Fletcher International 30 years by Panscott Media

Fletcher F Flet Fl let etch tch cher herr IInternational nter nt erna er nati na tion ti ion onal al Exports Exp xpor ports tss â&#x20AC;˘ Celebrating Cel Cel eleb leb bra r ting ng 30 30 Years Year a s

Congratulations

Fletcher International Exports

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years Ye ears

WELCOME

Director’s Message Gail and Roger Fletcher: By JOHN RYAN Dubbo Photo News reporter

By ROGER FLETCHER THANK YOU for your interest in Fletcher International Exports (FIE). It is a great pleasure to introduce the following overview of the organisation and its various activities. Over the past 30 years, my family, staff and I have grown the business to its position today - a leader in the supply of sheep meat, skins, wool, co-products, cotton, grain and pulses to the global market. When you purchase products from the Fletcher Group, you can be assured you are purchasing products of the highest quality and integrity. We are proud to offer the assur-

ance that : z All products are prepared in accordance with the strict food safety regulations of the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture z All products are produced in an environmentally responsible manner z All products are 100 per cent Australian, and naturally safe. As a company, we are proud of the strong relationships we have built with our valued clients over the years. These relationships have been central to the development of the business, and their longevity demonstrates our ability to consistently supply quality products to exacting market requirements worldwide.

I’VE been a Dubbo reporter for 25 years and have met Gail Fletcher many times, but she’s never, ever wanted a story done on her, leaving it up to husband Roger to be the public face of the company. Family members have told me for years about the vital role Gail played in the company from the earliest days, and now she has agreed – after 30 years in Dubbo – to let part of her story be told. “I did the bookwork, I ran the companies from home and there were only the two of us plus our first guy,” she said, recalling the very beginnings of their family business. “We actually had the first telex machine in Moree and when we moved to Gunnedah I ran the whole sheep section, the skins, the wool, so I would do that. I would take all the bidding and the auction sales for that and we went from there, but I handled all the bookwork for 25 years,” Mrs Fletcher said. The company culture for decades has been to throw challenges at all its workers and give each individual the chance to grow as much as they can – Gail was the initial test of that theory, having zero experience for the job. “None, (except for) accountancy at school, that was about

for couples to have a partnership where both work to your strengths. “You can’t have two people doing all the buying and all the selling and calling the money in. You’ve got Roger as the nice guy in the industry and I was the witch, and that’s putting it nicely because every seven days I was sending out the accounts and I was the one who had to chase the money – and that was tough – but we survived,” Mrs Fletcher said. ` I will do anything “I always said to my people for my children but in the early days, when we only now I say to them, ‘I had two employees, on a Friday have raised you, I have they’d be busy paying accounts loved you, I have given and I’d say to forget paying you security and I trust them, haul the money in, if you don’t get the money in you can’t you, you can do what you want now.’ a pay people, and that was my job. “Roger’s positive, he’s a pos– Gail Fletcher itive person and I’m negative and all our arguments were settled late at night at home, it worked well. Roger would come “They asked me to put it on home and say there’s a problem, computer. After 25 years they we’ve got a problem or I can see said I needed to go to Sydney a problem coming, and so we’d to do a computer course and I talk through it, but Roger virtusaid, ‘Forget it.’” Mrs Fletcher ally ran the business and I was said. “I’d done it for 25 years so in the background letting him I said basically, that’s enough, have the biccies to run the busiby the time I finished running ness,” she said. the bookwork I already had one From the outside looking in, little grand-daughter.” Gail Fletcher said people can She lays much of the compa- see the growth of the company ny’s incredible success to strate- and that it’s now in markets in gies they worked out from their more than 100 countries worldearliest days together, intuitive- wide. That’s far cry from when ly understanding that it’s vital she was a young mother workit, but our system of bookwork was to keep it very plain and you added up and you take it away and you handled it with a pencil and a ruler,” she said. She stuck to that simple formula until changing technology and the sheer scale of the operation meant the bookwork needed to be run electronically.

MESSAGE FROM MELISSA FLETCHER

“Congratulations Mum and Dad, what a privilege to be a part of your journey” Melissa Fletcher, or ‘Blue’, as her dad calls her, is Gail and Roger’s middle child and CEO of Fletcher International Exports (“Fletchers” as she affectionately calls it). Melissa has no qualm in calling it how she sees it. “I’M one very fortunate girl who has been blessed with the best parents. They are amazing parents, inspirational, loving, strong, ethical and full of integrity. Mum and Dad are just really good, down to earth people. When something is not right or I need to boast about my most precious things in life, like my children, I talk to Mum. Something to do with our team or work, I bounce it off Dad. They are my “go to”, my “sounding board”. For the wisdom, love and security they have provided for my sister, brother, myself and our children (their grandchildren) our whole life, we will be forever grateful. It’s Mum and Dad, our family and team of our people that sit at the forefront of my thought process every day, they are my motivation. The thought of doing right by them and the business they have built is what gets me out of bed in the morning. It’s all a big juggling act trying to do right by the farmers who are such a vital part of our business, as is satisfying our customers with our

final products carrying the FLETCHER brand – but for me my heart lays with the unsung heroes of this type of business – our team of workers. As I travel the world and Australia, there is this romantic misconception that the farmer breeds the animal and then it magically appears on a fancy plate as a rack of lamb somewhere in the world. Too often the vital link in the chain is missed and never acknowledged in everyday society of what our people, our team contributes. Our people work hands-on, day in, day out in challenging conditions, with us, side by side. It’s our locals and long termers that ride the highs and lows and are there through all the challenges we face in our industry. With its seasonal peaks and troughs, global demands, and strict compliance and regulations I am well aware this industry is simply not for the faint hearted. This industry demands flexibility and being multi-skilled to survive. There is no time in our company history more evident than what we are facing in today’s world – the worst drought in 100 years, stock and water shortages, bush fires, the initial collapse of the global giant China from COVID-19, then virus breakouts throughout the rest of the world and now hitting our shores; all unprecedented extremes, demanding strategic team thinking and action. The grit, bravery, flexibility and team work I have witnessed over the last four years has been transforma-

tional and nothing short of extraordinary. It’s a hard, tough gig and being a private family company means every day for me is personal. I see celebrations and I see commiserations within our team. I sometimes question myself why do we continue to keep forging ahead with all the tough times. Apart from the fact I was completely brain washed by Dad as a kid with “Fletchers aren’t quitters”; it’s our team that gives me strength, makes me the most grateful and proud that at the very worst times, when adversity hits, I see how our team band together and fight in the trenches shoulder-to-shoulder regardless of title, department or position, and rise above. Like I said, I am a fortunate girl. I have seen workplace culture completely transform, I have got to travel to many countries, and work in different industries, but there is nothing like regional and rural Australia, or the down to earth, tough but compassionate people that I get to be with every day. My mother’s teachings of loyalty, staying grounded, never forgetting where you came from, and remembering who was with you through the hard-times are at the core of my belief system, and I see it translate through actions of our loyal team at our workplace. So again, Ma and Dad, thank-you for just being you, your vision, your teachings – we love you both and you make us all so proud.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

