Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 37th Annual General Meeting of Ridley Corporation Limited. My name's Mick McMahon. I'm pleased to address the meeting as your chair. I declare the meeting open and confirm we have a quorum. I'm delighted to be able to extend a warm welcome to our shareholders today, and thank you for joining either here in the room or via our webcast. For those of you in the room, in the event of an emergency, please follow the emergency signs, exit signs, and the instructions for venue staff. In addition to being webcast, this meeting is being recorded for the purposes of taking minutes, and for those in the room, we ask that you ensure any devices are on silent or turned off. I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce our board to you: Managing Director Quinton Hildebrand, Rhys Jones, who is presenting for re-election today, Melanie Lang, Julie Raffe, and Daniel Masters, who's also presenting for election at this meeting. As announced earlier this year, Ejnar Knudsen has retired from the board in October following a long-standing contribution over many years. On behalf of the board, I extend our sincere thanks to Ejnar for his support and contribution to the success of the company, and he leaves Ridley very well positioned for the future. We welcome Daniel Masters to the board in Ejnar's place. Daniel joined the board in October and, as mentioned, will be standing for election today. I also welcome Richard Betts, our CFO, Company Secretary Kirsty Clarke, as well as KPMG partner Julie Carey representing our external auditors. The minutes of the last AGM held on 21st of November 2023 have been signed by myself as chair of that meeting. Our Company Secretary has a copy of the minutes available for inspection by any member. Copies of the notice of meeting have been made available to all members and can be found in the investor section of the company's website. Covering off on some procedural matters, we will begin the meeting with a short presentation and then go to formal proceedings, which this year will comprise of six items to be decided by poll in accordance with Ridley's constitution. The results of the poll will be released shortly after the meeting on the ASX announcements platform and on the Ridley website. For virtual meeting participants, voting on the resolutions is now open, and you can vote at any time until I declare the vote closed. You can also change your vote at any time throughout the proceedings. I'll give you a clear prompt later in the meeting to warn at the close of the voting. For those attending virtually, if you are eligible to vote, once voting opens, press the vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options for each resolution. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. Please note that only shareholders, proxy holders, or authorized shareholder representatives may vote. Any directed proxies given to you by a shareholder will automatically be cast as directed when the poll is closed. For those of you joining us in person, we have been issued with voting cards on registration. When the poll is closed, our share registrar, Computershare, will collect your voting cards. After introducing each item, I will take questions from those in the room first, then from those participating online. For those in the room, please first raise your red or yellow shareholder admission card so we can see it, and please say your name before asking a question. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. To ask a question, select the Q&A icon and the topic your question relates to, then type your question into the text box. Once you're finished typing, please hit the send button. While you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Your questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, we may answer them together. We will also address any questions received prior to this meeting at the relevant item of business or in general questions prior to the close of the meeting. Online attendees can ask a verbal question by following the instructions written below the broadcast. If you have any difficulties voting or submitting questions, please refer to the user guide located on the right-hand side of the webcast screen or refer to instructions within the notice of meeting. If we experience technical difficulties during the meeting, we will assess next steps and will update you via a posted message on the webcast. In the unlikely event of a complete failure of technology, our share registrar, Computershare, will contact shareholders via email if you've provided one to advise of any adjournment. We may also provide an update on the ASX. For the formalities of the meeting, each resolution and the valid proxy details in respect of that resolution will appear on the screen. As Chairman, I intend to vote any proxies in my favour in support of all motions put, including any undirected proxies in relation to items two, four, and five, which relate to remuneration issues. Thank you, and I'll now hand over to our CEO and Managing Director, Quinton, to provide a brief business update. Thank you, Mick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As Mick's indicated, I'm going to provide a brief summary on the performance of the business in FY 2024 and outline our progress on the FY 2023 to 2025 growth plan, including an update on our recent acquisitions. FY 2024 was a year in which the diversified platform of Ridley came to the fore to deliver a solid performance despite some challenging market conditions. We were put to the test