Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell has just ushered through the controversial sale of the beloved Mainland Group consumer business to French dairy giant Lactalis (with 88.47% farmer votes in favour), for $4.22 billion.
It’s the biggest decision dairy farmers have taken – or maybe will take – in the history of the New Zealand cooperative.
Beyond its farmer base, it was not a universally popular move in the eyes of NZ consumers and others. NZ First leader Winston Peters expressed outrage at selling a national brand after decades of investment.
The sale also met with disapproval from former Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard, who argued it undermines the pursuit of added value.
Refreshed strategy
Since becoming CEO in 2019, Hurrell has also divested non-performing assets – the Tip Top ice cream brand, the DFE Pharma drug delivery business, and the Chinese baby and child nutrition company Beingmate – to focus on what he says is the core dairy businesses of Fonterra.
After the Mainland divestment was announced last year, Hurrell put out a refreshed strategy, focusing on NZ milk and increased payouts to farmer shareholders. It aims for a return on capital of between 10% and 12% each year by focusing on Fonterra's ingredients and foodservice business.
Hurrell and his chair, Peter McBride, are well respected by Fonterra’s farmers, recognised for essentially saving the co-op, says BusinessDesk’s senior writer Riley Kennedy. He says shareholders welcome the courage in selling Mainland to the French company.
A Fonterra-lifer, Auckland-based Hurrell was promoted to the top job, initially in an acting capacity, in 2018 after its long-term CEO Theo Spierings left and returned to the Netherlands.
'Powerful role model'
Since becoming CEO, Hurrell has taken Fonterra back to strictly being a NZ milk processor – collecting, processing, and selling this country's milk.
“Looking back on my leadership to date, I hope that I would be characterised not only as a leader who makes the tough calls when we have been in a challenging situation as a sector, but also making the tough calls when things are going well to set the industry up for the future,” he says.
Hurrell is shortlisted in the listed company category of the inaugural BusinessDesk CEO Index. Our independent panel of judges said: “Miles Hurrell is a powerful role model for those who need to see that the quiet achievers and the introverts can get to the top, too, especially those who lead with authenticity and a strong sense of purpose. He personifies what a quintessential Kiwi can achieve.”
BusinessDesk asked Hurrell about his approach to the CEO Index criteria of vision, impact, innovation, resilience, and influence.
Vision: Being clear on purpose first has led to greater clarity on vision and strategy for the co-operative, says the CEO. The ultimate purpose is to create value for Fonterra farmers through pooling resources and capital.
“It is about empowering our people to not only deliver performance for the co-operative but for our farmers’ businesses and New Zealand,” he says.
“As an intergenerational organisation, success is measured by the long-term stability that we can create for farmers,” says Hurrell, who sees Fonterra as an extension of the farmer shareholders.
As for his vision for Fonterra, it is to be the source of the world’s most valued dairy produce, says the CEO, who says he communicates the vision through employee webinars, leadership updates, and community engagement initiatives.
“We lost sight of where we truly create value for our farmers and for New Zealand: adding value to the milk supplied by our farmers. New Zealand’s milk source is unique, and it’s our competitive advantage, milk that is produced efficiently by grass-fed cows in a sustainable, natural way,” he says.
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Impact: Hurrell is frank about the challenging position Fonterra was in when he started as CEO. After a $196 million loss that year, they were “staring down the barrel of a $605 million loss the following year,” he says.
“The milk price was $6.35 per kgMS [kilogram of milk solids] and farmer confidence in the co-op was low,” he says. "We had little choice but to make big decisions – reset our balance sheet and reposition the organisation.”
Hurrell moved to improve financial discipline and has delivered consistent shareholder returns. (The company currently forecasts a 2025/26 price of between $9 and $11 per kgMS.)
The CEO has doubled down on sustainability, innovation, and value-added dairy, positioning Fonterra and NZ as a global leader in responsible dairy production.
He has also pushed for better representation of women in senior leadership roles at the organisation. They occupied 39% of these positions in FY2025, and the goal is 40:40:20 (men/women/any).
“Culturally, I’ve championed a more connected, transparent and inclusive organisation,” Hurrell says.
Innovation: For the Fonterra CEO, innovation is a strategic priority for the co-operative. It can be seen in action at the Fonterra Research and Development Centre in Palmerston North, the largest centre of dairy innovation in the Southern Hemisphere.
Product breakthroughs have included whey protein concentrate and UHT whipping creams.
Under Hurrell’s leadership, Fonterra has opened and upgraded seven application centres and innovation labs across China and Southeast Asia. Today, around 70 chefs work in them to test, develop, and refine new recipes tailored to local market preferences.
“We’ve seen the benefit of this flow through to demand for our Foodservice products. Foodservice has grown from a $2 billion business in 2017 to a $4 billion business in FY25,” says the CEO.
In 2023, Fonterra established the Ki Tua Fund, a corporate venture arm, which seeks to go beyond traditional dairy innovation by investing in emerging technologies and new business models.
Resilience: Weather events at home, global shipping disruptions, and covid-19 have all been crises Hurrell has dealt with in recent years, and for each, Fonterra will have had a plan to put in place.
“We have a standardised process in place to manage significant incidents that exceed normal business processes and that require a coordinated, cross-functional response,” he says. Everyone knows what to do in an incident, and hierarchy takes a back seat.
“The way we respond to incidents is crucial, but resilience for us as a co-op encompasses every part of the supply chain to ensure issues or events don’t become a crisis.”
Influence: You will never persuade this “Fonterra lifer” to talk about his own influence.
“It’s not about the influence of individuals or teams, it’s about the collective benefit that we can deliver to our farmers and New Zealand,” he says.
Globally, Fonterra plays an important role, says the CEO: “Our teams offshore are often key contacts or sources of information for fellow New Zealand companies looking to expand or do business overseas.”
In 2023, Hurrell was elected chairman of the Global Dairy Platform, an international industry organisation bringing together dairy companies, associations, and scientific bodies to advocate for the role of dairy in sustainable nutrition and global food systems.
A good book: The Milkshake Moment: Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth by Steven S. Little.
“As well as having a connection to milk, this book is all about celebrating the power of common sense, flexibility, and customer-centric systems over rigid organisational systems,” says Hurrell.
Sliding doors: Opening batsman for the Black Caps, he says. “While I grew up with aspirations of greater things on the cricket pitch, my fate became clear in my early teens that I didn’t have the talent, but this does not stop me from being an armchair supporter and backyard cricket enthusiast.”
Miles Hurrell is a finalist in the listed/public company category of the inaugural BusinessDesk CEO Index. The category winner and overall winner will be announced on November 18.
● Read more of the BusinessDesk CEO Index here.
This article has removed sections about Fonterra's creation.
