POT Annual Meeting 2025: Chair & Chief Executive's Address
PORT OF TAURANGA LIMITED ANNUAL MEETING 2025
1pm, Friday 31 October 2025
Chair – Julia Hoare
Now to the highlights and challenges of the past year for the Port of Tauranga Group.
In contrast to last year, I’m pleased to be reporting on strong growth across most cargo
categories, and an improved financial performance, demonstrating Port of Tauranga’s
resilience amidst significant ongoing domestic and international supply chain
challenges.
Total cargo volumes increased 7% to 25.3 million tonnes. Container numbers increased
5.3% to 1.2 million TEUs.
Underlying Group profit - taking out the effects of the Marsden Maritime Holdings
transaction, which I will talk about shortly - was $126 million, a 23% increase on the
previous year.
Leonard will go into more detail on individual cargo categories, but I think you will all
agree that overall, this was an outstanding result.
For the year ended 30 June 2025, revenue increased 11.3% to $464.7 million.
Operating costs increased 8.1% to $236.3 million.
Despite the prevailing economic conditions impacting cargo volumes for our subsidiary
and associate companies, they managed a 15.3% increase in earnings to $10.9 million.
The Board declared a final dividend of 9.7 cents per share to bring the total dividend
for the 2025 financial year to 16.7 cents per share.
Of course, the year was not without its challenges, including the ongoing saga of our
resource consent application for the Stella Passage development.
To recap the developments since our last Annual Meeting:
In December 2024, the Environment Court approved part of the project, a berth
extension at the container terminal. Unfortunately, that decision was immediately
appealed.
Due to the increasing urgency of the project, we opted to apply under the Fast-track
Approvals Act, seeking to speed up the process. The Stella Passage project was listed in
schedule 2 to the Act.
Following a judicial review in August, the High Court found that the description in
schedule 2 did not fully describe the project as submitted by the Port. In short, thanks
to a drafting error on the part of Government officials, the description was missing the
words “Mount Maunganui wharves.”
As a result, the fast-track application, which we had hoped to complete by February
2026, is on hold.
The Government has assured us that the mistake was theirs and there was no
intention to break up or stymie the project.
While we wait for the error to be fixed, we have lodged a back-up application, which
involves asking the Minister for Infrastructure directly to accept our application into the
process. We expect that approval in the coming weeks.
To describe this long, drawn-out process as extremely frustrating – not to mention
hugely costly for our company and all of New Zealand – would be an enormous
understatement.
I want to stress that Port of Tauranga is in no way trying to avoid its environmental
responsibilities by trying to speed up the resource consent process.
In fact, the Environment Court acknowledged that, from a Western science perspective,
the development will have a minor effect in short-term, during construction, and a
negligible effect in the long-term. We have protections in place for water quality, birds,
marine mammals and noise.
However, we have been unable to reach agreement with multiple hapū parties on the
appropriate level of mitigation for the cultural effects of the development.
We remain hopeful of reaching agreement and consultation continues. However, the
urgency of the need for this project is growing.
The container terminal berths are essentially at capacity. While we could handle more
containers, we are unable to accommodate any new ships.
The lack of capacity is also impacting our ability to effectively deal with congestion
caused by ships arriving off schedule. Leonard will explain this shortly.
Ultimately, it is the New Zealand economy, and all New Zealanders, that suffer. This is
critical infrastructure essential for efficient two-way trade for New Zealand.
The delays to construction are also inhibiting our plan to increase efficiency and reduce
carbon emissions by introducing electric automated stacking cranes to the container
terminal.
We are strongly focused on decarbonisation as part of our commitment to long-term
sustainability, so the waiting is frustrating for us. In the meantime, we are preparing for
automation through emulation testing of the proposed system.
More details on our decarbonisation plans are outlined in our second annual Climate-
related Disclosures Report, just published yesterday and available on our website.
Leonard will talk shortly about our plans to trial New Zealand’s first fully electric
straddle carrier, as well as our planned hybrid tug.
Unfortunately, our emissions actually increased for the 2025 financial year, during an
unusually high refrigerated container peak season. Leonard will talk about the
background and how we are looking to address this.
