Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I know for your attendance here on a rather cool evening in Christchurch, but thank you very much for coming today. Good afternoon. My name is Mike Petersen. I'm the Chair of Scales, and it's my pleasure to welcome you all to this, the 111th annual meeting of the company, the ninth since we became a listed company, and my first as Chair. Once again, we're holding a hybrid annual meeting, and whether you're here in person or online, I'd like to thank you and welcome you all. As you may recall from last year, shareholders, proxies, and guests attending the meeting virtually, will all be able to hear and see a live webcast. In addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and vote on resolutions. I'll provide further details on those matters shortly. Some housekeeping matters for those of you who have joined us in person, and lovely to see you here. First, I'd like to remind you, as a matter of courtesy, to please turn off your mobile phones or turn them onto silent. Also, if there's an emergency and we need to leave, please do so through the marked exits. Staff will be available to help us in the event we need to do so. I'm pleased to confirm we have a quorum, and therefore, declare the 2023 Annual Shareholders Meeting of Scales Corporation Limited open. The items of business for this meeting and the resolutions to be considered by shareholders are contained in the notice of meeting, which was sent to shareholders on the 3rd of May. Our order of proceedings is as shown on the current slide. I'll briefly comment on the highlights of the last 12 months, followed by a review by Scales' Managing Director, Andrew Borland. We'll attend to the resolutions, where we'll cover each resolution in turn and invite questions specific to those items. I'll shortly open the online voting system and explain the voting process. Following that, I'll explain the process for asking questions. Once the meeting is complete, we hope that those of you present will join us for refreshments. There'll also be an opportunity to meet the directors and senior management of the company and raise any questions you may have on an informal basis. With regard to the online voting process, if you're eligible to vote, you'll be able to cast your vote under the Vote tab as shown on screen. Once the voting is opened, the resolutions will allow votes to be submitted. To vote, simply select your voting direction from the options shown. You can vote for all resolutions at once or specifically. To change, simply select Change Your Vote, and you have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. You may submit questions on each resolution being put to shareholders using the question process. For those of you that have joined us in person, those shareholders who are entitled to vote and proxies who have discretion as to how they vote, should have received a voting or proxy form when they registered upon arrival at the front desk at the meeting. If you completed a postal vote, you don't need to complete another voting or proxy form. If you haven't received a voting or proxy form, at the time of voting, please go to the Computershare desk in the foyer, where their representatives will be able to assist you. After voting, you should place your voting or proxy form in one of the ballot boxes, which will be passed around the room, and I'll invite you to vote after all the resolutions have been introduced to the meeting. I now declare voting open on all items of business. For those of you attending via the Computershare online meetings platform, the resolutions will now be open in the Vote tab, so please submit your votes at any time. I'll give you a warning before I move to close voting. I'd now like to quickly summarize the process for asking questions. Online questions can be submitted at any time. If you have a question to submit during the meeting, please select the Q&A tab on the right half of your screen anytime as currently shown. Type your question into the field and press Send. Your question will be immediately submitted. Should you require assistance of any sort, you can type your query, and one of the Computershare team will assist using the chat function. Alternatively, you can call Computershare on 0800-650-034. That sounds a bit tricky, doesn't it? For the younger people in the room, that'll be easier. The 0800 number may also be a bit noisy for guests present. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I won't address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note your questions may be moderated, or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, they may be amalgamated together. Due to time constraints and to ensure all shareholders have a chance to ask a question, I ask that you limit yourself to asking two questions. We may run out of time to answer all your questions, if this happens, we'll answer them in due course via email. For those of you present, we'll offer an opportunity to ask questions on or speak to each resolution being put to shareholders at the appropriate time. As I indicated, there will also be an opportunity to ask questions of individual Directors informally after the meeting. I'm delighted to host my 1st Scales annual shareholders meeting as Chair following my appointment in April this year. I'm excited to have joined Scales and look forward to contributing to the ongoing success of the company alongside the very capable board and management team. I'd now like to introduce my fellow directors who are in attendance on the stage here, either in person, and we have one online. We have firstly, Andrew Borland, Managing Director. Miranda Burdon, an independent director of the board. Nicholas Harris, an independent director. Mark Hutton, Chair of the Scales and Nominations and Remuneration Committee. He's also Chair of the Scales Finance and Treasury Committee, and also an independent director. Alan Isaac, Chair of Scales Audit and Risk Management Committee, and also an independent director. Nadine Tunley, Chair of the Health & Safety and Sustainability Committee, and an independent director. We have Qi Xin, a director who is attending online. We haven't been able to get Xin to connect directly into the meeting, but he is watching us all from his place in Hong Kong. I'd also like to note that members of Scales Management and staff are in attendance, as well as our external auditors, Deloitte, and our lawyers, Anthony Harper. Before we go further, I'd like to recognize the leadership and support of Tim Goodacre. Tim was involved with Scales for 11 years, having been appointed as a director of Mr. Apple in 2012. He joined Scales board in 2014, and was appointed as only the ninth Chair of Scales in 2017. Tim brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the group, with a