The CEO and director of Australian Dairy Nutritionals, Peter Skene, has resigned, effectively immediately. Skene was with the company for 14 years. He will assist in the transition to a new CEO.
Australian Dairy Nutritionals is a vertically integrated Australian dairy group, owning organic and organic A2 dairy farms and a processing facility in southwest Victoria. It produces Ocean Road Dairies Organic A2 infant formula range, which was Australia’s first Organic A2 infant formula made with farm fresh Australian milk from our organic dairy farms and manufactured at its infant formula factory in Camperdown, Victoria.
Company chair, Peter Nathan, said the board thanked Skene for his “huge commitment” to the company, and his “pivotal and pioneering role” in building the business for more than a decade.
“We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. As we navigate through this transition, we want to assure our stakeholders that the Board remains committed to the success of AHF.
“The Company is well progressed in recruitment of a new CEO and will provide further update to the market in line with its continuous disclosure obligations,” Nathan said.
Nathan was appointed chair earlier this month on 3 June. He was the former Asia Pacific CEO for The a2 Milk Company for 14 years, during which revenue grew from $7 million to $1.3 billion.
FY23 was a difficult year for the company, recording a $6.9 million net loss from continuing operations, a $2.3 million net loss from discontinued operations, and $1 million net fair value gains, resulting in a total comprehensive loss of $8.2 million.
The business had a strategic review mid-way through the year to focus on four strategic pillars: stabilise the group’s cash position, grow domestic and international distribution of Ocean Road Dairies range; increase utilisation of Depot Road manufacturing facility; and identify consolidation opportunities.
In April, the company sold its Brucknell South Farm for $7.125 million before costs.
There has been turnover of executive team and on the board, with Kate Palethorpe resigning as company secretary in January (replaced by Elizabeth Spooner the following month), and Bernard Kavanagh resigning as non-executive director and chair in April for personal reasons.
Last month, it told the ASX it had been granted approval to export its Ocean Road formulas to Vietnam. Working with “an experienced infant formular distributor”, it was expecting to ship a fifth full order this month.
