A list of the 40 highest earning co-operatives, mutuals and societies in New Zealand, based on 2017/2018 revenues, has been released, with dairy co-op Fonterra in the top spot.
The 40 businesses on the list generated over $NZ48.4bn (£26bn) in revenues over their respective 2017/18 financial years, equating to 16% of New Zealand’s GDP.
Food and farming co-ops dominate the top 10, with grocery distributor and retailer Foodstuffs New Zealand in second and third place with their North and South Island based co-operatives; kiwi fruit producer Zespri in fourth and rural supplier Farmlands Co-operative in fifth.
Co-ops outside of these sectors in the top 10 are insurers Southern Cross and home improvement chain Mitre 10, says sector body Co-operative Business New Zealand.
Data on 2017/18 revenues were gathered from annual reports and/or financial statements published by the organisations. These were retrieved from the NZ Companies Office register or from the organisations’ various websites. Where annual reports or financial statements were not publicly available, the information was sourced by contacting the organisations directly.
There is some variability in the reporting with revenue for retail/wholesale co-operatives, which represent a business to business co-operative model, reflecting the total value of purchases made by respective members (ie. retail stores) from their parent company buying offices, and not the sum of the revenues of the stores themselves, eg. Mitre 10, ITM, BuildLink, World Travellers and Composite Retail.