particular focus on Scales' unique culture, its marketing and its branding. I've really appreciated the time and handover that I've had with Tim, and he may be watching from afar online, but we certainly acknowledge his efforts and wish him all the very best for what he does in the future. I'd also like to thank Mark Hutton, who retires from the board at the end of this meeting. Mark was elected to the board in 2011, and was an active member in a number of the board subcommittees, and brought valued insight and contribution from his private equity background. I know that many people within Scales Corporation have hugely valued the wisdom and knowledge that Mark has brought to the business, and Mark, we thank you very much for that, and again, all the best to you for your next endeavors. On behalf of the board, thank you, Tim and Mark, for your considerable contributions and support. Moving on to the group's 2022 performance. We were pleased to report a strong result in 2022, driven by record results in both Global Proteins and logistics. Whilst horticulture was unfortunately adversely affected by a number of factors, the overall group financial performance was towards the top end of the 2022 profit guidance. Dividends of NZD 0.19 per share were delivered, as declared for the 2022 financial year, representing 98% of the underlying net profit attributable to shareholders. We believe our global investment strategy will continue to ensure that Scales meets its future business earnings ambitions, and look forward to the ongoing growth and development of the group. Since commencing my role as Chair, I've noted the priority that is given to the welfare, health and safety of Scales team members. This is exemplified by the steps taken by the Hawke's Bay-based businesses, in the unfortunate aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, and Andrew will touch on this further in his address. It's also important to remember that 2022 was not without its difficulties, as Scales, like many other businesses, battled adverse weather events and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. I also feel it's essential to reiterate the importance of our RSE workers, who travel from overseas, away from their family and communities, and whose skill and commitment are vital to the operations of our business. Accordingly, the board would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our team members. Their responsiveness, innovation, collaboration and support helped deliver the financial and operating results of the group. This is one of the legacies that Tim left in his role as chair, around culture and certainly the values of the people that work within this business. Health and safety continues to be a top priority for the group and is the first item on our board agendas. There was also a strong focus on both physical and mental well-being in 2022, with facilitated workshops and one-on-one counseling. Pleasingly, there was a significant 39% reduction in Mr. Apple's lost time injury rate from 2021, with this being at its lowest since 2018. The group also built, partnered with or re-engaged a number of employee engagement activities to support the wide range of staff members in our employment. We look forward to building on these in future periods. We're also pleased to have progressed Scales' board succession process over the last year, with the appointment of myself and Miranda Burdon. Miranda was welcomed to the board in August last year, whilst I joined in April this year. You'll have the opportunity to hear directly from Miranda and myself later in the meeting, we are hopeful that we will bring valuable experience, strong international knowledge, diverse qualifications and a diversity of thought around the board table. I'd now like to hand over to Andrew, who will update you further on last year's results and activities, as well as providing a trading update and outlook for the group. Following Andrew's presentation, we'll move to the formal part of the meeting. As always, we welcome feedback on any of the matters raised during today's presentation or other general matters in relation to the group. Thanks very much, Andrew. ... Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The current slide summarizes the topics that I'll cover in my presentation today, which includes a review of the 2022 year, a sustainability update, individual business updates, a trading update, and outlook. I'd like to start with the update on the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle, before I quickly recap some of the financial and operational highlights of 2022. First, and most importantly, following the cyclone, we're extremely pleased that all our team members were safe and well. It was an extremely challenging period for many people, and a large number experienced significant loss or disruption. The Hawke's Bay community, its people, and its culture are an integral part of Scales. Accordingly, we're committed to making a NZD 250,000 donations to the recovery. We've also provided tailored assistance to those staff members who are particularly affected, and will continue to support them as appropriate. We previously advised, three of our orchards, Brookfields, Kinross, and Pakowhai, were extensively damaged, with the Piloth orchard sustaining moderate damage. Luckily, our other orchards didn't sustain any material damage. Our current indications are that the 2023 crop will be down around 25% on our initial forecast and around 12%-15% down on last year. We also estimate that our total tree losses are around 5% of our total planted orchard area, due to expiring leases, less than 50% of this will need to be replaced. Whilst the effects of the cyclone were extremely unfortunate, this does provide Mr. Apple with the opportunity to further increase its focus on the production and supply of premium apples to the Asia and Middle East markets, and to realign our orchards to these varieties and volumes. We'll continue to update you through the year as appropriate. Moving on to the summary of last year. The slide shows some of our financial and volumetric measurements for 2022, a few of which I'll go into in more detail later. One figure of note was our revenue of NZD 619.2 million, a record level for the group. This next slide illustrates our earnings over the last five years and shows strong growth in both underlying EBITDA and revenue. Moving on to some more detail in respect of our 2022 results. Reported NPAT attributable to shareholders was NZD 19.4 million, with underlying NPAT attributable to shareholders of NZD 27.6 million. This result was towards the top end of our earnings guidance range. Underlying EBITDA increased 6% compared to 2021, and revenue was up 20%. These results were primarily due to growth in the Global Proteins division, both organically