Each working to their strengths ing hard at the accounts and nd d bookwork, but also bringing ng up a young family when Roger ger e had to be away so much of the he time working at his side of the he business. o “I was the night person sso uld d when Roger came home I would ulld uld go to work at midnight. I would he be working until 5.30 in the o morning and then I would g go o home, have a shower and go tto wbed. Roger would have a showed er and go to work, so it worked well,” Mrs Fletcher said. be bl “I wish at times we were able mimi mito spend more time as a famied ly because we have sacrificed hat at so much, and everything that ack k we’ve accomplished goes back r ra into the business – and contrawe ry to what everybody thinks we ars don’t have the boats or the cars or the mansions or whatever. IItt is what it is.” nShe thanks her parents and iinacclaws for her own solid and prace etical grounding in life and is d deuees termined to see the same values instilled in her grandkids. “I will do anything for my m, children but now I say to them, ed d ‘I have raised you, I have loved rri you, I have given you securio ty and I trust you, you can do what you want now.’ It’s these little ones I’m looking out for now, but it’s not only our little ones, I worry about every little child, so my life now is d that I want to give back and

it’s it ’s tto o th tthee children,” chil ch iilldr dren en n,” ,” sshe he said. sai aid. d.. d it’s ever ev e g er o anyw an nyw y whe heree w here itho it thout hout ho “II n never go anywhere without b ck ba k-u -up – one one off tthe on he g rand ra nd ndda back-up grandkids ki dss. I have have v 11 11 of tthem heem an h a d kids. and t ey th ey’r y ’rre be b auti au tiifu f l so oul u s, so so while whiil wh ile they’re beautiful souls, th hey still stiill want wan nt me m th hat at ’ss g oiing ng they me,, that that’s going iit,, I’ ’m th the ere ffo er or th hem m.”” to b bee it I’m there for them.” S e’ Sh e s pr p ou oud ud off tthe hee ffamily h am mil ilyy val va allShe’s proud values and an nd cu cult ltur lt uree wh ur hicch pe errm mee ues culture which permea es all at all l the the operations ope p ra ati tion onss u on un nder ates under tth he Fletcher Flet Fl etch et c err IInternational ch ntteerrnati nati na tion ion nall b anthe banner, r a nd n d p roud ro u tthat hatt th ha he va val lu lues ner, and proud the values lear le a ne ned d ffrom rom rom mb otth sse o eets tss o th their learned both sets off th pare pa rent re n s have nt ha avvee stood sto t od the the he test tesst off parents t mee sso ti o we w ll.. ll time well. “It’ “I t’ss always t’ alwa al w ys been wa bee een n that th hat way, way ay,, I “It’s ha h ave ve always alw lway ayss sa ay said id tthis h s is n hi ot o u ur have not our bu usi s ne ness s , it’s ss it ’ss OUR OUR Rb usin us usin nes esss an and d business, business that a m ea ans tthe he w orke or kers ke rss – II’ve ’vve that means workers alwa al ways y ssaid ys aid ai d th that at,” at ,” M rs F l tc le tche herr always that,” Mrs Fletcher s id sa id.. said. “O Our u sstrength tren tr e gtth comes en c me co mess from, frrom o , “Our be eli liev eve, ev e, Roger’s Rog o er er’s ’s p a en ar ents ts – h i is I b believe, parents his mum’ mu m s wo m’ w rk k eethic thic th ic more mor o e th han na nmum’s work than any h yt hiing g else els l e – but but byy gosh gos osh h ything um a nd dd ad dw eree er myy m mum and dad were sttau unc nch, h, rrespectable, h, e peect es ctab ab ble le, le, staunch, weere re good goo ood d pe peop op plee and and n were people had prin p pr rin nci cipl ples pl es,, an es and d tto o had principles, ou u’v ’vee go gott to oh avee th av he me yyou’ve have the b la ba anc ncee when wh heen n yyou’re o ’r ou ’ree little. liittttle le.. balance sa ay to o my my grandchildren, g an gr a dc dchi hild hi ld dre ren, n, I say ‘Y You o m ayy g eett taller tallle lerr than th han an ‘You may get utt yyou ou will will ill nevil neevn v me b but o k down oo d wn do w o n err llook on meee..’.’” m .’” me.’”

Gailil and Rog Ga oger er Flet Fl etch et ch her rel elax ax-ax ing in g at hom ome e wi with th thei th eirr do ei doub uble ub le coa at chih ch ihua ih u hu ua hua a Mo Mook oki.i. ok Mrss Fl Mr Flet ettch cher er says sa ys the h val a ue uess lear le arne ar ne ed fr f om th hei e r ow own n pa p re rent ntss nt ha ave bee een n co corre re to o the h suc u ce cess ss of t ei th e r fa ami m ly ly,, th hei eirr work wo kfo f rc rce, e, and e, d thei th e r bu ei busi s ne ness ss.. ss PHO HOTO: TO EM TO: MY LOU LOU U

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Fletcher International Exports on their

30 Anniversary th

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Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

COMPANY CULTURE

Willingness to be agile helps Fletchers get through Coronavirus crisis

This family-owned company doesn’t waste its money on smoke and mirrors – meetings of senior staff, essentially the “board”, are held on an old table in the smoko room adjacent to the export office at the Dubbo plant.

By JOHN RYAN ON a normal day Melissa Fletcher used to start work at Fletcher International’s Dubbo plant at about 5am, but for the past couple of months it’s been 4am for the company CEO as she designs how to get the best out of her day and keep 1200 employees across the organisation in work, and safe, during the gravest global crisis in living memory. She deals with more than 100 countries around the world, many of which have long histories of disruption to food security caused by war, droughts and systemic governance issues but, at a time when the world is struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, she said most Australians are only just waking up to the fact that a regular daily food supply doesn’t come with any sort of guarantee. “We are an essential service; I do believe we have the opportunity to put food on shelves and it’s our duty to go on as long as we can. “These are difficult times. Not only have there been water shortages and stock shortages with the drought and so forth, it’s a difficult time, but it’s our duty to provide our workforce and the town to go on as long as we possibly can because we don’t know what the future might hold,” Ms Fletcher told Dubbo Photo News. With dad Roger, she addresses the workforce every few days to give them regular and ongoing updates in a bid to provide the best information and advice she could, but also to warn everyone that any one individual not following strict social distancing guidelines could result in dire

consequences. “I do worry about our community. I think we have been lucky to a degree because we are regionally placed and it is a bit of a sanctuary, that’s how I see it, so it’s important to explain to everyone, ‘Please, be careful where you go, I wouldn’t be running off to Sydney.’ “I did make it pretty strict today,” she admitted, having told the Fletcher’s workforce that if anyone goes to Sydney, for example, they probably “shouldn’t come back to our workplace or to Dubbo to be honest, because Sydney is the place where this virus is exploding and we’d like to keep Dubbo as safe with the least amount of cases as much as possible”, she said. “I just think, at the end of the day, to try and help everyone understand that we’re in this all together and that we all have a duty to one another to keep safe within our workplace, and with what we do outside our workplace. It’s really just education, communication, updating, giving anything that I’ve heard or learnt and passing that on to our extended family.” She said many of the personal hygiene protocols they’ve added aren’t alien concepts to the workers at the plant. “It’s just explaining all those things, and the reinforcement of education about social distancing and washing hands. “There’s a lot that we already do in our industry, we know about hygiene and sanitation because we deal with perishable products so it’s just revamping those standards; it’s looking out for one another but thinking of the overall message that we’re trying to con-

vey to stay healthy. “At the moment it’s just heightening the awareness of it, but the workforce, they’re all excellent. I’m at the gate taking their temperatures every single morning and I love the interaction of seeing where people are at, how are things at home, how are they feeling, what’s happening within the town... It’s an opportunity for them to see they can have an open conversation with our team, about their worries or whatever else it may be,” she said. While mainstream Australia is finally waking up to all the implications of the pandemic, Fletcher International has been speaking daily with their partners and customers in China since last year, trying to work out how to keep the wheels turning and export-earning dollars coming in to sustain the workforce, as well as examining the best methods to keep everyone healthy and safe. The wholesale disruption to exports has created a changed world literally overnight. Melissa Fletcher has been forced to look at issues ranging from taking measures to keep Australian and overseas ports open and operating,