with lower broiler chicken feed demand due to industry breeding constraints, falling tallow price, a delay in the construction of renewable diesel plants in the U.S., an outbreak of avian influenza in Australia, and general inflationary cost pressures. Yet the Ridley portfolio demonstrated its resilience, delivering an EBITDA before individually significant items of AUD 92.8 million, up 4.9% on the prior year. Importantly, this was reinforced by a strong operating cash flow. We continue to invest capital into the business in a disciplined way, ensuring that we enhance our capacity and capability to provide earnings growth. In FY 20 2024, AUD 14.5 million was committed to maintenance capital and AUD 18.4 million to growth capital projects. On the back of our financial performance, the strength of our balance sheet, and the outlook for the business, the board paid a fully franked AUD 0.0905 per share dividend, up 12% on the prior year. Furthermore, in August, with the share price trading around AUD 2.20, the board announced an on-market buyback for up to AUD 20 million. However, with the subsequent strength of the share price, none of this has been executed. Seasonally in FY 2024, the bulk stock feed segment continued its virtuous cycle, using its integrated scale and capability to grow with existing customers and win new customers. In an economy facing high levels of inflation, Ridley was able to partially offset cost increases to those customers by passing on savings from our efficiency projects and by leveraging volume increases. We invested capital to accommodate this growth, which included the debottlenecking projects for the Pakenham Ruminant Feed Mill and the Clifton Monogastric Feed Mill and various other capability-enhancing projects. Ridley Direct, in its second year of operation, doubled its sales such that this business now accounts for 6% of the bulk stock feed's volumes. That's about the size of an average feed mill. This initiative provides the opportunity to generate returns by leveraging our raw material procurement scale and making sales to customers with whom we would traditionally have had no dealings. Overall, our bulk stock feeds business has gained market share in a number of sectors, and today we estimate that we feed one in four commercially fed animals in Australia. Within the packaged feeds and ingredients segment, the ingredient recovery business continued to climb the wall of value by extending its product offering and capability with the acquisition of Oceania Meat Processors. OMP is a premium provider of mechanically deboned meat in frozen block form for the global pet food industry, with operations in Melbourne and Timaru, New Zealand. This opens the door for Ridley to access new pet food customers domestically and internationally. During the year, both ingredient recovery facilities benefited from increased raw material supply, with over half of these volumes contracted on multi-year contracts. The Marulan facility in New South Wales experienced a significant uplift in volumes following the closure of the nearby rendere, and the business is now looking at the options for capital expenditure so as to optimize the returns from this increased volume. The packaged products business continues to develop new branded products for the rural market. During FY 2024, the poultry feed range branding was refreshed, and smaller pack sizes introduced for the peri-urban market. In addition, a new packing facility in Narangba, Queensland, was completed in December 2023, automating the packing of smaller pack sizes for the pet food range. With the aquafeed sector underperforming, we have relinquished some low-returning aquafeed sales and combined the aquafeed and NovaqPro business units to prioritize servicing the prawn market and commercializing NovaqPro. The Narangba Extrusion Facility was restructured in the second half of FY 2024 from a seven-day operation to a five-day operation, and we now have extrusion capacity to pursue pet food growth opportunities. At the end of the day, the success of our operations is directly linked to the performance of our people. While employing suitably skilled people is a prerequisite, it is the engagement of those employees that makes a difference, and I'm pleased to report a high engagement score in a recent employee opinion survey. Particularly pleasing is that the highest rating by employees is the safety culture in the business. I call this out because safety is a key focus area for improvement in Ridley, and particularly with the sites that have recently joined the business through acquisition. Ridley sees the increasing requirements around sustainability as an opportunity for the business to gain a potential competitive advantage in our sector. In FY24, the Ridley Innovation and Operations Committee transitioned into a sustainability committee that provides strategic oversight on sustainability and climate-related risks and opportunities. Our first standalone sustainability report was published last month, and you'll see in the report that we've made some meaningful progress in FY24. I'll only highlight two of these initiatives today. Firstly, we upskilled our nutritionists in life cycle assessments so that we can provide customers options regarding greenhouse gas emissions in their feed supply. Secondly, we recorded a 4.4% reduction in our CO2 per tonne of finished product through the delivery of energy efficiency capital projects. By being focused on the right things, we believe that we are making a difference for the environment and the communities in which we