and, excuse me, by acquisition. This next slide summarizes some of the divisional highlights for 2022. Global Proteins produced an outstanding performance, with record results for both revenue and profitability. This was due to the strong market conditions and new product development, which led to improved volumes, mix, and margin, together with the contribution from Fayman and following our investment in the Australian businesses. Horticulture generated a solid result in a year where there was significant market disruption. There was a pleasing increase in the weighted average price of premium varieties, as well as an increase in the proportion of premium volumes sold. Logistics also produced an exceptional result, with excellent increases in revenue and earnings, delivering record earnings despite a testing market environment. The strategic value of the division was once again demonstrated, with the team ensuring product was delivered worldwide to all its customers. This slide shows the momentum, the movements in divisional earnings over the last five years and highlights the exceptional growth in Global Proteins over the last few years. Moving on to our balance sheet, which continues to show a strong financial position. The movement in capital employed mainly reflects our investment in Fayman, an increase in working capital, CapEx in Mr. Apple's Whakatu packhouse, and a revaluation of Mr. Apple's land and buildings. Our net cash position at 31 December decreased primarily to the Fayman investments and movement in working capital. Total cash dividends for the 2022 financial year were 98% of underlying net profit attributable to shareholders. The 2023 financial year onwards, our dividend policy will revert to 50%-75% of underlying net profit after tax attributable to shareholders. We're pleased to report that group return on capital employed, or ROCE, continues to be above our target%. The next section I'd like to cover is sustainability. Sustainability has always been important to Scales. Our business is based on production that comes from the land, we understand that looking after our environment is critical to our long-term success. Whilst this has always been a core value of Scales, we've only started to report on our initiatives and environmental impacts in more recent years. We're employing additional resources to this area. You'll see continued improvement in our reporting going forward. We're pleased to report our inaugural group-wide baseline calculations for water, carbon, and soil as part of our regenerative orchard trials. This slide summarizes the progress we've made on some of our sustainability initiatives. As ever, people are our key focus, as without them, we wouldn't be the business that we are. Mr. Apple has built a value proposition program and also two leadership programs to help develop our employees and leaders. We've also re-engaged the Ethical Voice platform, an online survey targeted at our RSE workers, so that we can be kept informed about their overall well-being. We're pleased to note that Mr. Apple has consistently scored excellent and improved across all 2019 baselines. Touching on a few other initiatives, we've completed a decarbonization roadmap, outlining key initiatives, CapEx, and reduction targets. Supported New Zealand Apples and Pears' Smart and Sustainable program to investigate the minimization of sprays, set group-wide climate scenarios, and established sustainability committees across our divisions. We cover this and more in detail in the sustainability section of our annual report, which I encourage you to read. A quick summary of some of our workplace statistics, although I'd like to point that we never treat our staff as just numbers. We're proud of the culture that we strive to maintain, are eager to develop talent, and seek to embrace inclusiveness in every aspect of our business. Moving on to an update of our divisional businesses, starting with Global Proteins. The division generated an exceptional performance over the year, revenue increasing 46% and underlying EBITDA increasing 80%. The increase in profitability was due to a number of factors, as summarized on screen, including operational efficiencies, new product development, a strong leadership team with long-term customer relationships, changes in product, customer, and market mix, and profit contribution from Fayman. Volumes increased 6% from around 149,000 metric tons to around 159,000 metric ton. Given the primarily edible nature of its product, we haven't incorporated Fayman's volumes into the volume of pet food sold by Meateor and Shelby. Over 9,000 metric tons of product was sold by Fayman's during November and December. I'd now like to touch on the future of Global Proteins division, as we're very optimistic about its prospects. We've summarized the attributes of the division in the current slide, which includes resiliency against market cycles, as well as above average returns on investment. The worldwide nature of the opportunities also allows us to leverage our existing networks, with our current focus being towards North America. The industry is supported by many macro tailwinds, including the global growth of the middle class and its associated demand for protein. We see no abatement in the demand for protein in the foreseeable future. Our pet food customers are also particularly optimistic about the future and are investing substantial sums into meet future demand. Supply chains and sourcing of raw materials have been identified as the biggest future production challenges for pet food manufacturers. Meateor and Shelby have a very experienced and well-connected leadership team and have developed deep relationships with customers over 25 years, which gives us confidence that we will participate alongside our customers in this growth. As a result of the opportunities I've just described, we have global ambitions for the division. As shown on this slide, we already have significant operations in New Zealand, Australia, and North America. North America is the world's largest pet food market, with Europe being the second largest. As many of our existing customers operate in Europe, we're continuing looking for ways to extend our operations there. Discussions regarding potential opportunities are currently taking place. The structure that we have in place today is a result of careful planning. We specifically target existing end-market players with strong existing relationships and find a way to partner with them. We'll continue to adopt this strategy for growth. Once we've invested, we'll leverage our existing experience and relationships to achieve win-win synergies and growth from it, the expanded group. Our current investment parameters will ensure that potential opportunities have strong earnings and cash flows, which allow a