` We can survive catastrophic global crises that we haven’t seen before, it’s because we are so ﬂexible and we are able to change direction, to fulﬁl markets, and see ways to work around things. a – Melissa Fletcher

to juggling orders to customers, as countries close their borders and airlines and cruise ship companies see demand plummet. At the same time Fletcher’s is also looking at swinging export meat into shoring up domestic food supplies. She says what makes her day is company team members coming up with a multitude of suggestions, under immense pressure and on the run, to keep things going. “With what’s happening in the world, in everything that we do we need to be very flexible and fluid. We need to be able to move and do what we need to be able to do, so in terms of ports, what’s happening now in Europe for example. “These are things we talk about 10 times each day – where are we going, what are we doing – and we have really looked at our local market, ramped that up. We do send a fair bit of meat locally,” Ms Fletcher said. “This is what happens when you have global giants like China going down for a period of time. You have to see where else you can go and that’s been such a big team effort between our marketing and sales guys, along with our procurement and stock guys, and then to our production team. We’ve needed all hands on deck to be able to produce all the different specifications to move (our products) to all the different parts of the world – whether it be local, domestic or offshore.” She said that’s ‘been her every day’ in recent months, attending meetings for much of every day. One of their greatest assets is the agility that’s been built into the company culture. That agili-

ty has been ratchetted up in the past four years, and has been one of the main reasons the company has been able to wind its way through a global crisis that has laid waste to many of the world’s top companies almost overnight. “We can survive catastrophic global crises that we haven’t seen before, it’s because we are so flexible and we are able to change direction, to fulfil markets, and see ways to work around things,” Ms Fletcher said. “There are a lot of people that just stop. (To not stop) takes a lot of nerve, a lot of experience, a lot of strategy and being able to move, and honestly, that is all backed up by positive attitude – and the positive attitude comes from the leaders and the captains and the coaches within this workplace. “You’ve got to lead by saying, ‘We can do this, it’s going to be hard, we can whinge and we can vent, but at the end of the day we know we’re going to do it, step up and do it.’ It’s that can-do attitude that I’m probably most proud of, and it’s actually in our hardest moments when things go really wrong, that I am most proud because that’s when we band together,” she said. On Thursday, the leadership team was having discussions about things getting hard and the workforce broke a record. “We achieved the biggest processing run in 30 years on an eight-hour shift. Every day I see little triumphs, and if you don’t see those triumphs and celebrate those triumphs along with all these challenges, what do we do it for,” she questioned. “This workforce can be pretty proud of itself.”

Congratulations

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

Roger Fletcher & Fletcher International Exports

30 Anniversary th

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Fletcher International Exports â&#x20AC;˘ Celebrating 30 Years

SUCCESS STORY

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about teamwork and personal relationships with clients across the world THEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S plenty of talk from corporations about valuing employees and making sure you produce what your customers want, but at Fletcher International both those concepts are embedded in the company culture, and are pillars of the business model. Bernard Gooch is the Group General Manager Marketing and Development for Fletcher International Exports. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been with the company for 28 years and says itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just about business, but rather about teamwork and personal relationships with clients across the world on a daily basis. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have the best team throughout our two plants,â&#x20AC;? Mr Gooch said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our people take so much pride in the products that we produce, which fills us with confidence when flying the Fletcher flag in Australia and overseas. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our customers rely on us to supply exactly what they have ordered, to spec, on time, every time,â&#x20AC;? he said. He related a story to Dubbo Photo News which he says gave him his first lesson in how those personal relationships work â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and add value to the company â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the real world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was a very young whipper-snapper in the marketing department and I travelled with Roger Fletcher to Japan, doing the rounds, having business meetings, and Roger expressed his desire to go to one of the restaurants and eat Australian products,â&#x20AC;? Mr Gooch said. They duly rolled up at a Tokyo back-strap restaurant and enjoyed the food immensely. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Roger asked if we could go out and meet the chef, so we went out to the kitchen, met the chef â&#x20AC;&#x201C; he couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t speak English but in a roundabout sort of way he opened up the stainless steel fridge, pulled a carton of meat out and â&#x20AC;&#x201C; lo and behold â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it was one of our green 15 mutton back-straps.â&#x20AC;?

Mr Gooch said the livering our customchef opened the carers exactly what they ton and he was pointwant,â&#x20AC;? Mr Lyon said. ing to it saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Numâ&#x20AC;&#x153;Every part of our ber one, number one, supply chain â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from number one, Fletchthe farmer right er, number one,â&#x20AC;? but through the transport, at that stage he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t processing, packaging know he was talking and then getting the to Roger Fletcher. product right through to our final customer â&#x20AC;&#x153;Roger was tryâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; is critical to make ing to work out how sure that every part of he was going to exthe chain is working. plain to the guy who he was, so he pulled â&#x20AC;&#x153;When you do that a business card out and when you do deof his pocket and he velop the range of Bernard Gooch, Group General Manager Marketing and gave it to the chef and products weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been Development the chef started bowable to develop, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ing to him and just been able to grow the whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a supermarket in Chisaying â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;number oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. He was al- na or a processing plant anywhere value of that lamb or mutton, and most crying and shaking Rogerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s through Asia or America, we al- in the competitive environment hand, it was a very proud moment ways go to the client and try and we work in, farmers see that value for him,â&#x20AC;? Mr Gooch said. help them and understand what get transferred to the farm gate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I learnt a lot from that day. I they do in their business so we can When that happens, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re underpinning the health and the viabilienjoyed it and it really hit home improve our products for them. that everything that we do in this â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s specification or a ty of our regional and rural towns company is all about genuine di- cutting line of a product, packag- and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another very rewarding rect relationships and trying to ing, or delivery time, we always part of the job,â&#x20AC;? he said. help our customers.â&#x20AC;? Both men agree with Fletcher try and improve that product or â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is these experiences where offer an alternative for the cus- International CEO Melissa Fletcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dictum that constant innovayou can ascertain the real feed- tomer,â&#x20AC;? he said. back about your products and Graham Lyon, another dec- tion is necessary to keep moving how it can affect their business,â&#x20AC;? ades-long employee, now heads up forward, and to stand still is to go Mr Gooch said. Even with the lan- meat marketing and product devel- broke. Dubbo Photo News has done guage barrier and his assertions opment for Fletcher International. about us being number one, we Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seen first-hand that success many stories on the plant where still managed to extract enough has come from understanding the the workers are driving efficienfeedback from him to improve our customer, and learning exactly cies, pushing ideas on how to cut products back at the plants.â&#x20AC;? what they wanted through all the running costs by, for example, usMr Gooch said a major secret different channels â&#x20AC;&#x201C; retail, whole- ing more efficient lights, slashing of success is having direct rela- sale and catering companies, and water use and speeding up the chains. tionships with clients so you can food services. Graham Lyon said the other side maintain full control over that â&#x20AC;&#x153;By sitting with our customproduct through the supply chain ers and understanding what they of the coin was working to find until it gets to the customers. want weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re able to come back to new cuts for new markets that are â&#x20AC;&#x153;We never try and sell some- our plants in Dubbo and Albany more profitable, to maximise the thing to a customer because you and pass that understanding on to return on each and every animal need to sell it. Always approach our team of more than 700 peo- thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s processed at the plant. He says when Fletcher Internathe customer and try and under- ple here. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all focussed on finding tional opened 30 years ago a lot of stand their business better than what they do, so whether thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ways to deliver to the customer ex- carcasses left the plant and there chef in the middle-east in a cater- actly what they want in the Fletch- were just a few different cuts and ing department looking after first er brand â&#x20AC;&#x201C; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the joys of products. class, business class or economy the job. Every day weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re working â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you took a snapshot 15 years in airlines all over the world, or as a team of 1200-odd people, de- ago you had a standard lamb leg,