operate, while ensuring profitable outcomes for our customers and for Ridley. By way of an update, the integration of OMP has been progressing to plan since we acquired the business on the 28th of March. The construction of the new leasehold facility, including the custom-built plant in Timaru, New Zealand, is on schedule to complete by October 2025. You can see that in some of the photos on the screen. When complete, this will replace the currently leased facility in Timaru, enhancing the OMP offering, lowering our operating costs, and providing capacity for future growth. In anticipation for this increased capacity, we plan to use the current calendar year 2025 contracting cycle to broaden our supply base and our customer access. At this point, we have secured half of our contractual requirements for 2025, and this is in line with expectations. As the largest renderer in Australia and with frozen block offering in Australia and New Zealand, we have unparalleled access to a range of meat protein species that provides a unique opportunity to service pet food manufacturers domestically and internationally. In support of this opportunity, we've been building our pet food capability by hiring pet food expertise so that we can deliver on the expectations of these customers. At the end of FY 2024, Ridley made an offer for the Carrick Feed Mill in Tasmania, which completed at the end of August. Not only will this feed mill enhance Ridley's ability to supply dairy customers in Tasmania, but also in Gippsland, Victoria, as this releases capacity at the Pakenham Ruminant Feed Mill, which has been supplying the Tasmanian market. I'm pleased to report that the team have moved quickly to resource a second shift at Carrick and also progress the AUD 2 million capital expenditure to automate and debottleneck the feed mill. With the response from the new customers interested in receiving quality feed from a local supplier, we are hopeful that we'll take this feed mill from 12,000 tonnes per annum to 60,000 tonnes per annum in the next few years. Through the acquisition of these two businesses, we are deliberately learning and building capability so that we can be prepared should other growth opportunities present. Under the direction of the board, we have also embarked on a program to develop the leadership skills in the business, comprising a development program for existing leaders as well as recruiting new capability to augment the wider management team. Looking forward, our outlook statement remains unchanged from the position communicated at the FY 2024 results presentation on the 21st of August. Ridley's business portfolio, with a diversified spread of operations and markets, provides a platform to deliver consistent growth. In FY 2025, Ridley expects earnings growth in the packaged ingredients segment from continued premiumization in the pet food sector, and in the bulk stock feed segment from volume increases enabled by the debottlenecking projects. The business continues to take steps to reduce the adverse impact of inflationary pressures, biosecurity events, and changes in commodity cycles. Cash generated from operations and a strong balance sheet support the AUD 20 million buyback and payment of progressive dividends, while still promoting ongoing investment in the business to pursue growth opportunities. Lastly, I'd like to make some acknowledgements for the contributions to Ridley during FY 2024 and our success. I'm privileged to work with such a high-caliber chair and directors who bring invaluable experience and a mix of skills to Ridley. Thank you for your wise counsel over the last year and the leadership in positioning Ridley for the future. On behalf of the board, I wish to thank and recognize the broader leadership team of Ridley. Improved performance year on year can only be achieved by effectively enhancing the collective effort of our employees and through disciplined execution of our team. To all Ridley employees, thank you for your high levels of commitment to each other, to our customers and suppliers, and to the business. It's your drive every day to improve both individually and collectively that's building Ridley into a remarkable place to work. I also wish to acknowledge the business relationships we enjoy with a broad range of partners across Ridley, from customers and suppliers, service providers, and regulators. Thank you for your ongoing support, which underpins the business. Finally, to our shareholders, we appreciate the confidence that you have in Ridley, and rest assured, we don't take for granted the opportunity that your investment provides us. Thank you. Thank you, Quinton. We'll now move on to the formal business of the meeting. The first item of business is the consideration of Ridley's financial reports for the year ended 30th of June 2024, which are available on our website. There's no requirement for shareholders to vote on, approve, or adopt these reports. However, shareholders may ask questions concerning the financial statements of the company, and the company's auditors are present to answer any questions relating to the conduct of the audit. I invite shareholders to ask any questions regarding this item of business. First, I will advise of any questions received in respect of this item online. First of all, are there any questions on this item from shareholders in the room? Yes Sorry. Peter Aird from the Australian Shareholders Association. Today, I hold proxies from 48 shareholders and over 570,000 shares. In your director's joint review, you comment that the first priority of Ridley Board and