significant portion to flow to the parent company. Moving to the Horticulture division, 2022 was a difficult year for horticulture, with a number of challenges presented to the business, as mentioned earlier. Notwithstanding this, the division produced a solid result. Revenue was only down 6% on 2021, with underlying EBITDA of around NZD 17 million. We saw pleasing growth in some of our premium volumes, including Dazzle and Prince. Our overall crop of 3.3 million cartons was down on 2021, consistent with the industry performance. Good progress is made on our strategic objectives to develop volumes of higher value premium varieties and increase our market penetration into Asia. The proportion of premium apples increased over 2021, as did the% of sales to Asia and Middle East. In addition, many premium prices were in line with or slightly above 2021. As mentioned earlier, our intent is to continue to focus on the premiumization of our orchards and build demand for our premium varieties in the Asia and Middle East markets. Last, but certainly not least, it's logistics. The logistics division produced an outstanding full-year result despite continued global supply chain sector difficulties, with a 51% increase in revenue and a 33% increase in underlying EBITDA. Whilst there was a 9% decrease in ocean freight volumes managed, air freight volumes increased by 52%. Once again, the skill and expertise of the logistics team has been in evidence in 2022. We believe this is a key advantage for Scales' internal divisions, as well as logistics' external freight customers. Moving on to the outlook for the current year. Due to the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle, we revised our earnings guidance in early April. Underlying NPAT attributable to shareholders is now expected to be in the range of NZD 14 million-NZD 19 million, compared to our original guidance of NZD 23.5 million-NZD 28.5 million. Global Proteins has commenced the year well, with Shelby trading in line with 2022. The construction of the Meateor Australia processing facility is on track to be commissioned during 2023, albeit slightly later than initially anticipated, with some potential disruption to earnings anticipated in the second half of the year, rather than the first half as initially advised, as we transition processing to this facility. As you can imagine, it was a difficult start to the year for horticulture as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle. The horticulture team once again showed its resilience, recommencing picking and packing operations as soon as it was safe to do so. Prudent management of our capital resources continues to be of high importance, and as previously mentioned, our dividend policy will revert to 50%-75% of underlying NPAT, net profit after tax, attributable to shareholders from FY 2023 onwards. Excuse me. Moving on to the trading update for each of the divisions. As mentioned, Global Proteins has started the year well and continues to take advantage of the strong and growing global pet food market. We're also continuing to investigate opportunities to develop our investments through Fayman in the edible proteins by-product market. The harvest is complete, with the total pick of around 3.9 million TCEs at Mr. Apple. We anticipate that the pack-out rate will be lower than average this year due to storm-related damage, resulting in an export crop that is currently estimated to be between 12% and 15% down on 2022. The early pricing indications are in line with forecast. With a shortage of apples due to the cyclone, we're cautiously optimistic for the second half of 2023. Logistics has also had a positive start to the year and continues to provide invaluable support to its customers. That concludes my presentations. We'll answer questions following the resolutions, in the meantime, I'll pass back to Mike to cover the formal part of today's meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Good comprehensive update of where the business is at, and I'm sure, there'll be questions after we do the formal part of the meeting, and we look forward to those as we work our way through them. Thank you very much. I will now move to the business part of the meeting. All items of business are ordinary resolutions and are required to be passed by a simple majority of votes. Current best practice for shareholder voting is by way of poll. Accordingly, a poll will be held for each of the resolutions. Just like to advise you that I and my fellow directors hold the following undirected proxies. With respect to Resolution One, the authorization for the directors to fix the auditor's remuneration for the coming year, 467,123 shares. With respect to Resolution 2, the re-election of Nicholas Harris as Non-Executive Independent Director, 476,446 shares. With respect to Resolution 3, election of Miranda Burdon as Non-Executive Independent Director, 474,736 shares. With respect to Resolution 3, the election of myself, Mike Petersen, as Non-Executive Independent Director, 474,736 shares. Your board supports these resolutions, and we intend to vote all these shares in favor of those resolutions. I'll now go through each of the four resolutions. Resolution 1 relates to the remuneration of auditors. This proposed ordinary resolution is to authorize the directors to fix the auditor's remuneration for the coming year. In accordance with the Companies Act, Deloitte has automatically been reappointed as Scales' auditor. As is usual with audit fees, due to the complexity and changing nature of the company's affairs, it's not possible to fix the remuneration at the beginning of the year. I now move, as an ordinary resolution, that the board is authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration for the coming year. Do you have any questions on this resolution? Thank you. We'll move on to the next Resolution. Resolution 2. Resolution 2 relates to the re-election of a director. The NZX Listing Rules state that directors must not hold office without re-election past the third annual meeting following the director's appointment, or three years, whichever is longer. Accordingly, Nicholas Harris is required to retire at this meeting. Nicholas was first appointed to the board in 2014, and a brief biography for him was included in the notice of meeting. Nicholas, being eligible, offers himself for re-election, and the board unanimously supports his re-election and recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 2. I'd now like to invite Nicholas to briefly address the meeting on his proposed re-election. Thanks, Nicholas. Thanks, Mike. Ladies and gentlemen, as Mike alluded to, I've been involved in Scales since, or on board since 2014, prior to that, I was Independent Director of the Storage and Logistics division since 2012. This included the Apollo