you had some loin chops, forequarter chops and racks, cuts that Australians would be used to eating,â&#x20AC;? Mr Lyon said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fast forward now to today, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a lamb that would come to this plant that could end up going into 62 different cuts across a hundred countries. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That has enabled farmers to grow their lambs heavier and dramatically increase their returns, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enabled us to take muscle portions and send them to the exact market and to the exact customer,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The same principle applies to mutton. We have successfully developed and marketed tailored cuts globally, helping mutton become one of the best performing agricultural products in Australia,â&#x20AC;? he said. And he says the graziers and farmers who supply to the company are a critical part of the supply chain, with both the Dubbo and Western Australian processing plants working together to ensure that any animals from any regions can be properly utilised. â&#x20AC;&#x153;From a livestock point of view, again, with Rogerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stewardship, we know that the geography around Australia is hugely different, the seasons are hugely variable, and so farms will turn off different types of lamb sizes, weights and fat class,â&#x20AC;? Mr Lyon said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So as a company our philosophy is that we have to be able to buy from all these diverse geographical areas, all the different types of stock, and then we have to be able to produce them for different customers around the world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Western Australian plantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been very successful working with us so we can serve different customers in different parts of the world 52 weeks of the year, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hugely important when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re serving global retailers or food service companies like airlines or cruise lines,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Congratulations to Fletcher International on the milestone of 30 years of trade.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years COMMENT

Dubbo Works is working to build a stronger community By TIM PANKHURST Managing Director, Dubbo Photo News

The Dynamic Team from Fletcher Grain: Kurt Wilkinson, Joe Masters, Holly O'Regan, Sam White, Sarah Granger, Matt Singh, Jake Young and Sean Magnusson

GRAIN – GROWERS

Fletcher Grain Operations Subdivision THE Operations department under the Fletcher Commodities division has been one of extreme growth and more recently, contraction. The site employment at its peak in 2016 had more than 70 full time and part time employees. The task of unloading upwards of 300 trucks or 12,000mt every day tested the department. Huge pressure was placed on the team and facilities to manage this task, which carried on across seven days per week for five weeks. The most recent drought has caused drastic contraction within the business where our staffing levels are sitting at approximately 15. The flexibility of this team to expand and contract with the seasons in this business has ensured the division’s survival today.

The site’s original capacity was set up for 13,000mt of silo storage in 2009. This was primarily set up to cater for Fletcher’s Condobolin farm “Kiagarthur Station’’, to market grain directly. It was soon apparent that without volume, the supply chain costs would be far too high to compete. Therefore a constant investment program during the past 11 years has helped boost the site into the super-site it is today with the below facilities: z Grain storage capacity of 250,000 metric tons (silo, bunker and shed) storage. z Cotton lint warehouse capacity of 90,000 static cotton lint bales. z Grain packing capacity up to 2500mt or 100 x 20’ containers per day. z Cottonseed packing capacity up to 2000mt or 40

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x 40’ containers per day. z Cotton lint packing capacity 4480 bales per day or 40 x 40’ containers. z High capacity grain cleaning machine ensuring a high standard quality for export. The Operations subdivision has a variety of positions including plant/ machinery operators, fixed machine operators, samplers, truck drivers, forklift drivers, trades assistants, fumigators and much more. The site is constantly being reviewed to ensure the most current up to date safety management processes are in place with our equipment and people. Site security has recently been overhauled, with new fences and camera program installed. The site prides itself on having accurate and industry leading equipment, ensuring

rigorous quality tests are 100 per cent accurate. The original objective when the site was built was to service the Fletcher Abattoir business and Fletcher farms to meet the logistical needs. During the 11-year period, this objective has evolved. By design, the Fletcher family objectives also now include creating long term sustainable relationships up and down the supply chain. Every asset and staff member is geared toward supporting this, through a strong focus on quality, transparency, honesty and efficiency. This can be as simple as ensuring farmers receive quick unloading of delivery trucks, or as technical as conditioning and blending wheat grades, to achieve an exact quality in which a customer requires for a flour mill.

We’ll help you build a great team

THE Mission Statement of Dubbo Photo News says we aim to promote and prosper our people,, our readers, our adverertisers and our community. We’ve always held the belief that Dubbo is a great community to live and work in. With that in mind, a few years ago we started a regular series of stories centred on Dubbo’s largest private employer, Fletcher International Exports. The idea was to highlight to the whole community that here was a major employer who was providing solid career opportunities to people from all walks of life, from all sorts of backgrounds, and from many different parts of the world. Fletcher’s is arguably the best example we can hold up as proving that Dubbo is a great place to build a career. Working closely with Fletcher’s management, we also soon discovered that even though Dubbo Photo News counts as a small business and Fletchers a very big one, we had common ground in our belief that more needed to be done to promote the many opportunities to work and thrive here in this region. We all felt that, too often, young people believed they needed to leave town when they finished high school to chase their career dreams. We wanted to point out that in most cases that’s not the reality. We believe that, these days, there are only a very few career choices that require you to leave this area for tertiary education and/or opportunity. Plus, if you keep calling Dubbo home, you have

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the added benefits o more affordable of living costs, wider spaces, fresher air, and staying close to family and good friends! Fletcher’s and Dubbo Photo News also share the view that, at a time when many people living in capital city and coastal areas are looking for a ‘tree change’, Dubbo ought to be top of their list of places to relocate to. So we jointly devised the Dubbo Works campaign. It’s all about promoting the thousands of career opportunities available here, in just about any field you can imagine. Dubbo Works also promotes the quality education options available here. To their enormous credit, the management at Fletcher’s – in particular Melissa Fletcher and Maddy Herbert – pretty much insisted that Dubbo Works wasn’t to be just about Fletcher’s. To truly do its job, Dubbo Works had to be about the whole of our community. Dubbo Works continues to be enormously successful and we are committed to continuing its strong and positive message for a long time to come. The fact that Fletcher’s has supported the campaign so enthusiastically speaks volumes for their attitude towards the city the family has built their business in over the past three decades. Everyone involved in Dubbo Works is a strong believer that positive initiatives such as this will help Dubbo grow, and remind us all that Dubbo is truly a great place to live and work.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

FARMING

FLETCHER INTERNATIONAL

From Fletcher farms to your door

Family business, global outlook By JOHN RYAN

FLETCHER INTERNATIONAL’S farming interests were started with the core business in mind and this remains the case today. Continued expansion of company-owned farmland enables Fletcher International Exports (FIE) to consistently supply its customers with prime quality cross-bred lambs throughout the year. With more than 250,000 acres, the company’s pastoral holdings include over 100,000 acres of cropping, 10,000 acres of irrigation and more than 140,000 acres of prime livestock grazing land. This land also provides a vehicle to conduct a number of research programs which, in turn, benefit the entire industry. Spanning the Australian states of NSW, Queens-

` (When we purchased Kiagarthur Station) I knew this was sound sheep country, with tremendous irrigation and cropping capabilities. a – Roger Fletcher

land and Western Australia, Fletcher’s properties produce not only high quality sheep and lambs, but also a range of grains, pulses and cotton. These crops can then be handled through the company’s own grain handling and intermodal freight terminal, ensuring total care and control of the product from Fletcher farms to your door.

