Laura McBain ... you’ve done it again

In a nondescript accountants’ ­office yesterday, a small corporate phoenix spread its wings.

Laura McBain, head of Primary Opinion, in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

In a nondescript accountants’ ­office high on the 18th floor of a Melbourne office tower yesterday afternoon, a small corporate phoenix spread its wings.

Laura McBain, until January the high-flying celebrated chief executive of infant formula market darling Bellamy’s Organic, emerged unsinged and apparently unscarred from the ashes after her dumping (when Bellamy’s lost $500 million in value) at the helm of hot new premium food company Primary Opinion.

It would appear McBain is already working her magic on Primary, to be rebranded next week as a more appropriately named “Long Table”, alongside the new ASX trading moniker LON.

When the company halted trading late last week to announce its $34m acquisition of South Australia’s highly regarded Paris Creek organic dairy products business and a capital raising of $43m, its shares were worth 3.1c each.

It gave the fledgling company, which also owns a 48 per cent slice of well-known Maggie Beer Products — which it bought last year for $15m — a capitalisation of just under $24m.

But when the shares relisted yesterday, their value immediately shot to a high of 7.1c, more than doubling the size of Primary and once again turning the spotlight on to Ms McBain.

It’s a far cry from the day she joined the business in early August, when its shares were trading at 1.1c.

But as soon as Ms McBain’s name appeared on the ASX announcement as Primary’s new CEO — and despite Bellamy’s China disaster — the share price doubled, leading Primary director and Bell Potter principal Hugh Robertson to comment that McBain had lost none of her “Melbourne Cup jockey” winning streak.

Comparisons between Bellamy’s and Primary were not high on Ms McBain’s agenda yesterday, as the latter held its AGM following a year in which it logged a $10.2m before-tax loss, including an $8.5m impairment in the value of its Maggie Beer investment.

“Does (the Primary share price jump) feel like a Bellamy’s again? A little perhaps but hopefully not the end part — that was crap,” said Ms McBain with a laugh yesterday. “I think this is more because we have a good and simple story to tell; there are so many market opportunities in the ­organic ­sector because it is so undeveloped, and there is no clear market leader in most organic sectors.”

Ms McBain said the organic high-end dairy sector is where Long Table was making its big stand, with the purchase of Paris Creek organic and biodynamic dairy processing and manufacturing company established by organic pioneers Helmet and Ulli Spranz.

Based in the Adelaide Hills, it has nine contracted farmers supplying Paris Creek with 10 million litres of organic milk — about 25 per cent of the entire Australian organic milk supply — and a 20-year history of making high-value organic fresh milk, yoghurt, butter and cheeses.

Paris Creek had gross sales revenue of $19.8m for 2016-17 and recently spent $8m upgrading its processing capacity so it can handle 30 million litres of organic milk in the future as more dairy farmers convert to organic, attracted by its higher prices.

“We want to grow the business and we like the potential it already has built in to scale up, as well as the fact it is a great brand,” Ms McBain said.

“But one thing I have learnt about organic products through the years is that for customers it is about more than just health; it’s about preserving our environment, providing good social outcomes and something you can believe in as a product and brand — that appeals to me as a philosophy.”

The irony that her new company is all about organic products both grown and processed in Australia, when one of the causes of Bellamy’s downfall was that its organic milk powder was all sourced from Europe, is not lost on Ms McBain.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t get enough organic milk supply in Australia then and we couldn’t convince enough farmers to convert. But I don’t think that meant the Bellamy’s brand didn’t resonate because we were very upfront about our sourcing,” she said.

“For me, (having access to Australian organic milk) now is an added bonus; people especially in Asia want to know where their milk is coming from and that we uphold all the standards and regulations built into the Australian system — with both Paris Creek and Maggie Beer we have a fully transparent supply chain.”

Ms McBain now wants to encourage more Australian farmers to convert to organic agricultural production, so businesses like Primary/Long Table can expand their offerings. Converting or adding some Maggie Beer all-organic products is also on the cards, as well as acquiring a premium beverage arm.

But the key is getting the organic industry to the levels of Europe or Britain, where it often accounts for one-third of all fresh food produced. Here the total organic milk supply sits at 40 million litres, less than half of 1 per cent of Australia’s 9.2 billion litre milk pool.

“Locally grown organic produce has to be a much bigger part of all food categories; Australia is a long way behind the eight-ball and it is time we caught up,” Ms McBain said.