Cold and Whakatu Coldstores stores, Liqueo, and Meateor and Scales Logistics. Over the following years, I've been on the Audit and Risk Committee, when the Subcommittee of Health and Safety and Sustainability was set up, I chaired that until late last year. Outside of Scales, I've been in the meat industry all of my life, helping set up Hellers, New Zealand's largest bacon, ham, and small goods company. Currently, day to day, I own and manage Harris Farms Limited, an integrated meat company, in Cheviot, North Canterbury. Many of you probably know where that is. Farming 1,000 hectares of irrigated and dry land farming, with prime animals being processed in our own on-farm abattoir and meat processing facility. If we plug, you'll find our products in most PAK'nSAVEs, New Worlds, and Four Squares in the South Island. I'm a qualified accountant, and here I have one of my old tutors is over here, Clive Marshall. And have, over the last 30 years, helped support many not-for-profit trade organizations and sporting entities on their committees, trusts, and boards. Having worked in and managed a large business, I understand the day-to-day operations of our subsidiary companies. This, along with my knowledge of the meat industry, I feel, is advantageous as Scales expands its Global Proteins division. I now sit on the board of our subsidiary company, Fayman International Group, based in Melbourne, Australia. I'd like to take this opportunity now to thank Tim Goodacre, our departing Chairman, and Mark Hutton, one of the other, our other directors, for their leadership over the last few years. They'll both be sorely missed. I'd like to now just welcome Mike Petersen and also Miranda. I look forward to serving the Scales shareholders and working with the Scales team for another term as we move forward, rolling out the company's future plans and direction. Thank you. Thank you, Nicholas. A selfless plug for the business, too, which is healthy, just to get some sales along the way. Look, I now move as an ordinary resolution, having retired by rotation, that Nicholas Harris be re-elected as a Non-Executive Independent Director. Are there any questions on this resolution? Thank you. We'll now move to the next resolution, Resolution 3. Resolutions 3 and 4 relate to the election of directors appointed since the last annual meeting. The NZX Listing Rules, directors appointed by office without re-election, past the next annual meeting following the director's appointment. Resolution 3 relates to the re-election of Miranda Burdon. Miranda was appointed to the board in August 2022, and a brief biography for her was included in the notice of meeting. Miranda, being eligible, offers herself for re-election. The board unanimously supports her re-election and recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this Resolution 3. I'd now like to invite Miranda to briefly address the meeting on her proposed re-election. Over to you, Miranda. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Firstly, I'd like to thank the shareholders for the opportunity to support the growth and continued prosperity as an independent director of Scales Corporation. It's a business with enormous heritage in the primary sector and one that continues to lead and innovate to deliver ongoing diversification and growth. I take on this role following a career that is centered on the primary sector in New Zealand, albeit predominantly on the commercial side, and on the commercial side of many of the good things in life, such as mushrooms, dairy, and wine. Most recently, I started a business in emerging protein, in the emerging protein space, as we look at how we shift in diet business. The business is called Food Nation, as you can see from this, and you can find it in Countdowns, New Worlds, Farros, PAK'nSaves, and other stores around the country. Shall I continue? I hadn't realized. I'm fortunate to be able to utilize the combined experience from these prior roles and current roles to support the different divisions of Scales in its growth journey. My governance experience up until now has involved roles on private boards, crown entities, charities, as well as sector initiatives such as chairing Emerging Proteins New Zealand. I must reflect that I've been very impressed by the commitment of the executive team and the caliber of people involved in the business. The past few months have been a period of real challenge, not least in the Horticultural Division, given our very large holding in the Hawke's Bay. The team has demonstrated good systems and resilience as a business that will continue to stand us in good stead. As a member of the Health, Safety, and Sustainability Committee, it's been very visible how much work is taken to achieve these outcomes. I look forward to continuing to support the team and the business, and thank you for your support. Thank you, Miranda. Another selfless plug for the business, which as always, goes down well. Very well done, well done. I now move as an ordinary resolution, having retired by rotation, that Miranda Burdon be re-elected as a non-executive independent director. Are there any questions on this resolution? Thank you. We'll now move to the next resolution. I'm gonna ask Alan Isaac to introduce this Resolution 4. Thanks, Mike. Resolution 4 relates to the election of Mike Petersen. Mike was appointed to the board in April this year, and a brief biography for him was included in the notice of meeting. Mike, being eligible, offers himself for re-election, and the board unanimously supports his re-election and recommends the shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 4. I now invite Mike to briefly address the meeting on his proposed re-election. Over to you, Mike. Thank you, Alan. I thought it was appropriate we asked Alan to introduce me because he and I are the only ones wearing ties. Can I just say, thank you for the opportunity. I'm delighted to be given this opportunity to be on the board of Scales Corporation. Look, it is one of New Zealand's most established and successful agribusiness companies. It's got such a proud heritage, and I'm absolutely delighted to be able to be offered the opportunity to be on the board. I just wanna tell a story of when the appointment was made public. I got a phone call from my 86-year-old neighbor, and I won't name him, just in case he's watching on screen, but he gave me a call, and he said, "Mike, congratulations on your appointment," he said. I said: "Look, thank you very much." I said, "I'm really excited about the role." He said, well, he said, "I just want to tell you that our family have been shareholders in Scales Corporation since the early 1900s." He said, "Don't fuck it up, will you?" I don't know whether I'm allowed to say that online, but yeah. "Don't make a mess of it, will you, son?" It was pretty much what he said. Honestly, it's a big honor. I'm a sheep and beef farmer from Central Hawke's Bay. I also serve in a number of governance roles in agribusiness, on the board of ANZCO Foods, which is based here in Christchurch. I also chair a digital platform business called Nui Markets in Auckland, and I'm also a director of a number of other agribusiness companies, including large farming groups. And I'm delighted to be able to offer myself for re-election onto the Scales board here today. Thank you very much, and I look forward to your support, and I really look forward to working with the other directors and the management team. Tim Goodacre and I have very, very similar values. We really focus on the importance of people and culture in a business. And good people and good culture, drives good outcomes and success for us all. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mike. I now move as an ordinary resolution, having retired by rotation, that Mike Petersen be re-elected as an Independent, Non-Executive Director. Are there any questions on this resolution? Thank you. I'll now pass back to you, Mike. Thanks, Alan. Thank you, Alan. We'll now move to finalize the voting, and we'll answer general questions. Once all the votes have been cast, they will be counted by the company's share registrar, Computershare, and scrutinized by the company's auditor. The results of today's meeting will be released to the NZX on the completion of verification of the voting. If you've not already done so, please cast your votes now and give your voting forms to Computershare while we take questions. There'll be a couple of people wandering around with purple boxes. Once your votes are cast, then if you could deposit them into the boxes, or if you are voting online, please vote online. I'll give you a couple of minutes just to complete those. How many people are online? How many people are online? I'll ask Steve Kennelly, who can hopefully help us there. There are 41 people online at the moment. 41 people. Yes. Great. Look, if there are any questions on the financial results, the business update, or any other matters you'd like to raise, for those online, please do so through the Computershare online meetings platform. A reminder of the process is shown on screen. You can see the Q&A question there, so please just push that button and start the process there. For those of you present, I'll open the floor to any questions, and I just want to remind you that if we do run out of time, we will endeavor to ask, answer the any questions that we need to, and we'll do that by following up in writing after the meeting. Firstly, can I ask if there are any questions from the floor for a start? Then we'll go to online if there's not. Yes, at the back of the room. Ian, there's a microphone right there. Thank you. My name's Ian Upston. I'm concerned about the damage up in the orchard. You mentioned the leases that have been damaged, that are expiring. Is this the right word, contingent liability to remedy the damage on those expiring leases, or does that become the problem for the landlord? Yeah, for the landlord. Is that, uh, uh, a- Yes. No, no. No, look, I'll get Andrew to cover this off in detail, but certainly remember, these were leases that were due to expire anyway. I'll get Andrew to cover that off in a bit more detail. Yep. Yeah, I think under the terms of the lease, it's also the act of God, you know, that the event was, is not to be, you know, not a remedial damage requirement of the lessee. It was, yeah, unfortunate timing, I guess, for those leases, that they were due for expiry anyway, but no contingent liability for the company, no. Well, we're on the hook for a bit of a cleanup on our own and some other ongoing leases, but yeah, not the expiring ones. No. No, we had about 5% of our orchards, you know, wiped off the planet, if you wanna call it that way, by the, you know, huge torrent. Half of them were leases expiring and half were our own. We won't be replanting on those, the land that we've had wiped out by the torrent, but, the main part of the damage has been, silt inundation on nearly 100 hectares, Andrew? Yeah, about that. Mm. The removal of that has been our biggest challenge to date. We're getting through it, though. Yes, sir, please. Actually, just a reminder, please use the microphones because they... Yeah. picked up through the online system. Okay, sorry. Yep. Will the trees that have had silt put around them have to be replaced, or would the root damage be enough to, for you to have to replace those trees? We're thinking they won't need replaced because we've done a lot of work removing the silt away from them. Yeah, generally. Mm ... experience from our other colleagues in Nelson are saying that if you work, you know, if you can release that silt pretty quickly, you know, and it should be okay. You're pretty optimistic that? At this stage, yeah. Yeah. We really won't know fully until the spring, but they're showing good, obviously, regrowth and et cetera now. Yeah. Thank you. I live in Hawke's Bay, Ian, and look. We've noticed a number of operators that are not bothering to clean the silt away from the trees. We've spent a lot of time trying to clean up our orchards. We're stockpiling silt. The regional council says they're gonna come and take it away, so we're holding them at their word. Look, it's been a massive impact on the region. Ian, what I would suggest is, after the meeting, Andrew van Workum is here, who heads up our apples business, maybe catch up with him afterwards for a bit more detail. Thanks, Ian. Any other questions from the floor? Yes, sir. As far as shareholders, you're sort of indicating a sort of double whammy of the profit. Could be as much as half down, plus you're gonna drop the dividend from around 80 to maybe 50%. It's obviously going to mean the share price is gonna languish for a year or two yet? Thanks, Paul. No, I think. Well, yeah, your statements you made are correct, but hopefully will be different. You know, we feel the dividend policy is really back to where we were when we listed, and we were paying out a higher ratio when we were holding, you know, strong levels of net cash post the sale of Polarcold. We said we would pay out 100% of the impact, you know, while we're holding that strong net cash position. Now that we've started to invest it with the Australian operation, and, you know, earlier with Shelby, we thought it was prudent to go back to the 50%-75% ratio. As for the share price, I think, you know, as our earnings, you know, we sort of said that 2023, and 2024 will transition for the Global Proteins as we're investing. Certainly, Mr. Apple will bounce back for its earnings next year in a more normal year. That, combined with, as our investments in the Global Proteins parts, like in Australia and