FACING the most widespread challenge in a century, Roger Fletcher and son Farron spent a few days during March driving through outback Queensland to catch up with producers, suppliers and agents who are vital links in the Fletcher International supply chain. That’s the way the company does business – face to face – although this time around, the social distancing conventions were observed. After droughts and floods, farmers uncertain about how the Coronavirus pandemic was going to impact them had a new worry – many areas were infested by tiny flightless grasshoppers that were laying waste to the lush feed those graziers had spent years praying for. Acknowledging the seriousness of the grasshopper plague, Roger Fletcher told those affected that they were exactly the same type of locusts that drove him off his family’s farm in 1965 after finally seeing good feed after an extended drought. “I said to some people, ‘Well, see those little grasshoppers, without them I wouldn’t be standing here today because that’s the reason I left home, they ate our farm out, I put the sheep on the road, worked out while I was on the road so that I could make a living out of the stock routes, and the rest is history,’” Mr Fletcher said. “I walked off the farm with an old ute and a little box trailer, we had our backs to the wall but there were no other options and that’s no different to what we’ve got with the Coronavirus, the same sort of challenge, and we have to make it work so you’re looking at long term. “Out of the adversity of it all there will be some positives, and that always happens. I always say you’ve

Congratulations To Fletcher International Exports From the team at the Dubbo Show Society

Regional Australia Bank Annual Dubbo Show 2021

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The Fletchers value their long-standing partners – multiple generations of the family turning out to give a tour of the grain terminal to former drivers, staff, contractors and drovers from Walkers Transport at a company reunion in January 2019

got to think forward, I think this is just another challenge,” he said. He says starting out with nothing, and valuing family and the company workers more than material possessions, means he can face this current crisis with the same attitude he and wife Gail have used to combat many adverse situations in the past. Mr Fletcher is urging the wider community to keep their distance and to have no unnecessary interactions, and he believes the trials and tribulations of the months ahead will bring people closer together. “You know, out of all those things comes positives, and even with all this challenge in front of us, hopefully a few years down the track we can say we’re a better country because we’ve learned some lessons from it.” Mr Fletcher believes the success of the company rests on innovative thinking, learning from adverse events and creating a culture where the entire workforce is encouraged to contribute ideas. Setting up a new abattoir in 1989, the first in about 20 years, was innovative in itself at a time when dozens of council-run plants across the state were going broke. “Dubbo’s the central part of eastern Australia, if you look at a map it’s very close to being the centre, so you can drag from Queensland and Victoria and NSW, east and west,” Mr Fletcher said. “The city had a large enough population to supply reliable labour, the intersection of the roads was good and we were fortunate enough to get a site where we wouldn’t be entrapped by housing. “It was a no-brainer and I mean, you’ve gotta remember that previous to that there were council abattoirs in every small town in eastern Australia. They were all failures – government can’t run businesses and they shouldn’t be running businesses,” he said. The current crisis, he said, has brought the company even closer to their clients in countries like China which have suffered so badly. “We’ve had a huge crisis with shipping into China, and I think it’s not only brought our Chinese clients closer together, there’s even more trust now between us,” Mr Fletcher said. “With all the problems they’ve had in China, we haven’t had one customer let us down, that’s massive. We worry about them and they

worry about us. “In adversity, good things can come out of it, and the best thing the Dubbo community can do is support each other. When people are down, give them confidence that we’re going to come out of this and Dubbo’s going to be a better city for it.” Also proving a great help in the current crisis was the mid-1990s decision to close the office in Sydney and run the entire business from Dubbo. It was an unheard of move at the time, but it turned out to be the solution to so many marketing strategies over the years and it’s of unparalleled importance now – having all the key decision makers in the same location when critical decisions need to be made every minute. “The problem was the people down there were selling the meat but they never saw the meat, and they couldn’t see how production was all working, so I sat down one day and said to a couple of the young people working for me, ‘Why do we need an office in Sydney?’ And I think that’s probably one of the greatest things we did,” Mr Fletcher said. It’s not unusual to see three generations of the Fletcher family on the production floor in any one day, and Roger Fletcher says the key is to bring everyone up through the company the same way. He’s thankful that son Farron handles the farming side of the business, one daughter Pam works at the Western Australian plant, and their other daughter Melissa oversees the group as CEO. “Our kids were taught from the bottom up you know, they’d go out with me buying sheep or they’d be working in the abattoirs; they started with little jobs and that led to other jobs, so they’ve done everything that any of the people working for us have done, and they understand where everything comes from. “When Melissa was only three or four years old, I’d take her out buying sheep and she knew all the old agents and the farmers, but I mean, that’s all part of it. “Melissa worked at this plant packing brains and things when she was a little kid – and that was important. All the young people who start with us, they learn under us, we never bring anyone in from outside as a senior person to run the business because they need to be taught and to learn from the bottom up,” he said.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

Language is important... ` Our strength comes from, I believe, Roger’s parents, his mum’s work ethic more than anything else, but by gosh my mum and dad were staunch, respectable; they were good people and had principles and to me you’ve got to have the balance when you’re little, and I say to my grandchildren, ‘You may get taller than me but you will never look down on me. a

` As I travel the world and Australia, there is this romantic misconception that the farmer breeds the animal and then it magically appears on a fancy plate as a rack of lamb somewhere in the world. Too often, the vital link in the chain that is missed and never acknowledged in everyday society is what our people, our team, contributes. a

` Melissa used to come with me when she was three or four years old, out buying stock, and she was always working at the Abattoir when she wasn't at school. All the kids started work early in the job and now the grandkids, the ones in Western Australia and here in NSW, they’re all starting by working through the system too. a

– Gail Fletcher

– Melissa Fletcher

– Roger Fletcher

` I’ve been lucky in life in having half a dozen mentors and some of them didn’t even know they were mentors for me. Sometimes it was just that little bit of support I needed when things were tough, when a door closed, and Melissa’s better at it than I am when any of our people have a bit of a problem and she’s pulled them out of their troubles, and that’s something I’ve passed on to her. Farron does it differently again, he gets very close when trying to solve our people’s problems for them, and that’s something we’ve all got to do. a

` Melissa, from a really young age, went and managed the plant in Western Australia when she was only 22. She went across with nine young kids who worked with us in Dubbo, including one of our workers who was conﬁned to a wheelchair. She put 500 people on and that was an incredible effort, but she’d grown up working all across the business and that showed her how things worked, and how to work with other people. a

` All these young people running divisions in the company, they all started from scratch and had a little bit of oomph. We don’t care where they come from or who they are, as long as they’re keen to do something, and that’s far better than buying people from other companies. a

` Having Melissa as CEO, well that takes a lot of pressure off me of course, because you’re trying to look at where you’re going in the next three or four years and she’s there doing that frontline hard stuff. a

` We are an essential service; I do believe we have the opportunity to put food on shelves and it’s our duty to go on as long as we can. These are difficult times. Not only have there been water shortages and stock shortages with the drought and so forth, it’s a difficult time, but it’s our duty to provide our workforce and the town to go on as long as we possibly can because we don’t know what the future might hold. a

– Roger Fletcher

– Melissa Fletcher

– Roger Fletcher

– Melissa Fletcher

` My mother was a great teacher, and I started catching rabbits when I was six years old and picking up dead wool; she was a teacher, and when Melissa and Farron and Pam came along they were taught basically the same thing, my mother passed that onto me which I’ve tried to pass on to them. a

` We had the kids packing brains when they were still tiny at school and it taught them how to work with people. (Our son) Farron’s young fellow is six tomorrow and he’s been running around with sheep and on tractors for the last two years, and he’s that sort of little kid, he just wants to be in the middle of things. a

` I wish at times we were able to spend more time as a family because we have sacriﬁced so much and everything that we've accomplished goes back into the business, and contrary to what everybody thinks we don't have the boats or the cars or the mansions or whatever, it is what it is. a

– Roger Fletcher

– Gail Fletcher

– Roger Fletcher

` You’ve got to lead by saying, ‘We can do this, it’s going to be hard, we can whinge and we can vent, but at the end of the day we know we’re going to do it, step up and do it.’ It’s that can-do attitude that I’m probably most proud of, and it’s actually in our hardest moments when things go really wrong, that I am most proud because that’s when we band together. a

Congratulations to Roger Fletcher & Fletcher International Exports on 30 years of trade.

