. PriceWaterhouseCoopers were reappointed as auditors.
Executive Appointments
Three major appointments have been made in the executive management ranks of CRT in the last few weeks. Following the move of our general manager for retail, Aaron Gordon, across the Tasman to work for Ruralco (CRT) in Sydney, a review was conducted of the management structure of CRT’s retail business.
Current Otago regional manager, John Kelly, has been appointed as general manager for retail and will relocate from Dunedin to Christchurch.
Tasman /West Coast regional manager John Lennon has stepped up into a new role as general manager for sales for the whole of CRT’s operations and will have responsibility for the regional and district management sales structures.
Following the resignation of our current chief information officer, Mark Ginnever of Christchurch has accepted the responsibility for this role going forward.
Congratulations to these three on their new appointments.
Events
We have just concluded a successful series of Main Event functions across the South Island. While the events were well attended, they were significantly harder to fill this year. We will review the format and timing of the events before next year to ensure we are meeting the expectations of shareholders.
In contrast, the annual Ladies Night in Invercargill which was advertised in our August Agline sold out in a week, and bookings are steady for the other eight of these events.
Since 10 August, subject to some disruption by snow, the Gulf Oil branded Ford GT40 replica of the 1968 Le Mans winning car has been touring CRT’s South Island stores in support of the Gulf Oil launch and is now making its way down the West Coast. See it at the Westport FarmCentre on Monday 12th, in Greymouth on the 13th and then Hokitika on Wednesday 14th.
This iconic sports car, famous for its designation GT40 – being just 40 inches above the ground – and powered by a big block V8 engine, certainly commands a lot of attention. We hope you have a chance to see this remarkable vehicle in person, but if not be assured there will be other opportunities.