the small growth in America, those earnings will come through and, you know, hold the. Yeah, I don't really like commenting on share prices, but what I can comment it on is we would anticipate a rising net profit attributable to shareholders. Thank you. Certainly, from a board's perspective, we're very focused on ensuring the business is performing well. We wanna make sure that the profits are what determine the outcome, of course, that'll lead to a better return all round. Any other questions on the floor? Yes, from the floor. Steve, I might come to you if you have some online questions. ... Alan Williams. Do you expect the horticulture business to be the largest continuing business? With your expansion in the Global Proteins, and maybe production in Europe as well as the other places, will it consistently become bigger than apples? Yeah. Yeah, we probably do think that in the long run. it's, you know, Mr. Apple, we're expecting the horticulture business to bounce back solidly. the, you know, the growth that we've seen initially, you know, already embedded in the Global Proteins business has been strong. you know, the initiatives we've undertaken in America have worked out really well. We're really proud of the team up there. Yeah, the other growth opportunities, these, their businesses, really are starting from scratch or, you know, rebuilding in Australia, especially going in with the new plant there. Yeah, I think longer term, Global Proteins will be bigger than horticulture. I think one of the beauties about Scales Corporation is this three-legged stool that we've got. That is, you know, with horticulture, Global Proteins and logistics. You know, if we're only a horticulture business, and you've seen some of those businesses reporting recently, it's been a really tough year for them. We've had the beauty of having, you know, the Global Proteins as an, you know, as an upside that's countered some of the challenges we've had in horticulture. As a company, I think it's a good strategy. The logistics, of course, feeds in nicely to both those other legs as well. Do you have any questions online, Steve, that you'd like to- I've got one. A question from Alan King: "Were the damaged orchards planted in traditional or premium varieties? Good point. Good question. Andrew? Well, they're a mixture, really. Mm. There were some damage definitely to new plantings which we've largely remediated. In part of the 2.5% of wiped out trees, they were some new plantings as well. It was really, yeah, I wouldn't say predominantly one or the other, so it'd be pretty much same, a mixture of losses. Thank you, Steve. No further questions online, Mike. Lovely. Thank you. Yes, sir? Lloyd Russell. I'd just like an update on automation in the horticultural side. Mm. Can you give us an update of where we're at with on orchard and packing sheds and so on? Certainly. Look, there's obviously been good progress in the packhouse. Andrew, do you? Yeah. Talk about that? Look, we've completed the automation of the robotic palletizing. We'd already had robotic palletizings in our Longview pack house, now we've put it into our biggest pack house. The apples move out of the pack house over in a tunnel to an adjacent building. You know, where in the main pack house, there was probably 25, 30 people palletizing apples, apple into pallets, the boxes. They are now all done in a robotic room with four or five people in it. That's finished. We've probably put the actual finalization of the robotics into the pack house on hold because of these last couple of difficult years. We have, though, upgraded the software in our defects sorters, and that has actually allowed us to reduce the number of people standing at all the lanes. Just a simple thing like, going back to our defects sorter manufacturer and them looking at the software program, we've been able to take out or identify more defects using the photographic equipment in the defects sorters. That's all been done. In the orchards, Every time we replant, we're planting, you know, both closer together, and the apples, trees grow out laterally, and so they're cheaper to prune, thin, and harvest. That's an ongoing process. Yeah, so I think we've certainly gained some of the benefits, and we needed to because of the high cost of labor. We, you know, reducing the labor both in the orchard and in the pack house is why we're doing the automation, and it's working, but it's a, you know, it's an ongoing thing. Yeah, the holding off on the probably the big investment, which is the, you know, where the people in the pack house would drop in a big one, you know, from 80 down to 30. That would be coming when we did a, you know, a full upgrade of the robotics. We've, because of these last couple of years, we're just holding off on that at this time. Can I just add, then another question? Are you doing any automated, picking in the orchards yet? Could you also comment. Mm ... on the RSE workers, how many, and where you're accommodating them, please? Mm. No, no automatic picking. We do see it as quite a while off. I mean, you know, Andrew and the team have, you know, seen it operating. We've been out to Washington and the U.S. to see it. We've had a, you know, there's been the odd one trialed in New Zealand, but, you know, we even seen them doing it on, you know, with drones, believe it or not. Nothing that's commercially viable that we've seen globally yet. I think the, you know, go back to the RSEs, they've been back to, well, not back to normal, but if, whatever normal is, there's still a lot of pressure on, you know, the regulation of them. There's a lot you'll see in the media, there's been a lot of, you know, commentary about their, you know, ill treatment. You know, that is, you know, those people that have been, you know, found for that, you know, they should, you know, suffer the consequences. 