management is the safety of employees, but your key safety measures are both worsened again this year and quite significantly, I would say. What changes are you making in the management approach to safety? Thanks, Peter. I'll let Quinton answer that one, but I think the context that we always try to look at safety in is that we're part of an agricultural industry where, my experience would say, that we all, as an industry, have a long way to go on safety. Ridley is part of that. There's been a lot of effort and improvement going into safety systems and performance, but our performance is not where we would like it to be. As Quinton mentioned, that's made more challenging as we acquire other businesses, which, it's fair to say, have further to go on safety than what we do when we try to extend our safety systems to other businesses. So we know it's a challenge, but I'll let Quinton talk about what we're actually doing to improve. Peter, we're also disappointed by the safety performance of FY 2024, and it is a top priority for management and boards providing oversight. I think the key areas in which we have been focusing is around inductions as well as contractor engagement throughout the business. It's been within the contractor area that we've had a high incidence of safety occurrences. So from a leadership point of view, there's focus, particularly in sites where there are reoccurring events, greater management presence, greater emphasis on some of the standard operating procedures and audits. So that remains our focus, and to make sure, though, whilst putting all this effort into it, that we remain authentic in the management of our safety and ensure that the reporting continues to be made within the business. So that is something that we are encouraged by. Lots of hazard reporting, lots of engagement by our staff members to ensure that we're at the top of our ability. Thanks, Quinton. Other questions in the room? Do we have any? Sorry, Peter. I'll go again if you don't mind. I just like to note that your profit growth over the last three years has been fairly flat. And with your share price, sorry, with your share buyback sucking up cash, do you see the outlook for dividends in the coming year changing in any way? So to answer the last question, we don't see the dividend outlook changing at all. We've had a consistent policy of returning cash to shareholders. Probably one of the key changes in the last few years is the capital allocation framework which we've introduced. That provides the internal discipline and the ability to communicate the basis on which we decide how much investment is required into the business, how much is available for acquisitions, how much is available for dividends to shareholders. And you'll see that we've essentially had a progressive dividend policy over recent years. We don't see that changing. So the share buyback is an opportunity to further return capital to shareholders. If and when we have better uses for the capital inside the business, then we might make different choices around things like buybacks, but we would look to remain consistent on dividends. Thank you. Any questions in the room? We'll ask Kirsty and see if there are questions online. We have no questions online. Thank you. Thanks, Kirsty. We will now move on to item two, consideration of the Remuneration Report. We ask members to consider and adopt the remuneration report as set out on pages 21 to 30 of 2024 Ridley Annual Report. The Corporations Act requires the remuneration report to be put to the vote. Please note that the vote on this item is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company. The remuneration report sets out the policy for the remuneration of the directors, the CEO, and other designated senior executives and details how their remuneration is structured. It also contains remuneration details for the directors and senior executives for the year ended 30 June 2024. Noting that each director has a personal interest in their own remuneration from the company as set out in the remuneration report, the directors recommend that shareholders vote in favor of adopting the remuneration report. No votes may be cast on this resolution by key management personnel. Details of whose remuneration are included in the report and their closely related parties. As chair, I will be voting as proxy only and only where I am entitled to do so. The resolution and a summary of the proxies are displayed on the screen. Are there any shareholders in the room who'd like to ask a question or make a comment on the remuneration report? Are there any questions online? We have no questions online, Mick. Thanks, Kirsty. Moving on to item three, which is the election of a director. Daniel Masters was appointed by the board on 4th of October 2024. Daniel is a partner and founding member of AGR Partners, LLC. AGR Partners is an associated entity of Ridley's largest shareholder, AGR Agricultural Investments. Daniel serves on the AGR Partners Investment Committee and on the boards of several AGR portfolio companies. Daniel's current board positions include SEMO Milling, Rembrandt Foods Holdings, and Dairy Technology Services Limited, New Zealand. Prior to AGR, Daniel served as investment manager at two Australian-based captive private equity firms. The resolution and a summary of the proxies are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this item from shareholders in the room? Yes, Peter. Just a general question, if you wouldn't mind. You lost two experienced directors last year, and Mr. Knudsen has now retired, and you