SunRice CEO Rob Gordon to retire after bumper crop and profit

After overseeing total shareholder returns of more than 400 per cent during his 11-year tenure, Rob Gordon says the time is right to retire.

SunRice chief executive Rob Gordon will retire after 11 years in the top job. Picture: Sam Mooy

SunRice boss Rob Gordon will retire after 11 years helming Australia’s biggest rice producer and steering the company to a 17 per cent leap in half-year profit.

SunRice is yet to name a successor, but in a statement it said Mr Gordon would continue in the role until his replacement starts. He anticipates he will leave in August next year.

Mr Gordon’s retirement comes as SunRice’s net profit surged 17 per cent to $19.6m in the six months to October 31. Meanwhile revenue jumped 34 per cent to $758m.

He said he was now looking forward to spending more time with his family.

“It has been a privilege to serve as the CEO of the SunRice group and to work with an exceptionally skilled executive leadership team whose commitment and efforts have helped position the SunRice Group as a global food group and one of Australia’s leading branded food exporters,” Mr Gordon said.

Mr Gordon joined the company in 2011 when his predecessor Gary Helou quit after shareholders rejected a friendly $610m takeover from Spanish food giant Ebro. Mr Helou later became chief executive of Australia’s biggest dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn, which collapsed in 2016 after a partial listing on the ASX.

Mr Gordon meanwhile also presided over a listing on the ASX, floating its B-class shares in 2018 as it sought to accelerate its expansion into rice production in Vietnam and California.

The SunRice Mill at Deniliquin, in NSW. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

He also led the establishment of a trading hub in Singapore and several key acquisitions, including a rice processing mill in Dong Thap Province in Vietnam, KJ&Co, Roza’s Gourmet and Pryde’s EasiFeed. These initiatives helped deliver a total shareholder return of more than 400 per cent during his tenure.

SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur said Mr Gordon had led the company “through a period of significant change and growth and will leave the SunRice Group in a strong financial and operational position”.

“The board has maintained an ongoing focus on succession planning during recent years to ensure we have the appropriate leadership structure, senior management skills and capabilities in place to support a new CEO,” Mr Arthur said. “This planning and the ample notice provided by Rob, will enable the effective transition to the best possible successor at a time when SunRice is well positioned to enter its next phase of growth.

“While Rob will remain CEO until the AGM in August 2023, I would today like to thank him on behalf of the board for his leadership during a period of major challenges and global change for our company and the industries in which we operate. The quality of the SunRice Group’s results over the years, including most recently the FY2023 half-year results announced today, demonstrates the quality of Rob’s tenure as CEO and the quality of the executive leadership team that he has built.”

Mr Gordon said “several factors” drove the company’s half year result, announced on Thursday, including the 2022 Riverina crop being 50 per cent bigger than 2021.

The company has managed to secure price rises across most of its products in an effort to recover an “escalating cost base”.

“The SunRice Group delivered a strong financial performance in 1H FY2023, with improvements in both revenue and profitability reflecting the strength of the Group’s brands and market positioning, especially as consumer spending is currently impacted by the high inflationary environment,” Mr Gordon said.

“The various investments in strategic and organic growth initiatives across the group over the last few years are delivering benefits and enabled us to withstand some of the challenges that are affecting other industries and companies.

“We expect the revenue growth achieved in 1H FY2023 to continue into the second half of the year, supporting strong Paddy returns in the Rice Pool Business and profitability in the Profit Businesses, despite underlying operational and inflationary pressures continuing in the near term.”

SunRice will pay a dividend of 10c a share, fully franked, to its B-class shareholders on January 27.