Hancock man eyes ag opportunities

That former butcher made that remark when addressing an agribusiness breakfast in Perth this week.

David Larkin was appointed chief executive officer of Hancock Agriculture, a division of the mining and cattle conglomerate headed by Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart, on September 4 with, in his own words, “carte blanche” control.

He is also acting chief executive officer of Kidman and Co, running HPPL’s $386.5 million December joint venture acquisition with Chinese partner Shanghai CRED, of the iconic string of cattle stations in the Kimberley, Northern Territory, Queensland Channel Country and into South Australia.

Together with HPPL’s existing cattle properties, Mr Larkin oversees an empire stretching across four States and the Northern Territory that is one third bigger in combined area than Tasmania.

It includes a complex web of wholly-owned or held-in-partnership pastoral stations and feedlots mainly focussed on breeding and selling cattle into local markets and the boxed beef and live export markets.

There are associated fodder cropping operations as well as a specialised 7000 head Wagyu beef operations centred on Dubbo, New South Wales, and the June purchase and upgrade of Maydan Wagyu feedlot near Warwick in Queensland with a 10,000 head capacity.

The HPPL Wagyu beef product was officially launched in February under the 2GR brand – it stands for Gina and her daughter Ginia – with a 12-tonne boxed beef shipment destined for China’s top-end restaurants.

Mr Larkin’s remit also includes HPPL’s half share of WA dairy innovator Bannister Downs at Northcliffe.

Awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for “significant service to international business and commerce through leadership and innovation”, a former industry adviser to then Trade Minister Andrew Robb during free trade agreement talks with China, Japan and South Korea and 2015 Red Meat Industry Achiever of the Year, Mr Larkin is a highly regarded high achiever.

As Australian Meat Industry Council’s Australian Processor Council chairman he represented beef and sheepmeat processors and exporters at a national level for a number of years.

Mr Larkin started a family business, Atron Enterprises, in 2007 that killed 15 cattle on its first day of operation but over nine years grew into a multi-award winning premium grass and grainfed beef exporter processing 3000 head a week for its own Condabri Beef brand and other brands.

Diversification, brand recognition and communication with consumers were three valuable lessons Mr Larkin said he learned from being “like a mosquito sitting on the back of an elephant” as a start-up business going up against established processing giants like Australian Meat Holdings and Teys.

His start in the meat industry was at the bottom, as an apprentice butcher when he left school.

“I believe we are only limited by our own aspirations and dreams,” Mr Larkin said.

“Certainly I’ve had a lot of luck, but we also create our own luck.”

Mr Larkin described himself as “the luckiest man in Australian agriculture” in his current role.

“For a Victorian butcher it’s a massive learning curve to now have 28 cattle stations and, with our recent acquisitions, we now have the second largest herd in Australia at around 360,000 cattle,” he said.

“In accepting the role at Hancock, I was amazed at the level of commitment from the business, but also the passion and the capability of the business to grow into the future.

“There’s $40 million being invested in agriculture by the group this year split fairly evenly, roughly $20m going into the Kidman business and $20m going into the Hancock business.

“It’s going into things like water, wire, technology, shade for animals and things to do with animal welfare.

“One of the key reasons I accepted the job was Mrs Rinehart’s passion for animal welfare and caring for her animals – it’s non-negotiable and she has made a statement that every weaner animal and every cow and calf will have shade.

“Each of the yards, at massive cost, will have shade placed in them.

“I see opportunity in Australian agriculture, particularly with such iconic names as Hancock and Kidman and the history in those businesses, to be able to build something that people in time will be able to say was an iconic Australian company built by Australians and that it was a remarkable achievement.”

Mr Larkin said HPPL’s aim was to grow its agriculture business and its investment in technology and infrastructure would allow more efficient operations on the stations and produce more cattle.

Its partnership with Shanghai CRED in trying to establish feedlot destinations in China for its cattle was “really about finding another export market that is sustainable”, Mr Larkin said.

“We are looking to be involved in a supply chain that we are a part of.”

Mr Larkin described current markets in Vietnam and Indonesia as “difficult”.

HPPL is in the process of acquiring another Northern Territory station, Aroona near Katherine, with a herd of 15,000 cattle on 147,510 hectares.

It has acquired the 3500ha Phoenix Park property, also near Katherine, an integrated cattle depot capable of holding 30,000 cattle with a cropping operation.

These acquisitions will allow HPPL to hold cattle from its stations in WA and Northern Territory to add weight in preparation for live export or processing and also to increase breeder herd numbers on its stations, Mr Larkin pointed out.

But while it was building an export market in China and focussing on export production, HPPL’s acquisitions and investments also gave it a “much bigger footprint in Australia”, he said.

The group intended to capitalise on that with diversified multi-purpose herds and a much greater focus on branded product for the domestic market, he said.

“One of the things I’m very keen to pursue is our herd in the north is currently only suitable for live export, I’d like to develop that for local processing,” Mr Larkin said.

“Conversations about what that requires are happening.

“We are very passionate about developing our footprint in Australia.

“There’s no coincidence in a former butcher being appointed CEO of Hancock agriculture because that’s about us seeing where our meat business is going post farmgate.

“The business is looking at producing more branded beef products and we will be taking those to the market ourselves.

“It’s just an amazing opportunity for growth with some exciting things to happen,” he said.

After the breakfast Mr Larkin said a premium Kidman brand beef product was about to be trialled in South Australia and could soon go national.

Another opportunity being explored was crossing some Wagyu bulls from the New South Wales operation with Droughtmaster and Brangus heifers in the Kimberley to produce what is sometimes referred to as desert Wagyu.

“We are looking at blending Wagu and the genetics of some of the northern herds and what that does to the genetics and meat quality,” Mr Larkin said.

He also said he was “amazed” by Bannister Downs Dairy’s The Creamery development currently being constructed.

As previously reported, The Creamery proposes to combine a tourist facility with a modular dairy, processing plant and coolroom storage.

From a raised viewing room visitors will be able to watch the whole dairy process – from cows being milked on WA’s first robotic rotary dairy platform, product processing and packaging through to dispatch in delivery trucks.

“The brand is building a significant following,” Mr Larkin said.

“There’s been a significant investment go into the Bannister Downs business.

“They are going from six million litres of milk to 30m litres of milk capacity.”

Mr Larkin also told Regional Development Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan, a guest at the breakfast, he looked forward to working with her and the State government on growing WA’s agricultural output.

“We strongly believe in a collaborative partnership.

“The sustainability and future of Australian agriculture is about people working together,” he said.