have a replacement for him. Do you have any plans to appoint additional directors, considering the amount of experience you've lost in the last 12 months? Thank you. Yes. And I think we explained last year that we will always keep a watching brief on what we need on the board. We have periodically looked at available directors. We have the capacity to add another director to the board, and we may well do that in the next period. In terms of skills and experience on the board, yes, we have lost their planned succession, I suppose, of three experienced directors. All of them are on the board for 10, 12, 13 years. So these things have a natural course, and we're very pleased with the skill and experience makeup of the board at the moment. But we'll always stay alive and keep the option open to add another director to the board. Are there other questions in the room? Any questions online? We have no questions online. I'm sure you're plugged in. We'll now move to item three A, the re-election of Rhys Jones as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Under Ridley's constitution, one third of directors, with the exception of our CEO and Managing Director, retire from office at each AGM. Rhys Jones being eligible as a candidate for re-election. Rhys was first appointed on 27th of August 2020, and he has a 30-year career working in Australasian building, manufacturing, and packaging industries. Rhys is currently the Managing Director and CEO of Vulcan Steel Limited, an ASX/NZX listed steel distributor with over 70 business units across Australasia. He was formerly a director of Metro Performance Glass Limited, and prior to joining Vulcan in 2006, Rhys held senior roles, in particular with Carter Holt Harvey and Fletcher Challenge, including as Chief Operating Officer of the bulk paper and packaging businesses at Carter Holt Harvey. The resolution and the summary of the proxies are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Thank you. I don't wish to be rude, but Mr. Jones is MD and CEO of Vulcan, and given the recent performance of Vulcan, I would have expected that should have had an impact on his workload. So I ask whether you're happy with the attention he is providing to Ridley. Yes. That's the answer to the question. But to expand upon that, Rhys is a very experienced commercial person, but also a very experienced director and makes a very strong contribution to Ridley. So we're delighted to have him on the board. We've been around business long enough, you know, that challenges come and challenges go, but that all adds up to experience, and that experience is to the benefit of Ridley. So we're delighted to have Rhys on the board. Thank you. Are there other questions in the room? No questions online. We'll now move on to item four, Ridley Corporation Limited long-term incentive plan, part of the company's remuneration policy of providing long-term rewards linked to shareholder returns. ASX listing rule 10.14 requires shareholder approval for the issue of new securities to a director under an employee incentive scheme. Mr. Hildebrand is a director of the company. Subject to the receipt of shareholder approval under this resolution, the board has resolved to offer the managing director 626,312 performance rights. These rights will convert into fully paid ordinary Ridley shares, subject to the achievement of all relevant performance criteria over a three-year period from the 1st of July 2024 to the 30th of June 2027. A detailed summary of the terms and conditions of the proposed offer is provided in the notice of meeting. The resolution and a summary of the proxies are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this item from shareholders in the room? Thank you. Are there any questions? No questions online. Thank you. Now moving to item five. The board intends to continue to make regular grants of rights under the LTIP to eligible employees. Resolution five seeks the approval of shareholders for issues of performance rights under the LTIP for the purposes of ASX listing rule 7.2, section 13C, and for all other purposes. ASX listing rule 7.1 requires shareholder approval for an issue of equity securities if, over a 12-month period, the number of equity securities issued is more than 15% of the number of ordinary shares on issue at the start of that 12-month period. ASX listing rule 7.2, section 13B, provides that an issue of securities under an employee incentive scheme is not counted when calculating the available 15% limit of listing rule 7.1 if approval is sought in accordance with that exception. Accordingly, approval is sought for the purposes of ASX listing rule 7.2, section 13B, the issue of rights to employees under the LTIP so that such issues do not detract from Ridley's available 15% limit. This approval continues for three years, at which time it must be renewed or it will expire. Shareholder approval was last received on 24th of November 2021. In the absence of shareholder approval, issues of rights under the LTIP must be made within Ridley's available 15% capacity at the time of the grant, unless separate shareholder approval is obtained for those issues under listing rule 7.1. The board considers that this resolution will assist the company in continuing to manage its capital requirements efficiently by ensuring that the 15% limit is not diminished by issues of rights under the LTIP, and capacity is available for capital management initiatives as may be necessary. A detailed summary of the terms of the LTIP is provided in the notice of meeting. The maximum number of rights proposed to be