THERE are mounting concerns this week about the future of the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) based in Armidale, following reports of financial difficulty and staff departures.
It has been confirmed that chief executive officer and acting managing director Christian Duff – who only took up his CEO role at ABRI in February from his former position at Angus Australia – has resigned from the company.
A number of other operations staff have been retrenched or have chosen to leave, but ABRI did not offer to clarify Beef Central’s inquiry suggesting that staff departures – either recent or pending – might be up to seven or eight. Previous managing Director Anita Kauffmann finished up earlier.
ABRI’s primary role is the custodian of BreedPlan, and describes itself on its website as “a leading provider of innovative agtech products, software services and technology solutions on a global scale, including the BreedPlan Genetic Evaluation and its breed registry suite.”
The business is owned under a controlled entity arrangement by UNE.
Beef Central requested a phone interview with ABRI chair Angela Schuster, but was instead provided with a written response to questions this afternoon. Much of that (published in full below) repeated statements made earlier about the body’s ongoing restructure.
The institute said Dr Duff had resigned “after consideration of the level of commitment the role requires, particularly at this point in our transformation.”
ABRI provided no specific response to questions suggesting losses in recent years have been in the order of $700,000-$800,000 annually, whether reserves had been run down, or the specific reasons behind the body’s financial problems.
Following a rumour circulating at yesterday’s Cattle Australia event in Dalby, Meat & Livestock Australia managing director Mick Crowley confirmed to Beef Central that MLA, while still a supporter of BreedPlan, was not involved in any ‘financial rescue package’ for ABRI.
However ABRI’s statement (see below) said that the University of New England’s 2024 annual report had disclosed that UNE had made a $5 million loan facility available to ABRI in support of its new strategic plan.
BreedPlan activity provides ABRI’s biggest source of revenue, and it has been suggested that changes made by several big customer breeds including Angus and Wagyu, which now perform some functions internally, may have impacted that revenue stream. Declines in revenue from overseas customers was also cited. ABRI did not specifically respond to Beef Central’s questions about this.
Beef Central also asked questions about reports of BreedPlan software failure issues that impacted Brahman BreedPlan users and some other breeds earlier this year; and whether these problems occurred as a result of maintenance and upgrade issues surrounding the financial position.
ABRI’s written response said: As ABRI customers will be aware, there was a temporary outage with the software that delivers BreedPlan in 2024. ABRI took this as an opportunity to invest in the underlying IT architecture and bring on more personnel resources to improve the scalability, functionality and reliability of this software.
Beef Central asked whether the current financial position was raised during last week’s BreedPlan 40th anniversary gathering in Armidale, but was not provide with a response.
Here is the remainder of ABRI’s statement:
ABRI is at the forefront of livestock breeding technology, delivering leading-edge, data-driven solutions that enhance the productivity, sustainability and profitability of the global agricultural industry.
ABRI is a leading provider of innovative AgTech products, software services and technology solutions, including the BreedPlan Genetic Evaluation, our breed registry and breed secretariat services, testing services for the dairy industry and herd management systems.
Together, these offerings provide ABRI with a diverse and resilient customer and revenue base.
ABRI’s objective is focused on improving the rate of genetic gain, helping producers meet value chain demands in current and future markets.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of BreedPlan, the most extensively utilised genetic evaluation offering globally, with more than 80 breed societies, breeder groups and pastoral companies relying on BreedPlan analyses worldwide.
ABRI has a clear strategic vision to continue to play a vital, long-term role in improving the rate of genetic gain and responding to industry needs that enhance the productivity and profitability of producers. Our recent work with customers on GenSelect is one such example of addressing industry needs.
ABRI’s Strategic Transformation
In August 2024, as ABRI stakeholders are aware, the ABRI Board commenced a major strategic transformation program to position ABRI as a commercially focused company more closely aligned with our customers and able to deliver on stakeholder expectations.
By reconnecting ABRI’s people to purpose and customers, and clearing barriers to collaboration, ABRI is now better-aligned, more accountable and equipped to serve a growing customer base.
Significant upgrades to ABRI’s information systems have strengthened our core infrastructure and positioned the organisation for future growth at commercial scale.
Through improved communication and service delivery, customer satisfaction for ABRI’s services has increased significantly.
The transformation has included a review of our organisational structure, skills and roles to ensure our people are set up to deliver on our strategic ambitions. This has resulted in some staff changes, re-deployments and new appointments to strengthen capability.
All change programs require a constant commitment to uplift and improvement, our latest changes are part of that journey.
New Managing Director
ABRI is in the final stages of recruiting a new managing director. This externally managed process attracted a range of high calibre candidates from both Australia and internationally which speaks to the esteem in which ABRI is held.
ABRI’s financial position
As a controlled entity of the University of New England, ABRI’s financial statements are published each year as part of the University’s annual report.
In the 2024 report it was disclosed that UNE had made a $5m loan facility available to ABRI in support of its new strategic plan. ABRI is a commercial organisation and our revenue is generated by the services and value it delivers to industry stakeholders.
Part of the business transformation that commenced in 2024 was to right-size the organisation’s cost base, and continue to grow revenue, to achieve long term financial sustainability.
The organisation continues to progress this goal.
ABRI has a firm handle on its financial position and a series of changes have been made over the past 14 months to shore up our long-term financial sustainability.