CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 27 September 2024

Mining & Resources

"Yes, there is no doubt that as we look into the future, commodities are going to be needed at increasing levels…we're really going to need more of our equipment and support for those and if you look at strip ratios they are declining, ore grades are declining. So, to get the same amount of commodity out of the ground, you need to move a lot more ore." Denise Johnson, President, Caterpillar Resource Industries

Protein & Produce

"But also, we note that sales across all of our markets, by and large, have held up very well despite global cost of living pressures and the issues above." Carl Carrington, CEO, New Zealand King Salmon Ltd

“We think the macro forward pricing environment for [almond] farmers is extremely positive...We also hold the view generally that supply chains, particularly in India and China, have low inventory levels. We think that bodes well for pricing.” David Survey, CEO, Select Harvests Ltd

Country of Origin & Branding

“You just see things like a tomato sauce brand that says ‘Made in Australia’, but on the back it says it’s only made with 20 per cent Australian ingredients. And by the way, it’s a foreign-owned company. That’s the level of confusion. It’s not like 10 per cent, 15 per cent; it is the overwhelming majority of people in this research that had bought a brand that they thought was Australian-owned, and it wasn’t.” Michael Hampson, CEO, Norco Dairy Co-Operative Ltd

“In the context of privacy concerns and country of origin, I think that affordability and product quality will be the overriding factor informing car buyers. Think of a mass market product such as the iPhone, which is hugely successful despite the fact it is primarily made in China” James Voortman, CEO, Australian Automotive Dealer Association

Retail

“Global inflationary pressures are easing, but it will take time to directly impact consumer spending." Michael Daly, CEO KMD Brands Inc

Homebuilding

“Increasingly the outlook for home building is dominated by local factors such as the price of land and state government taxes. For this reason, a recovery in building activity in New South Wales appears set to lag all other jurisdictions. At the other end of the spectrum, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia appear set to see an increase in building activity." Market Statement, Housing Industry Association

“We note that to be the largest builder in Australia with under 4000 site starts, it’s clear that the country is falling behind on delivering the homes that have been identified as essential” Brad Duggan, CEO, Metricon Homes

Software & Technology

"We are at the precipice of the greatest moment in the history of enterprise software and of cloud computing. There is no question...but now I’m really convinced that we are now really at the moment. Right now, where enterprise software is going to be transformed by artificial intelligence" Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce Inc

"I think as a computer scientist I’ve never seen anything as exciting as all the AI progress that’s happened the last few years” Sergey Brin, Co-Founder, Google Inc

Document Management & Storage

“The reason why we're pretty comfortable about that [business health], virtually every customer that we still have, is sending us new boxes of documents. Now albeit if you say, well, are some of them actually dropping in terms of the total number of boxes that we have, yes" William Meaney, CEO, Iron Mountain Inc

Global Trade & E-Commerce

"We expect structural trends towards e-commerce and the digital economy will continue to drive demand for prime industrial facilities for many years to come." Mark Ellenor, CEO, Brickworks Ltd

“Global trade, I think, is still very much relevant but is also changing. We obviously recognise geopolitical tensions. We see trade barriers rising. To some extent, it is astonishing how robust trade is in light of those trade barriers, trade still growing with GDP or slightly ahead of GDP but not 2 - 2.5x of GDP as we have seen this for about a time period of 20 years. And it's also very clear that the trade patterns are changing.” Tobias Meyer, CEO, DHL Group

Cloud Infrastructure

“If you look at the growth, it’s really four or five customers – it’s Microsoft, it’s Google, it’s Amazon, it’s Oracle. And if you’re not doing business with these customers, your business model doesn’t exist. That’s the reality. Between them, they’re looking to deploy $US200bn in new investment in cloud infrastructure just this year. If you extrapolate the next four or five years, there’s a $1 trillion investment.” Robin Khunda, CEO, AirTrunk

Corporate America

“But we haven't seen much change. We still see nice demand from our customers, and we're helping them with their image, their safety, their cleanliness and their compliance needs.” Todd Schneider, CEO, Cintas Corp [major corporate uniform manufacturer]

Gaming

“In today's challenging market and with gamers expecting extraordinary experiences, delivering solid quality is no longer enough.” Yves Guillemot, CEO, Ubisoft Entertainment Group

Power Plants

“We believe gas peakers [peak demand power plants] have a critical role to play in the energy transition, providing backup power within minutes when the grid needs it.” Damien Nicks, CEO, AGL Energy Ltd