Costa Group CEO and managing director Sean Hallahan has stepped down, effective from today, 26 September. He had been with the the fresh produce company for five years, and in the CEO role since March 2021.
Harry Debney, the previous CEO for 11 years and currently a non executive director, will be interim chair while a replacement is found.
Hallahan said there were "several things" than played a role in his decision.
"It has been an intense couple of years in agriculture made even more challenging wiht the overlay of [Covid]," he said.
Company chair Neil Chatfield said Hallahan had played a "pivotal role" in the company's growth.
"We understand that the last two years, particularly in Victoria, have taken a large toll on the business and personal lives of individuals. Under Sean's leadership Costa has performed extremely well during a challenging period with global Covid disruptions and extreme weather conditions being successfully navigated and is in a strong financial position," Chatfield said.
He said Debney's "intimate knowledge" of the company made him the right person to assist the transition to a new CEO.
Positive half yearly results
In its 1HCY22 results released last month, Costa recorded mainly positive results, with avocados having a slide and citrus affected by weather events.
Snapshot
- Transacted sales: $946.3m, up 14.9% pcp;
- Total revenue: $708.7m, up 15.7% pcp;
- EBITDA-S*: $140.1m, up 12.6% pcp; and
- Underlying NPAT-S*: $49.2m, up 10.8% pcp.
Revenue was up 15.7 per cent, but for product it was up 17.6 per cent due to expanding production capacity for tomatoes, better volumes in mushrooms, increased grape sales on the previous year due to hailstorms, and additional revenue from citrus acquisitions. In 1H, average blueberry sale price increased by 40 per cent versus pcp.
Its operations include more than 7200 hectares of planted domestic farmland, 40 hectares of glasshouses, 108 growing hectares of three mushroom facilities, and two international berry growing locations in China and Morocco.
*EBITDA-S: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation, the fair value movements in biological assests (SAGARA) and material items.
NPAT-S: Net profit after tax attributable to shareholders (NPAT) but excluding the after-tax impact of the fair value movements in biological assets (SGARA) and material items.
Underlying NPAT-S: NPAT-S excluding the 1HCY22 incremental impacts vs 1HCY21 of renegotiated Vitalharvest leases and 2PH acquisition.
