Douglas Goodfellow quiet on success

BY WILLIAM MACE

William Douglas Goodfellow, OBE, does not have a lot of time for journalists.

Aged 93, he still manages his business interests from the Auckland home he shares with his wife of 59 years, Judith.

He prefers to work into the night, rising late in the morning when he receives a file of business papers.

He regularly confers via telephone with his son, Bruce Goodfellow, who now inhabits his father's Amalgamated Dairies offices in Anzac Ave.

But even if he was not constantly occupied by his business and philanthropic dealings, it is a good bet Douglas Goodfellow would not feel inclined to speak about his remarkable success.

He topped the Rich List in 1994 but a year later, his wealth had been transferred to family trusts.

By all accounts he shuns the recognition that comes with his Business Hall of Fame induction.

The Amalgamated Dairies office is also modest – it has not been redecorated since about 1975 when the company moved in.

Bruce Goodfellow describes himself as a workaholic like his father, and says they prefer to concentrate on business rather than interior design.

The office he has inherited from Douglas is filled with memories of Amalgamated's exporting heyday. A large mahogany desk is covered in papers, with a silver tea service at the ready.

Bruce's addition to the office – a circular wooden table – is surrounded by four soft, brown arm-chairs, more suited to a living room.

1970s-era drapery frames the windows which, ten years ago, would've looked across the Ports of Auckland where so much of the company’s dairy, meat and seafood exports left Kiwi shores.

Instead the windows stare at apartment boxes and chinese restaurants that now characterise downtown Auckland.

"I remember when I joined the company in 1980 the company secretary said to me that every ship going out of those ports had some of our product on it," Bruce says.

In one corner stands a flag proudly displaying the company slogan – "Amal. The Mark of Quality". Next to it, and with pride of place on the wall, is a framed newspaper clipping of Douglas' father, William Goodfellow, kneeling to receive his knighthood from the Queen during the 1953 royal tour.

It was Sir William who took the family into the dairy industry, founding the Waikato Dairy Company in 1909, after a customer of his general merchant business defaulted on an order of dairy equipment.

In 1910, he added "Co-operative" to the company name and set about building a model that would sustain dairy expansion for the next century.

Sir William's belief in production economies of scale and his zest for a co-ordinated overseas marketing plan that was ahead of its time were the forerunners for his son's divergence into meat, live breeding stock, seafood and, more recently, investment shareholdings.

Douglas was born in 1917, in Hamilton, and went to Fairfield School before shifting to Mt Roskill Primary and Auckland Grammar School.

He spent a year at Auckland Medical School and then joined the Royal Navy and saw World War II action in the Mediterranean Sea.

After the war he worked for Empire Dairies' London office, a partnership between Sir William's Amalgamated Dairies and the Australian Producers' Wholesale Co-operative Federation to drive sales in the Mother Country.

He met his Australian-born wife and they returned to New Zealand in 1951 to marry.

Sir William's efforts to get New Zealand dairy producers working together had run their course and Empire Dairies was eventually sold to the New Zealand Dairy Products Marketing Commission.

But Douglas continued to seek trading opportunities around the world.

He brought Lada cars and potash to New Zealand from the Soviet Union during the 1960s.

Amalgamated also exported fruit, vegetables and meats, and Douglas continued to govern his father's interests in dairy, refrigeration and clothing.

He has been a director of New Zealand Insurance, New Zealand Farmers Fertiliser Company (now Nufarm), and was chairman of seafood company Sanford for more than 30 years.

Douglas and Amalgamated Dairies own almost 40 per cent of Sanford and helped build the company into the country's second largest fishing operation.

Amalgamated also owned half of the country's third largest fishing company, Amaltal, a joint venture with the Talley family of Motueka, but sold out to the Talleys in 2005 for an undisclosed sum.

But business is only half of what Douglas Goodfellow devotes himself to. He's best known for supporting educational institutions such as Saint Kentigern School and College in Auckland.

Sir William was among nine original founders of the Saint Kentigern Trust Board in 1949.

They sought to realise the Presbyterian Church principle that knowledge should be used "for the Glory of God and the benefit of mankind" and involve "a proper discipline of mind and body and a life of service to others".

Ten years later when Douglas sent his sons, Bruce and Peter, to the preparatory school which had just opened in Remuera, he also joined the school's board.

He has sat on the trust board since 1962 and was chairman from 1965 to 2000. The fingerprint of his "life of service to others" can be seen across the grounds of both the school and college.

Bruce Goodfellow took over from his father as chairman of the trust board in 2000. Douglas' other son, Peter, also has directorships in the family's holdings and was elected National Party president last year.

Douglas' contributions to education extend into the tertiary sector.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Amalgamated Dairies, and also in memory of his father, Douglas funded the Goodfellow unit in the School of Population Health at Auckland University.

He also established a postgraduate chair in general practice at Auckland Medical School and the Richard Maclaurin Goodfellow chair in theology.

He was instrumental in setting up trusts and heading governance for the purposes of medical research and care of the elderly.

"It all comes from the basis of his faith being the Presbyterian Church, which is very much hard work, study and academics, and giving back to society," Bruce says.

"When he's involved with charities he gets involved with them personally and gives of his time. Business was different in those days; it was much more to scale, it wasn't as tight to manage as what businesses are today."

Douglas' hardworking attitude extended to the roughly biennial holidays that the family spent in Judith's hometown of Melbourne, Bruce says.

"We'd go for four or five weeks, but I can remember in Melbourne he'd go to work every single day – he'd catch the train in because there was an office in Melbourne."

Bruce says his father's reputation for commitment and honest business dealings began to precede him.

"We had a very good profile and reputation out in the market as people to deal with. You needed honesty and integrity in business.

"Because of some of the shareholdings that he had he was approached to sell out at higher prices, but he would say, `No, everybody's got to be treated fairly and all shareholders must receive the same price'."

As for recognition, Douglas prefers to focus on his work. He did, however, muster an appropriately modest reply when asked how he viewed his entry into the Business Hall of Fame.

"This is not only recognition for myself," says Douglas, "but also a recognition for all those who have also been involved with me in business and charitable enterprises. It is an honour to follow in my father's footsteps in also being accepted into the Business Hall of Fame."

* The Business Hall of Fame Gala Dinner takes place on Wednesday, July 28, at 7pm at the Hyatt Regency Auckland. Tickets can be bought by emailing caroline.steele@yetrust.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News