Mark COULTON MP NATIONALS FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PARKES

Shop 3, 153 Brisbane Street, Dubbo NSW 2830 mark.coulton.mp@aph.gov.au

markcoulton.com.au

02 6882 0999 MarkCoultonMP

Authorised by Mark Coulton MP, National Party of Australia, Shop 3, 153 Brisbane Street, Dubbo NSW 2830.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

THE EARLY DAYS

How a couple of drovers forged a life-long business friendship ROGER FLETCHER’S first employee was Henry Woods who, when he started work droving mobs of sheep, brought along his 1950s V8 Ford ute – which didn’t run on every cylinder – and a three-legged sheepdog named Hank. “I had an old 1950s Ford ute when I started with Roger in the late 1960s. It didn’t run on all its eight cylinders, it used to miss so we’d undo the rocker cover – it had big wing nuts on the rocker cover – and push the rocker back on with a bit of wire and reset it and she’d be good,” Mr Woods said. “Every time you wanted to start it, you’d have to get somebody to come along and give her a jump-start!” Roger Fletcher said it was always wise to park the old ute on a slope so it could be roll-started. “Yep, a bit hard around Mungindi though,” Mr Woods said, referring to the very flat country up in that part of the state. Roger reckons it was the package deal of a lifetime – the Fletcher kids grew up calling him Uncle Henry and he worked for the family until he retired his stock trucks just a few years ago. “Henry stuck to me when we were doing it real tough, he would never walk. Plenty

of times I had nothing except a mob of sheep, no money, no feed, and I said to Henry, ‘If you go I can’t blame you, and he’d stick it out,’” Mr Fletcher said. “When we were droving, we didn’t spend any money so Henry saved a bit and he always wanted to be a truck driver. “He got a bit of money together for a truck, then he hit some hard times so he came back and built up the trucks with us,” he said. “The Fletchers are a good family mate... yeah, loyal, you looked after him and he looked after you,” Mr Woods said. “Roger went to school a couple of years ahead of me. I left school at 14 then I went working on a farm for 12 months at one pound a week and my tucker. “Then the 1965 drought came and I went droving.” Mr Woods said he’d see Roger and Peter and his father out with their mob of sheep, and then one day in 1967, “Roger came and seen me and said he was putting a mob of sheep on the road and that’s when I started with him. “He’s looked after everybody who works for him. To me he wasn’t a boss, he was a mate you see, and we’d work for years out there at night-time

drenching them or crutching them,” he said. In the back country things didn’t always go according to plan and Henry said you could look like you were onto a good thing one minute, and you’d be bust the next – even if you were doing the simple job of cooking for the drovers. “In ‘69 my cousin came up to cook for us on the road and we trained the sheep down from Winton to Blackall, and my young cousin, he finished up when we were down around Mungindi,” Mr Woods said. “He’d bought a ute off Roger with the money he’d earned from cooking for us for five or six months, but he rolled (the ute) over near Mullaley on the way home. He had to give the wreck to the tow truck bloke for the cost of him towing it away. “The story was, I think, he got the spare tyre off it so all he finished up with after all that time working was a spare tyre off the ute,” he said. Mr Woods moved to Dubbo in 1989 when Fletcher International built its Dubbo plant with one old truck. “Then I went to two trucks and three trucks, four and five, up to seven at one stage just doing all Roger’s work. We’d run out empty and come back with sheep,” Mr Woods said.

Above: Henry Woods (right) with Fletcher International’s Moree-based stock buyer Austin Finlayson. Right: Henry Woods

“He forged a great business and he’s known all over the country,” Mr Fletcher said. “We walked sheep from all over NSW and Queensland together in those early days and that’s where we learnt a lot of things; as drovers we learnt a lot of things that other people don’t realise. “So many people were good to us and those relationships have gone for years and years and years and that’s what happens. “There’s a million stories like that about our relationships, and they’re the things I’m proud of – our relationships around the world,” Mr Fletcher said.

From the Fletcher’s photo album 80 Years Experience - Managemen t Team Col Towers (31yrs), Jason Herbert (27yrs) & Dave Merrifield (22yrs)

The company is committed to help those less fortunate - here the Foodbank team visits the Dubbo plant to discuss the best way to get food to people in need

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Congratulations

Congratulates

Roger and the team at

Fletcher International Exports on 30 successful years

FOR 30 YEARS IN BUSINESS structural, civil & geotechnical engineering building design | town planning | surveying project management | environmental services landscape architecture | services engineering NATA accredited soil testing laboratories

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02 6862 4833 15 Bourke Street, Dubbo

Fletcher International Exports â&#x20AC;˘ Celebrating 30 Years LARGE SCALE FAMILY FARMING

Farron farms for Fletcher family

By JOHN RYAN FARRON Fletcher manages the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extensive agricultural operations and says the company didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t buy into land purely as a way of diversifying from processing plants, but rather in a bid to integrate back into the sector that it services. Back up the supply chain and investing in the industry itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s part of. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a seasonal game and it is so important to have consistent supply 52 weeks of

the year,â&#x20AC;? Mr Fletcher said, pointing out downstream clients who rely on Fletchers to be able to keep their businesses ticking over. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For example, our overseas customers invest a lot of money on in-store promotions at a retail level, an advertising campaign or even some food service distributors might paint their vans and truck with our Fletcher logo. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having the farms and breeding enterprises has enabled us to supply all year round which

Member for Parkes Mark Coulton with Roger Fletcher and Minister for Agriculture and Deputy Leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud

In 2005, the family purchased Kiagarthur Station, a large landholding west of Condobolin on the Lachlan River. The previous owner was the Kidman Family who had just completed extensive flood irrigation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A large area is devoted to farming as well as sheep grazing,â&#x20AC;? Mr Fletcher said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We developed a lamb feedlot to supply the Dubbo processing plant to have a continuous stream of animals to help smooth out the troughs in the

USA Cli Clientt Will Vahle, V hl Ed McManus FIE, Will Toovey FIE, Melissa Fletcher FIE, Graham Lyon FIE

is critical for our customers and their businesses,â&#x20AC;? he said. In 1999, the company had thousands of sheep on agistment in north western NSW. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Roger had been in that country in a previous life as a drover and knew the area and the potential for a sheep breeding enterprise,â&#x20AC;? Mr Fletcher said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Over the next few years he put together seven farms to its current holding of over 40,000 hectares just north of Lightning Ridge and across the Queensland border.â&#x20AC;?

