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From two rooms in 1962 to 80,000+ members today.
It started with a handful of farmers, two rooms, two different parts of the country, and one shared frustration. That simple idea grew into a co-op the length and breadth of New Zealand.
A handful of farmers in two different rooms with a shared frustration and a simple idea.
Shareholders across rural New Zealand today.
We have stores from coast to coast, with trained specialists on every floor.
Annual turnover. One co-op, one purpose.
60+ years of Farmlands.
Frustration turned into one of the largest rural co-ops in New Zealand history.
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1962-1963
Two rooms. Two regions. One idea.
It started with frustration. In 1962, a group of farmers gathered at Eskdale Hall in Hawke's Bay. A year later, another group met at the Outram Hotel in Otago. The people were different. The regions were different. But the feeling in both rooms was exactly the same. These farmers were fed up. Stock firms held a near-monopoly on the supplies they needed to run their operations, and they were making the most of it. So they decided to fix it - by doing what New Zealanders do best. Getting together, backing each other, and building something better.
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1960s-1970s
From two societies to a movement.
From those two meetings came two organisations: the Economic Trading Society in Hawke's Bay and the Otago Rural Trading Society in the South. Word spread. Other like-minded groups from around the country saw what was happening and wanted in. Slowly, methodically, through mergers and amalgamations, the network grew. The principle was simple: the bigger the collective, the stronger the buying power, and the better the deal for every member.
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1970s-2000s
Two names. One direction.
Through the decades, the landscape of rural trading continued to consolidate. Two distinct entities emerged from the growth: Farmlands Trading Society Limited and Combined Rural Traders Limited (CRT), each a powerful force in its own right, each built on the same co-operative foundations. For years they operated separately, growing their networks, building their member bases, and earning the trust of rural communities across the country.
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2013
One Farmlands.
In 2013, New Zealand's two most powerful rural trading societies became one. The merger of Farmlands and CRT created a single entity with the scale to negotiate better deals, the reach to serve rural New Zealand nationwide, and the unity to deliver on the founding promise: the best possible price for the people who feed this country. It was the largest consolidation in New Zealand's rural co-operative history.
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Today
Still fighting for the best deal. Always.
More than 60 years on from those two meetings, the co-op is bigger than anyone in that Eskdale hall or that Outram hotel could have imagined. 80,000+ members. 82 stores. A $2.55 billion operation. 1,000+ staff. Fuel. Finance. Agronomy. Horticulture. Nutrition. Every rebate returned. Every dollar saved on farm inputs. Every piece of expert advice. It's all still the same idea those farmers had in 1962. People who back each other get a better deal than people who go it alone.
We're your co-operative.
Not a corporation. Not a listed company. Not a business that answers to offshore shareholders. A co-operative owned by the people who use it, run in the interests of the people who depend on it, and built on the belief that New Zealand's farmers and growers deserve the best possible deal. That's been true since 1962. It's true today. And the 80,000+ members who make up this co-op are the reason it will stay true.
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