Growth sits firmly within Fortuna Group’s DNA, but the Southland dairy business is becoming increasingly deliberate about what that growth looks like and how it is achieved. The company is placing strong emphasis on building what executive chair Mike Fleming describes as a “high-performance framework and mindset” across the business, alongside continued investment in expanding farming operations, technology, environmental projects and staff development.
“Our vision is to be New Zealand’s best intergenerational dairy farming business,” Mike says. “The key word there is best. Not biggest; best in people, best in environment and best in class in terms of systems and output to deliver high profit and total shareholder return for today and future generations.”
“Excellence and getting better every day are cornerstones of Fortuna’s value system and the Dodunski family culture. Sustainability is non-negotiable within our business framework and a major part of our reputation.”
Founded in 2012 by David and Kay Dodunski, Fortuna Group comprises 23 dairy farms and eight support blocks, with more than 17,000 dairy cows spread across 5,464 hectares owned and a further 1,726 hectares leased across Southland. The company predominantly supplies Fonterra and has expanded through farm acquisitions, infrastructure investments and internal capability development.
Mike has been involved with Fortuna since its incorporation in 2012 and recently stepped into a transitional executive chair role while the company searches for a new chief executive following a planned leadership transition. Prior to joining Fortuna, he held agribusiness governance and leadership roles focused on dairy and broader primary-sector investment and management.
People and capability Manager Kate Winter says excellence and continuous improvement remain central to the company. “Excellence and getting better every day are cornerstones of Fortuna’s value system and the Dodunski family culture. We’re known for good farms and good farming, but the icing on the cake is our care for the environment and our people. Being custodians of the land and leaving it better than we found it is synonymous with Dave and Kay. Sustainability is non-negotiable within our business framework and a major part of our reputation.”
Dodunski’s vision is that people working in the business will one day own part of it, Kate says. “That flows through to strong career and wealth creation pathways within the company.”
Mike says Fortuna’s focus on becoming “best in dairy” on scale, which is intergenerational, needs to be underpinned by a high-performance culture in the business. “We’re very much leaning into that in this next phase.”
That culture is built around accountability and shared standards throughout the business, he says. “We are able to define a behaviour and a standard that we want to see in the business with our people, and we are comfortable holding each other to account to meet those expectations every day. We often refer to the All Blacks environment which has a long history of winning, so this is something we are trying to emulate.”
While Fortuna continues assessing future acquisition opportunities, Mike says that with its strong balance sheet and cash flow, the company will spend the next two to three years strengthening the business and looking to increase investment in resilience projects such as solar installations, feed pads and dairy shed upgrades designed to help lower operating costs and improve productivity.
“As part of our strategic refresh this year, we’re elevating our focus on data management and integrating generative AI into decision-making.” He believes artificial intelligence will become increasingly influential across agriculture, particularly around supporting decision-making in scaled businesses, accessing productivity gains through improved plant and animal genetics and lowering its environmental footprints with technological advances in mitigation tools.
“With our scale, we have the ability to make some strategic investments in technology and upskill people to initially prove and refine the business case (return on investment) to then roll out on scale if justified. So that’s again part of our people strategy to upskill.”
Despite a cold and wet spring, a cooler summer and favourable autumn contributed to a very strong production season, which has set up Fortuna’s farms and the overall business well for the next season. “Asset value appreciation has been strong, supported by a good milk price resulting in very good dividends paid to shareholders, and they’ve had very good asset growth, so total shareholder return has been a record for Fortuna shareholders this year. In summary, a very, very good year for New Zealand dairy and our shareholders.”
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