Dairy Holdings appoints Blair Robinson as CEO

NEW ZEALAND – Dairy Holdings has appointed Blair Robinson as Chief Executive Officer, replacing Colin Glass, who was in office for 25 years.

Blair joined Dairy Holdings in 2018 as Chief Operating Officer and has played a key role in our senior leadership team ever since.

Over the past eight years, he has led both our dairy farming and support operations, developing a deep understanding of our business, our people and the opportunities ahead.

With leadership experience spanning agriculture, sustainability, finance and agribusiness, Blair brings a strong combination of commercial insight, technical expertise and practical industry knowledge.

Blair holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons) and a Master of Soil Science from Massey University, and prior to joining Dairy Holdings held senior roles across the fertiliser industry, Fonterra and rural banking.

Chair Greg Gent said the Board had worked to ensure a seamless leadership transition.

“Colin Glass did an outstanding job preparing the business for this change, and Blair has developed a deep understanding of the Dairy Holdings way during his time with us.

What none of us anticipated was that his first day as CEO would also be the first day of our ownership of Rangitata Dairies. Blair has approached the integration of those eight dairy farms and grazing blocks with his trademark calm, practical style. It’s an encouraging start and gives us great confidence in the future under his leadership.”

Glass, who stood down at the end of May, said that moving on has given him the chance to reflect, and appreciate that what was created in Dairy Holdings was “quite special”.

“As always, it’s about the people that you deal with rather than necessarily what you achieve, but certainly the company’s gone from strength to strength, from what was reasonably humble beginnings way back in 2001, to what it’s become now,” he said.

Dairy Holdings now holds around 90 farms, both dairy and support, producing around 33 million kgMS annually.

Under Glass’s leadership the company continued to grow right to the end of his tenure, with the acquisition of the Rangitata Partnership’s farms, under a deal which only went unconditional on his last day at work, and was settled on the Wednesday of the following week.

With Rangitata holding several dairy farms in South Canterbury and a large grazing block in Tarras, Glass said it was “quite a large transaction and good one to get under our belt at the end”.

Glass said the success of the company was the testament to the vision and courage of the founders, Allan Hubbard, Colin and Dale Armer, and Alan Pye, to pick up the farms of the former Tasman Agriculture and Dairy Brands groups when their then owners decided to sell up in 2001.

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