Background ForFarmers
CFO Tjebbes temporarily paused at ForFarmers
ForFarmers will be without a CEO from mid-April. Current director Yoram Knoop will retire on April 14 after the General Meeting of Shareholders, as was announced last November. In the meantime, the listed animal feed company has not yet found a new CEO. CFO Roeland Tjebbes is taking the honors for the time being - under challenging market conditions.
53-year-old Tjebbes has only been with ForFarmers for a relatively short time. Before that, he was CFO at Vion, A-ware and Nutreco, among others. Until two years ago, he was the financial man at the dairy trading house Hoogwegt. He then started his adventure at ForFarmers, where he will be responsible for the time being from mid-April. A spokesperson for ForFarmers said when asked that the search for a new CEO was still in full swing, but could not comment further. From mid-April, Tjebbes is at the helm as interim pope. Although it is certainly not uncommon for CFOs to progress to CEOs, the question is whether Tjebbes is the right man for this. Based on his resume, he seems more of a numbers man.
Search for figurehead
Finding a new CEO for ForFarmers is apparently not such an easy task. There are probably enough candidates in the pond of the Cargills of this world, but ForFarmers is looking for someone who can connect with the farmer. A figurehead, so to speak, which the farmers' supporters value. The lack of agricultural feelers eventually played up to Yoram Knoop, forcing a third term is not in it† However, he has done excellent things in the past eight years (spread over two terms), with the IPO in 2016 as the highlight. In 2018, however, the results came to a head and the animal feed giant has been ailing ever since. The value of the share currently fluctuates around a price of €3,50, which is not much higher than when the member certificates were still traded on Van Lanschot's internal platform. Investors are ignoring ForFarmers due to the disappointing results and lack of prospects.
Under Knoop, ambitious plans were formulated last year to move outside Europe, but those plans have been put on hold for the time being. This year, ForFarmers is focusing on the existing markets in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Poland, COO Pieter Wolleswinkel recently stated. an interview at. Probably under the guise of: don't do crazy things for a while. Times are challenging enough with livestock shrinkage in existing markets being the biggest strategic challenge. The animal feed sector is more competitive than ever. According to those involved, ForFarmers is finding it difficult to retain customers in the shrinking pig farming sector in particular. The cattle sector is doing better. However, Dutch pig farming is the largest sub-market for the animal feed giant from Lochem.
'Sector in difficult waters'
Incidentally, quite a few changes have taken place in the ForFarmers management team in the past two years without noticing. Director of the pig division Richard Dijkstra left, as did strategy director David Foussert who went to Avebe. Former marketing director Stijn Steendijk also no longer works for the animal feed company. Now CEO Knoop is also leaving, in turbulent times. "The sector is in difficult waters," he said in an interview with investor platform IEX at the beginning of this year. He mainly referred to the nitrogen policy and thus possibly a further shrinkage of livestock farming in our country. In the meantime, the overstrained raw materials markets, reinforced by the war in Ukraine, have been added. Recently ForFarmers therefore decided to share buyback program for the time being, because liquidity is required in the business operations in these times.
An ambitious task awaits the new CEO to get the results of the European compound feed sector's market leader back on track. He or she also has the task of maintaining warm ties with the FromFarmers cooperative, which is a major shareholder of the company. Entering growth markets outside Europe is also not yet a closed book. At its core, ForFarmers is a solid company with a reliable track record and a strong balance sheet, so that certainly offers opportunities.
Wouter Job
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