CRT Shopping Basket Fills

South Island farming services co-operative CRT has bought Southland stock-food manufacturing business Winton Stock Feed (WST) as part of a year- long shopping spree.

CRT takes possession of the business on September 1 for an undisclosed sum to give it a firm supply of livestock feed. CRT will retain staff at the Winton plant for manufacturing of stock feed mainly for the dairy, sheep, deer, pig, horse and chicken markets. These products will eventually be rebranded under CRT Feed’s Reliance and McMillans Equine brands.

CRT chief executive Brent Esler said the co-operative would rely on its store and technical field-officer network to increase sales and lift the plant’s operating capacity. He said the WST acquisition, coupled with its new feed mill in Rolleston, had fast- tracked the co-operative’s strategy for feed manufacturing development in the South Island.

The manufacturing plant would strengthen its ability to provide continuity of supply across the South Island, he said.

CRT is in a better position to buy grain from its arable farming shareholders, add value by manufacturing and sell finished products to the pastoral shareholder base.

Esler said CRT had increased its ability to redistribute profits from the supply chain to the farmers that generated them.

WSF’s molasses and imported dairy-meal business and the Winton Stock Feed brand is retained by director Nelson Lindsay. WSF will share the Southland site with CRT to provide continuity for their bulk molasses and bulk dairy-meal importing and distribution business.

The Winton deal is CRT’s third milling acquisition after it earlier bought Reliance Stockfoods in Dunedin and McMillan Stockfeeds in Christchurch. Its feed division contributed towards CRT’s recent $6 million bonus rebate distribution. In the last year, the co-operative has extended its business by buying N. H. McCrostie Real Estate, Linton Grain & Seed, CropWatch, and its fuel business expanded into the North Island last year.

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