'Cause we were the first ever business in New Zealand that took on the RSE workers, and we treat them with absolute, you know, it's a, it's a win-win. It's a, it's a, it's a privilege to have them, and we look after them in appropriately, the best way we can. They're all accommodated on, you know, in Mr. Apple accommodation. You know, we're very satisf... You know, the accommodation meets all the standards, and we want them to be warm, comfortable, well-fed, and everything, so they can work in the orchard. It's, you know, it's not like we're doing it as a favor to anyone. It's, you know, human practice to do what we're doing, and we're pretty. You know, it's a hugely essential part of our business, and we wanna see it continue. We're very confident and motivated to administer the scheme as it should be. Hmm. Thank you. Very important. Thank you. Yes, just up the back of the room here, Jane. Thank you. Just with regard to the orchards that you own at Brookfields and Pakipaki, did you say that you were not going to replant them? No, the Pakipaki one we lease. Oh, right. In our Kinross Orchard. It is Kinross, Andrew, isn't it? Yeah. There's in Kinross, we own a orchard, and where we got lost, like, 2.5 hectares, or 2.5%, sorry, got, you know, the flood bank burst and took out our Orchard. Mm-hmm. Together. The other really badly flood-damaged orchards were leased. Right. And that was also up in the Kinross block. Because the Kinross Orchard is, you know, about 75% freehold owned by us and 25% leased. Will you be replanting it? We won't be replanting the areas wiped out, which is, for us, is about 2.5% of our, of our Kinross area, or no, of the total area, but of, you know. We've had about 5% of our, of our entire orchards, you know, lost to the torrent, and half of them were leases, and half of them were in three, own hours. What will you be doing with the land that you own? That, look, it's a sand pit at the moment. I don't know what we're gonna do with it. Andrew, do you know? There's a range of impacts. If you go into the orchard, in some places at Kinross, there's a couple of rows down, and we'll be replacing those. We've got other areas in what Andrew calls the sand pit, which is a good description, that won't be replanted. A lot of the damage that we've incurred on our own land is a few rows in amongst a good orchard, and we have a plan to fix those portions of the business. I suppose what I was trying to get at was, you mentioned you would take the opportunity to move into more premium varieties. Ah. Is that solely then going to be done by leasing Orchards? No, not necessarily. We've always sort of had a combination of leasing and owning, and we'll continue that. Right. We, you know, it's really where the replanting will be, where, yes, obviously, where there's damage on our own orchards, some when there's damage on the leasehold Orchards. Yeah. It's very much. It's also taking out blocks of, if you like, the old traditional plantings that, you know, aren't as efficient to pick, thin and prune. Where the variety mixes, the, like we are pulling out Braeburn, for example, because, you know, we're just not getting the return in the market. Such a shame. I love Braeburn. Are you a Braeburn fan? We wish more people were. Certainly, the redevelopment program, Andrew, we're only replacing with premium varieties, you know, so just to be clear, you know. There is an opportunity there for us as a business. It's, at the moment, within our normal improvement program. Have we reached peak apple? In other words, are you gonna lease any more or buy any more land, or you're just gonna be happy with where you're at? Probably happy where we are at the moment, Paul. Yeah, just to, you know, to really capitalize on what we got, to push more of the crop into the Middle East and Asia, the reds, the red varieties. Not looking for supersonic growth at the moment, really looking for, you know, a return to really solid profitability. Yep, better returns, increased returns. Yes, sir. I had a question to extend that. Given the outlook, I guess, for global warming and the likelihood of having this kind of event more often, is there any kind of plan, or have you given any thought to land use and even moving out of some of those low-lying areas and Hawke's Bay. I mean, historically, it's a floodplain, you know, from Esk Valley right round to Toi Toi Bay. Is there some kind of contingency, or is it too early for you to comment on that? Really what we'd like to have happen is if the regional council does what it's supposed to do for the landowners, and put the appropriate investment into stopbanks, appropriate investment or compliance monitoring into the, you know, debris blocking up the bridges and that, I think that very much all of our orchards are viable or long-term orchards. Our biggest mitigation to weather events is the spread of the location of our orchards. I mean, we're from Napier, very close to Napier, right down to the central Hawke's Bay, where Mike lives, and that's, you know, 70-odd kilometers, and that spread has always been our best mitigation. We still think Hawke's Bay is the best place in the world to grow apples. We really would ask out of this, we're hoping that the both local and central government do what they're supposed to do and look after the infrastructure in place that's fit for purpose. Stop the hill country neighbors sharing their waste with the floodplains farmers. Gee, here we go. This is gonna be the Orchardists versus the sheep and beef farmers, surely. Be careful. Look, Andrew's right. There was just this week, there were a whole series of maps released for Hawke's Bay in the flood regions. That's out for consultation now. There's a lot of talk happening in the region about just, you know, where people should be able to build houses. We talked today that actually, when you look at our footprint, we're actually on land that looks like it's going to be, we're gonna be able to carry on. We're in land where we can certainly carry on farming and growing apples successfully. Any other questions from the floor? What about online, Steve? No further questions online. There must be another question, surely. I'm told that you're all an inquisitive bunch. Okay. All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. Shortly, I'll close the voting system, so please ensure that you've cast your vote on all resolutions. I'll now also just allow people to cast your votes online. I know those of you in the room have put them in the ballot box, and we'll just wait for about 30 seconds. Okay, we won't wait for 30 seconds. Voting is now closed. Ladies and gentlemen, the results of all votes will be released to the NZX later today. As there doesn't appear to be any further business for discussion, that brings to an end to the formal business of Scales Corporation's 2023 Annual Shareholders Meeting. I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to connect with us today, be it online or in person, and I now declare the meeting closed. As outlined earlier, I'd now like to invite all of those present to stay for a light refreshment and the opportunity to have informal discussions with directors and the management team. Thank you again, ladies and gentlemen, and all the very best for the rest of your day. Thank you, team. As it's tradition, you're welcome to take some apples home with you. This time, Paul, is for you, Paul. You're gonna have apples and a dividend, all right? Are the apples good or bad? Well. All clean and clean as a whistle, squeaky crisp. I think there's a variety of apples here for you to try, isn't there, Andrew? I think that's. I think it's four different varieties. Four different flavors in each bag. There you go. All premium, I'm sure. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.