AWN's John Maher revives old Ruralco themes for rising ag player

AWN chairman, John Maher, is making the most of nine years of expansion experiences at the helm of Ruralco and earlier learnings with Landmark - companies which both, coincidentally, merged in 2019, becoming Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Rising AWN has added 18 livestock, wool and property agency sites to its network in the past three years, either as acquisitions or newly opened stores.

The most recent addition, this month, is 50-year-old NSW Central Tablelands name McCarron Cullinane.

Mr Maher has tipped more acquisitions to follow in coming months.

AWN's footprint now features 25 sites across all states.

It ranks as Australia's third biggest wool and livestock selling business behind agri-corporates Nutrien and Elders, handling almost a fifth of the national wool clip and exclusively supplying to ethical wool marketing champion, New Zealand Merino Company.

"It's not exactly Ruralco revisited, but there are similar themes and principles in AWN's growth goals," said Mr Maher, who joined its board in 2019 and became chairman in July.

"The mood in the agency game is very positive, with many independent operators identifying growth opportunities they want to be part of.

"AWN provides a natural consolidation option - the capital and the systems to expand an agency business while still empowering them to run their front office the way they know best.

"I'm excited our people are excited by the sort of development we've achieved in the past few years.

"They're loving being part of a growing company."

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AWN had its origins 23 years ago as a breakaway independent wool selling entity closely aligned with the fine and superfine Merino sector, emerging soon after Elders absorbed Queensland and NSW agency group, Primac, in a $31 million takeover in 1998.

Led by Primac's former Sydney manager, John Colley, and a team of ex-Primac colleagues, Australian Wool Network launched in 1999 with an impressive 55 per cent of its investment backing from big name Italian wool processing and fashion businesses such as Schneider Group and Lora Piana.

A veritable who's who of woolgrower identities also bought shares, including southern NSW's Walker and Merriman families, Tasmania's Simon Cameron and a cohort of New England superfine producers.

Yass graziers, Brendon Lunney and Barry Walker, became long serving foundation directors, with Mr Lunney recently vacating the chairman's seat after 11 years.

The fledgling outfit began by leveraging its processing and fashion industry connections to enhance its wool service credentials, later bolstering its supply chain ties by entering the apparel business itself with local luxury knitwear labels, MerinoSnug and Hedrena, and the Hysport brand.

However, with China's rise as the dominant buyer and processor of Australian wool, European links with AWN faded and, eventually so, too, did its local processing and retailing strategy.

"By 2018 it was decided the retail brands were a fairly capital-heavy commitment and the skills required to further develop them were too far removed from the organisation's core skills base," Mr Maher said.

As AWN subsequently diversified its wool and livestock business to become a broader ag marketing player, Mr Maher joined as a director, bringing his considerable business integration know-how.

He also has board directorships with independent farm retailer, Muir Group; GoFARM Australia; mushroom producer, White Prince, and Autism Awareness Australia.

His own career, which most recently included three years as chief executive officer at the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, has spanned the formative years of live exports to Indonesia, the arrival of Wesfarmers' rural business in eastern Australia, Landmark's contentious time as part of AWB, and Ruralco's growth from 400 staff to 2250 in less than a decade.

The suburban Sydney boy, whose zeal for agriculture was stirred by a dairy farm holiday as a teenager, had initially been on track to be a livestock genetics researcher, or wool scientist.

After holding cattle advisory jobs with NSW Agriculture, he instead opted to quit his PhD studies and spent four years with the former Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation, which included establishing standards for beef cattle exporters and their emerging Filipino and Indonesian feedlot sectors and enhancing animal welfare and processing procedures.

In 1994 Mr Maher joined Wesfarmers shortly after the WA conglomerate had paid $78m for the 147-year-old Dalgety Farmers network.

It proved a timely career move as his job evolved from general manager of livestock business to chief operating officer for the re-badged Wesfarmers Landmark, and by 1993, leading Landmark's integration into newly listed, farmer-owned grain giant AWB.

Also timely was his eventual shift to farm supplies wholesaler, Ruralco, owned by CRT store operators Australia-wide.

His arrival coincided with Tasmanian agency group Roberts joining Ruralco and prompted a fresh horizontal growth strategy based on selling agency joint ventures, starting with Davidson Cameron in NSW and Queensland's Grant Daniel Long.

Profits, turnover and market capitalisation grew 10-fold between 2005 and 2016 as 48 agribusiness names joined the fold.

At AWN, which is now fast approaching annual sales turnover of $1 billion, Mr Maher is again seeing "a long pipeline of acquisition and greenfield opportunities".

There was also pleasing interest from players outside the business willing to provide capital funding to help the business grow, if required.

"But, we're not just buying for growth's sake," he said.

"We've established a good record of independent businesses consolidating and expanding with AWN and now we're seeing a very good pipeline where we can sensibly allocate more capital."

Helped by "generous shared incentives" for profitable branch management performance, AWN's expanding footprint would likely see livestock and property activities generate 65pc of profits by 2024 - up from 35pc in 2021-22.

At the same time, its wool business was growing, too, especially in the non-mulesed category which represented about a third of throughput.

"We support our clients to choose how they can best manage the wellbeing of their livestock," Mr Maher said.

"For many, non-mulesed is not an option, but we are seeing more clients, and wool producers generally, moving away from mulesing."

AWN's close ties with NZ Merino had cultivated ways for growers to be financially rewarded by consumers for continuous and regenerative improvement of their farmland and animal welfare.

NZ Merino's ZQ brand is considered the world's leading ethically responsible wool tag and favoured by global brands such as Icebreaker, Ikea, Helly Hansen and Lora Piana.

Producer wellbeing is also well ingrained in the company's commitment to the farm sector, with AWN recognised as Australia's only farm services category Mental Health First Aid Australia Skilled Workplace.

Staff training has deliberately focused on providing the sorts of skills required to initially help people and handle a potentially dangerous farm mental health situation before better qualified assistance is available.

"The drought really pushed us to want to make sure our own staff were as mentally healthy as possible, but we knew they often had to be counsellors to their clients, too," Mr Maher said.

"Our people were some of the few outsiders many farmers saw, or felt able to talk to when things were tough.

"I don't know any organisation which focuses on mental health responsibilities for its employees or clients as much as this place."

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