Madden named CBH director

Mr Madden, who was a CBH director from 2006 to 2012, beat Clancy Michael in the district 1 election.

And Mr Madden says he plans to shake things up this time around.

He said he was fed up with poor financial decisions and a lack of discipline and diligence at a board level and is eager to steer the co-op back on track.

"I think the dynamics of the board are very different to what it was when I was first elected eight years ago," Mr Madden said.

"At that time the board was still tying to corporatise the business and they were gung-ho on external investments.

"I get the feeling now that the vast majority of the board have settled down and realised that it's a co-operative and it's going to stay a co-operative and serve its members."

His appointment comes a week after it was revealed CBH has been exploring investment opportunities in New South Wales - a move Mr Madden has openly criticised.

He said investment in the Eastern States would not be in the best interests of WA's grain growers.

"It concerns me that the CBH Group is planning to build new storage and handling infrastructure in the Eastern States when there are still many sites in the WA network with aged and inadequate facilities that require upgrades or consolidation," he said.

Mr Madden believes his appointment is a signal that WA growers agree with his stance on the matter.

"For so many people to have voted for me, they would have taken that into consideration," he said.

"A lot more discipline will now be put into external investments."

Mr Madden said future investments must be considered only if the return on capital is acceptable and they created net tangible benefits to growers.

"Poorly investigated and executed investment decisions can result in huge losses on the CBH balance sheet," he said.

Mr Madden said another sore point for him was the current cost of administration of CBH.

He said it is too high and an impost to both CBH Operations and CBH Grain.

"Corporate overheads must be reduced in order to remain competitive with the large multi-national companies who have the benefits of economies of scale," he said.

"In the 2012 fiscal year, the storage and handling network provided $131 million of the record profit of $162m.

"It is important that we re-invest these tax-free profits back into the network in order to keep pace with increasing capacity of farmers to deliver grain into the network.

"Failure to do so will push costs back onto the grower who will then look for alternative services."

Mr Michael was elected as a director to the CBH board in April 2008 and was deputy chairman from 2012-2013.

He was a member of the board's Audit and Risk Management Committee and chairman of the CBH Group subsidiary company, Lupin Foods Australia Pty Ltd.

In other CBH Group districts, current member directors Vern Dempster and Wally Newman were re-elected unopposed in Districts 2 and 4 respectively.

CBH chairman Neil Wandel welcomed Mr Madden on his return to the board.

"It is pleasing to see the re-election of two current member directors and the election of a new member director to the board," Mr Wandel said.

CBH also announced that Samantha Tough will join its board as an independent director from February 26.

Ms Tough will replace Diane Smith-Gander, who intends to retire as a director at the end of her three-year term on the board.

The formal declaration of directors will take place at the CBH Group's 81st annual general meeting on Wednesday, February 26, which is open to all registered CBH members.

It will be held at the Kings Park Function Centre, West Perth and will start at 3pm with member registrations open from 2pm.