Former jillaroo now leads supermarket giant's meat division

Ms Speer will be the managing director of Greenstock, the supermarket giant's new dedicated meat business.

Greenstock will bring together team members involved in Woolworths' end-to-end red meat supply chain, including the livestock, processing and operations teams, within the supermarket's integrated protein division.

It's a restructure which will see red meat receive individual attention within the Woolworths Group. Other animal protein management and sourcing will continue under current arrangements.

Ms Speer is the chief operating officer of Australia's largest cattle company, Australian Agriculture Company, AACo.

Previously she was chief executive officer of AuctionsPlus and headed up agricultural technology firm, Livestock Exchange before that.

Famously Ms Speer spent five years as a jillaroo in the Northern Territory before starting her remarkable rise.

She holds a Bachelor of Science, as well as a Bachelor of Primary and Secondary Education, as well as being a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the University of Sydney's Global Executive MBA program.

Greenstock has a mandate from Woolworths to partner more widely across the group to support sales growth in the international and wholesale meat markets.

Woolworths' Claire Peters, will chair a management board overseeing the Greenstock business, and has previously said the move was in recognition of growing and changing red meat needs.

Greenstock plans to invest in new analytics systems and capabilities to improve forecasting and drive efficiencies and better yields across the group.

Ms Peters said: "Anna brings an impressive depth of experience in agribusiness to Woolworths and will help us better meet the red meat needs of the entire group.

"Together with the broader team, Anna will work to develop new capabilities to improve our forecasting, drive efficiency and better yields across the group."

Ms Speer said: "I'm excited about the prospect of building this new business with the team and really pleased to be joining such a purpose driven organisation.

"From my many years in the red meat sector, I know the Woolworths livestock teams are incredibly well regarded by industry partners.

"I'm looking forward to building on those foundations with the team as we work to better serve the needs of our growing mix of customers."

Woolworths' director of buying Paul Harker said the livestock buying team would continue to work with existing primary producers who the supermarket had partnered with for many years to deliver high-quality meat.

"Our partnerships with abattoirs and meat processors who support our supermarkets will remain unchanged as well," he said.

"We know how important these industry relationships are and will continue to invest in partnerships for mutual success."

Ms Speer will begin her new role in June.

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