issued under the scheme over the next three years is 15 million. The resolution and a summary of the proxies are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this item from shareholders in the room? Are there any questions from shareholders online? We have no questions online. Thank you, and finally, we move to item six. Under the Corporations Act, a company may include in its constitution a provision to enable the company to refuse to register shares acquired under proportional takeover bid unless a resolution is passed by the members in a general meeting approving the bid. The board considers that it is in the best interest of Ridley members for the company to have a proportional takeover provision in its constitution. Proportional takeover approval provisions are currently included in the company's constitution and require member approval of a proportional takeover bid. These provisions expire three years after their last adoption, which is the 24th of November 2021, and require renewal. Without further adoption, the existing provisions will cease to have effect from 24 November 2024. After consideration of the advantages and disadvantages as outlined in the notice of meeting, the board considers that it is in the best interest of its members for the company to operate with proportional takeover provisions embedded in its constitution for a term of three years from the date of this meeting. A detailed summary of the proposed provisions is provided in the notice of meeting. The resolution and a summary of the proxies are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions on this item from shareholders in the room? No questions online. No questions online. Thank you. So I would like to now advise that the voting on all resolutions will close in approximately one minute. Please fill in and sign your voting cards and submit votes online to ensure your vote is counted. Computershare representatives will start collecting voting cards physically in the room from you after the voting has passed. The voting results for all of today's resolutions will be released to the ASX and also made available on the Ridley website after the conclusion of the meeting. I now declare the physical and online voting closed. Please provide your signed voting cards to Computershare representatives in the room. The business of the meeting is now completed. I now declare the meeting closed. However, we would like to provide an opportunity for you to ask any general questions that you might have. So again, we'll start with questions in the room. Are there any general questions from shareholders in the room? Peter, yes. Thank you. I was just looking at my voting. I'd like to congratulate you on the publication of your sustainability report and that the board now has a sustainability committee. I note the meeting attendance in your annual report. Do you expect Mr. Hildebrand to continue to be on that board committee? Do you have any comment about directors attending those meetings? First of all, thanks for your acknowledgement of setting up the sustainability committee. I struggle to say exactly who's on the committee, and the reason for that is that we have a practice in Ridley of all directors attending all committee meetings. Therefore, there's formal membership of committees, and attendance of directors is as recorded in various reports. Almost without exception, I think all directors have attended all committee meetings in the course of the year. We do think it's important that Quinton, even if he's not on the committee, is at those committee meetings because, as he discussed, he sees sustainability at the core of what we do, and we'll be doing our best to both pursue a productive sustainability agenda while making sure that it helps us in the actual sustainability of the business for our customers, for our suppliers, and for our shareholders. Do you have anything in terms of membership of the committee? I think that's it. We do record the members of the committee attending, but what we don't record for publication is who actually attends as an MD. So I'll just reinforce what Mick said, that we generally have the full board at our committee meeting. Thank you. Are there other questions? Any questions online? We do have a question online from Brian Edinger. It's a general question. Can the CEO provide an update on the first four trading months of the year? I will hand over to Quinton. So I would be happy to state that our trading in the first four months of the year is in line with expectations. We chose today just to reiterate our outlook statement from the first half, from the full year results, which demonstrates that we expect to see growth in both the packaged and ingredients segment as well as the bulk stock feeds segment. We are mindful that it's not practice for Ridley to put out formal guidance for the first half or for the full year. We're mindful of the analysts that cover the business and that they have a consensus, and we obviously keep an eye on that. And if there was any reason to put anything statement out because it was too high or too low, we would do so. So given that case, we're comfortable with the trading performance of the business in the first four months of this FY2025, and we're pleased that it's tracking to expectations. Thanks, Quinton. Are there other questions online? There are no further questions online. One last chance for questions in the room. Thank you. So now I think it just serves to thank everybody for your participation today, and I will now officially close the Ridley 2024 APM. Thank you very much.