supply chain.â&#x20AC;? He said the family and staff know about farming, what it takes to get a lamb on the ground and through to the market, what it takes to put a crop in on time and get it off. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The agriculture sector is challenging and so diversified, the conditions that Australian farmers have to not just operate in, but also to live in,â&#x20AC;? Mr Fletcher said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having farming enterprises sprang from the need to be able to ensure reliable supply.â&#x20AC;?

h needed Brett Stockings helping deliver muc 2018 Warren

drought aid,

CONGRATULATIONS

TO FLETCHER INTERNATIONAL EXPORTS ON THEIR 30 YEARS MILESTONE FROM MID CITY MECHANICAL REPAIRS STAFF & MANAGEMENT

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Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years

The changing face of the livestock and processing industries By JOHN RYAN AS livestock manager for Fletcher International, Terry Mitchell and his team of buyers travel the odd kilometre or two every week. Since his 1993 start with the company he’s clocked millions of kilometres looking at sheep across the eastern states. He says it was always meant to be, although initially he loved his cattle. “I’ve been involved with livestock my whole life, growing up with mainly cattle, and only had a few sheep when I was younger,” Mr Mitchell said. “I came down to Dubbo in school holidays during Year 12 for a bit of a look, I was cattle-mad back then, not sheep-mad at all. There was an opportunity here and Roger (Fletcher) told me I could have a start the next year in the livestock.” Mr Mitchell started in the skins, then worked in the boning room, and a little bit on the harvest floor on and off for the first 12 to 18 months. He then got into buying all the bags the company uses, a role he said was completely alien and foreign, but an amazing opportunity to learn something new. “It set me up because I’d had no experience in administration, purchasing, stocktaking at all. Roger and the team taught me how to come from being shy and quiet, in my shell, to dealing with people in the world who were from all different walks of life,” he said. “They taught me that if there’s a problem, pick the phone up, start talking and you’ll work it out. If you sit there and look at it, that doesn’t work; just back yourself and do it and that taught me a lot about life and life-skills, I learnt a lot doing those bags. “I was also dealing with people in this company that I wasn’t used to dealing with; people who wer-

Terry Mitchell is the livestock manager for Fletcher International.

en’t from the rural side, the livestock side, and I was dealing with people in Sydney and Melbourne where we were having problems and having to sort them out, so there was a lot of problem-solving. It was a great experience.” He believes that culture of multi-skilling uniquely equips company staff to surmount any problems, and believes a great strength of the organisation comes from so many people not only being able to fill in on various roles, but understand how and where different departments fit into the big picture, instead of just thinking their job was the

most important. He said the livestock and processing industries of 2020 bear little resemblance to the rural landscape of the early 1990s, with Australia’s dynamics shifting from a nation of wool production to mixed meat and wool enterprises. “A lot of producers now are focussed on fat lambs, prime lambs, and properties have become more intense as people have needed to get more value out of the country that they’ve got,” Mr Mitchell said. “Many people have become either breeders or fatteners rather

than just breeding sheep for wool, so there’s a lot of stock traded. One area will breed but they don’t have the season to fatten so they breed and sell to the fattening areas and that sort of thing. People have gotten very smart, very professional and there’s a lot of tools and tricks they can utilise.” He said many producers probably don’t realise how close and in-tune they are to the end user a lot of the time, with many believing they’ll simply take the price they’re offered but they don’t ask questions. “We always ask people when they last went to an abattoirs to

watch their stock, so we get them to visit the plant, have a yarn to Roger, Bernard, Graham, and they leave with their eyes opened – they can’t believe what they learn and it’s so important they see the link between their product and where it’s going.” Mr Mitchell said demands from various markets had seen a massive tightening in the specifications for sheep the company buys for processing. “We’d load a road train at Longreach back in the ‘90s and the sheep would range from probably an 18 kilo carcass through to a 38 kilo carcass, whereas now we’ll buy a road train of sheep that all look the same and they’re all of similar weight, so people have gotten very good at marketing their stock,” he said. “For instance, I recently sent an email to other departments to let them know we’d be getting in a line of specific stock which are heavy, cross-bred and merino lambs coming off grass. “There’s different markets, grain-fed or grass-fed, we’ve been through a rip-roaring drought so we haven’t had the luxury of having grass-fed lambs, whereas now we’re going to see a lot of them and we have specific markets for them that our marketing guys can target.” Mr Mitchell and our team of buyers have walked on to many of the same farms year after year buying stock and says respect, integrity and honesty are the foundational planks on which Fletcher International’s success is built. “The integrity of the way we operate as a company is the biggest thing we pride ourselves on, our integrity and our honesty gets us back onto the place. “When we leave a place after buying stock we want to be invited back, that’s how we do business, and I’m proud to say all our buyers go out with that attitude,” Mr Mitchell said.

FAMILY

Honorary family member loved by all By JOHN RYAN

Jeanette Ledsham was with the Fletcher family from the very start, pictured here with lifelong friends Roger and Gail Fletcher at her farewell dinner.

JEANETTE LEDSHAM began her career with Fletcher International when the company’s office was a tiny room in the family home in Gunnedah, starting work on January 24, 1983. She welcomed the kids when they arrived home from school each day and, according to Melissa Fletcher, she became an honorary family member to them all. “She worked from the office which was in our family home, we had an outside toilet and two bedrooms,” Ms Fletcher said. “Even when we moved, the office was still in the new house so she was always such a close part of our lives. She saw all of us grow up, she was always in our lives and she was part of our whole extended family. She

was much more than an employee – she was a very, very close family friend. “She never took anything for granted because she saw where Mum and Dad came from, and she stuck by us through the good, the bad, the ugly. I’d walk in that office every day and I still think of her sitting there, she was around forever.” Ms Fletcher said nothing phased ‘Netto’, she never, ever saw her cranky, upset or angry, and believes that consistency of positivity was a great part of her childhood. “She was our consistency, no matter what was happening she was always happy, happy to see you no matter the pressure that Mum and Dad were under while they were growing the business and taking big steps. No matter what, she just rolled with the punches and had the

happiest, most positive disposition,” Ms Fletcher said. “Weekly wages were done by cash so they’d go down to the bank and the account sometimes didn’t have enough so they’d have to scrape some from somewhere, and I remember Mum and Netto dividing up the cash for our workers in the boning room. “She was there from day one – and her whole family moved with us from Gunnedah to Dubbo when we opened the business here. “She stuck by us through thick and thin,” Ms Fletcher said. Mrs Ledsham retired from the company on November 19, 2015, after being with the Fletcher family for almost 33 years. Sadly, she passed away on September 12, 2016, aged 69.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years INTERMODAL FREIGHT DIVISION

Making import and export of freight seamless THE Fletcher Commodities division manages one of the most vertically integrated logistics supply chains in the country. It has been backed by a significant capital investment program by the Fletcher family during the past 11 years which includes hardstand gravel, multiple heavy lifting forklifts, 2 x 10,000 sqm storage sheds, 2 x trade certified road train weigh bridges, 3 x C44 4500hp locomotives, 62 wagons, as well as a 1.35km spur line. These investments into industry leading technologies have created economies of scale and efficiencies of which, our company and the wider community, would not have had access to. This multi-faceted subdivision really takes the meaning of diversification to the next level. The business transports many different products including: z Lead z Sheep Meat z Wool z Zinc z Sheep Skins z Imported steel z Tallow products z Grain z Bee’s wax z Oilseeds z Cement z Pulses z Lime z Cotton z Copper z Chemicals

This combined freight task has generated wide interest in the shipping industry, leading to long term direct relationships with most major shipping lines. In a normal year Fletcher’s handles almost 50,000 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent) of containers movements between Sydney and Dubbo. The entire containerised supply chain for all of these products is managed in house. From import clearance, rail, storage to distribution, road transport locally and internationally, to export certification and shipping. Documentation, scheduling, storage management, loading and unloading are just some of the tasks the team carry out daily. The overall diversification of products and services combined with extensive vertical integration has meant that the Fletcher Logistics business has been able to withstand the headwinds of the worst drought on record and now COVID-19. It is a credit to the open minded, forward thinking view of the Fletcher family to allow a business to grow into such a unique, diverse strength, within the group.

ZŽďĞƌƚ ,ŽůŵĞƐ dƌĂŶƐƉŽƌƚ ĐŽŵŵĞŶĐĞĚ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ &ůĞƚĐŚĞƌ /ŶƚĞƌŶĂƟ ŽŶĂů ǆƉŽƌƚƐ 30 years ago

• RHT Dubbo & Sydney Warehouses are fully equipped with storage ĨĂĐŝůŝƟ ĞƐ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ • dƌĂŶƐƉŽƌƚ ^ŽůƵƟ ŽŶƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚ ƵďďŽ ĂŶĚ ĞŶƚƌĂů tĞƐƚ ŝŶĐůƵĚŝŶŐ Forbes, Parkes, Orange, Bathurst, Wellington, Manildra, Newcastle, Sydney Daily and Return • KƵƌ ŽŵƉƌĞŚĞŶƐŝǀĞ &ůĞĞƚ ĂŶĚ dƌĂŝůĞƌ ŽƉƟ ŽŶƐ ĞŶƐƵƌĞƐ ǁĞ ĂƌĞ ĂďůĞ ƚŽ Žī Ğƌ Ă ƐŽůƵƟ ŽŶ ƚŽ ŵŽƐƚ ĨƌĞŝŐŚƚ ŵŽǀĞŵĞŶƚ ŽƉĞƌĂƟ ŽŶƐ͘ • Z,d ŝƐ ƚŚĞ ƵďďŽ ĂŐĞŶƚ ĨŽƌ ŚĞƉ WĂůůĞƚƐ ƵƐƚƌĂůŝĂ • Regardless of your freight requirements, please don’t hesitate to ĐŽŶƚĂĐƚ ZŽďĞƌƚ ,ŽůŵĞƐ dƌĂŶƐƉŽƌƚ ĂŶĚ ǁĞ ǁŝůů ŐŽ ĂďŽǀĞ ĂŶĚ ďĞǇŽŶĚ ƚŽ ŵĞĞƚ Ăůů ǇŽƵƌ dƌĂŶƐƉŽƌƚ͕ ŝƐƚƌŝďƵƟ ŽŶ ĂŶĚ tĂƌĞŚŽƵƐŝŶŐ ƌĞƋƵŝƌĞͲ ŵĞŶƚƐ͘ tŝƚŚ ŽƵƌ /ŶĚƵƐƚƌǇ ǆƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ ƐƉĂŶŶŝŶŐ ŽǀĞƌ ϱϰ ǇĞĂƌƐ͕ ǁĞ ĐĂŶ ǁŽƌŬ ƚŽŐĞƚŚĞƌ ǁŝƚŚ ǇŽƵƌ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ ƚŽ ĂĐŚŝĞǀĞ ŵĂǆŝŵƵŵ ƌĞƐƵůƚƐ͘

ROBERT HOLMES TRANSPORT “Our Service is your Success”

7L Boothenba Rd, PO Box 1436 DUBBO NSW 2830 Phone: (02) 6884 4866 Email: rhtrans@bigpond.net.au Website:www.rhtrans.com.au

Fletcher International Exports â&#x20AC;˘ Celebrating 30 Years

SKINS

Gerald has skin in the game â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a career devoted to the sheepskin and wool industry By JOHN RYAN GERALD WEBSTER has been working for the Fletcher family before they even set up shop in Dubbo, starting with the company back in its Gunnedah days during the 1980s. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now the wool and sheepskins manager and, while those products account for a large portion of turnover, they fly under the radar of public perception. Mr Webster said when most people think of Fletcher International the images that come to mind are of boxes of lamb legs, shoulders and chops being processed in Dubbo and sent to more than 100 countries world-wide. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re constantly looking for new products to get the highest value off the animals â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the industry has evolved over the years that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been involved,â&#x20AC;? Mr Webster said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the late 1980s we were air-drying sheepskins and sending them to France, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d remove and sell the greasy wool over there and process the pelts into chamois leather or lining leather, that was the majority of the skins. Mr Webster has noticed the market for sheepskins for car seat coverings, which was very large, has been diminishing. Sales into the shoe and boot-lining markets also slowing down. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All the cold countries for the winter markets, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where the majority of skins end up, but some of them come back to Australia for car-care products.â&#x20AC;? He said itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vital to stay abreast of the latest trends, markets and processing innovations because it was crucially important to get the highest value from the products â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, he said youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll go backwards and get left well behind.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It means we create more jobs at the plant and in the company, and it puts more money in the farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pockets as well because we can afford to pay more for their sheep,â&#x20AC;? Mr Webster said. That involves letting farmers know how they can best produce their sheep to get the highest dollar. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We grade skins and wool to meet the specifications of our various buyers so weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not just lumping them with a container load of product that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t suitable,â&#x20AC;? Mr Webster said, pointing out the company generally produced 30 separate lines of sheep and lamb skins to ensure they always had exactly what each of their clients required. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big job to manage so many lines, especially because we have to keep up to the chainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production speed. The work is very detailed and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of people involved to make it all work. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We employ people with no experience in sheepskins, so theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all taught in-house, taught from scratch, but we do that because it all comes back to getting the right product for the customer,â&#x20AC;? he explained. Fletcher International Exportsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; wool division is a large provider and harvester of greasy wool and that product makes up a core part of the business. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That wool is sourced from sheep on the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s farms as well as the fleeces from the production throughput of both plants and makes Fletcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the largest harvester, packer and producer of greasy wool in Australia,â&#x20AC;? Mr Webster said. The wool is consolidated at the Dubbo wool division managed by Gerald Webster and sold through traditional auction systems or via private tenders as well as being sold direct to clients and is then shipped to Sydney to begin its

Fletcher Internationalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wool and sheepskins manager Gerald Webster

long journey to countries around the world. He said the markets and customers have changed dramatically over the years and the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ethos is to work closely with those clients to ensure Fletcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always know their requirements to the most minute detail. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We visit them regularly, and they come out to visit us in Dubbo, we go through the lines and we spend a lot of time working on that side of things,â&#x20AC;? he said. Roger Fletcher said the company was in the frontline when

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skin processing in France was collapsing and being done in new locations such as China. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We learnt a lot when France was getting out of it and we had to work with new clients for years because everyone had to learn a lot to create new processes, markets and products,â&#x20AC;? Mr Fletcher said. Mr Webster laughed that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been on a steep learning curve since joining the company in 1988. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop learning either,â&#x20AC;? he said. Bernard Gooch, Fletcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s general manager for marketing and

development, said heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d travelled through China with Gerald Webster last year which confirmed in his mind that the personal relationships built and established by the company were the foundational rock for its ongoing success. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I saw the relationships Gerald had built with some of his customers, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true that in any marketing job, the first thing you have to do is know your product â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and there wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be anyone in this country whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d know the sheepskin game, and wool, better than Gerald,â&#x20AC;? Mr Gooch said.

Fletcher International Exports • Celebrating 30 Years