One of the most significant achievements of the past year was the successful
acquisition of Marsden Maritime Holdings and the formation of Northport Group
Limited.
A consortium comprising Port of Tauranga, Northland Regional Council and Tupu Tonu,
the Ngāpuhi Investment Fund, completed the takeover of MMH. The buyout of all
shares not already held by the Council led to MMH’s delisting from the NZX.
Before the transaction, MMH owned 50% of Northport Limited - with Port of Tauranga
owning the other half – plus around 150 hectares of industrial land adjacent to
Northport. Under the new structure, Port of Tauranga now owns 50% of the merged
group, the Council owns 43% and Tupu Tonu 7%.
What this means is that the port operations and the undeveloped land next door to the
port are under one umbrella. Earlier this month, the Environment Court granted
Northport resource consent for a major expansion, involving nearly 12 hectares of
reclamation and a 250-metre wharf extension and associated capital dredging.
With the Government and KiwiRail progressing a proposal to extend the rail line to the
port, this opens up incredible opportunity for growth for Northland and the Upper
North Island economy.
The simpler, unified company structure will allow better coordination as the land is
developed for industrial, logistics or freight operations, especially as greater pressure
comes on land use around Auckland.
Turning to our governance, I’d like to thank my fellow Directors for their diligence over
the past year to deliver value for you. I’m also pleased to report our Future Director,
Scott Campbell, has agreed to stay on for an additional six months.
The Future Director programme is an Institute of Directors initiative to develop the next
generation of directors, and we are pleased to be supporting efforts to grow
governance talent in the Bay of Plenty. We have appreciated Scott’s contribution to the
Board in his first 12 months with us.
Today, two Directors are up for re-election to the Board.
Dean Bracewell joined the Board in December 2021. He was Managing Director of
Freightways for more than 18 years. He is currently Chair of Property for Industry and a
Director of Air New Zealand, the Halberg Trust and Northport Group.
Also up for re-election is Brodie Stevens. Brodie joined the Board in August 2022
following his retirement as Country Manager for Swire Shipping New Zealand. He is
currently a Director of PrimePort Timaru, NZ Post and Eastland Port and is Chair of the
Maritime Superannuation Fund.
I’ll ask Brodie and Dean to address the meeting in due course.
I’d like to thank management and the entire Port team for their efforts in the past year,
delivering excellent results.
And finally, I’d also like to thank and acknowledge you, our shareholders, for your
ongoing support.
I’ll now invite Leonard to share details of the Port’s trade and operational performance
over the past year, as well as an update on the first quarter of the 2026 financial year.
Ngā mihi nui.
---
PORT OF TAURANGA ANNUAL MEETING 2025
1pm, Friday 31 October 2025
Chief Executive – Leonard Sampson
Thank you, Julia, and kia ora koutou.
As outlined, the 2025 financial year was a successful one for the Port, although not
without its frustrations and challenges.
Port productivity continues to be a nationwide concern. It was mentioned in several
submissions made to the recent Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry, into the Port
sector.
However, there is no easy fix.
One of most significant impacts to Port productivity is the on-time arrival of vessels. In
the 2025 financial year, only 55% of container vessels arrived at Port of Tauranga on
their agreed schedule, challenging our ability to manage container yard congestion and
impacting crane operations.
As the country’s main export gateway, Tauranga is typically the last port of call for
international shipping services, as such, any delays incurred at previous New Zealand
Ports are carried through to Tauranga, further exacerbating on-time performance.
We have assembled a multi-disciplinary project team to progress efficiency initiatives
across the business and welcome the select committee inquiry.
Pleasingly we have recently been ranked by the world bank as the most productive port
in Australasia with the Global Container Port Performance Index.
It is also important to note, due to the ongoing resource consent delays - our current
lack of berth capacity further constrains our ability to provide the resilient
infrastructure needed to handle vessel delays.
As we often repeat, it is crucial that Government and industry address the regulatory
bottlenecks for nationally important infrastructure, as a productive and resilient New
Zealand supply chain – including seaports, inland ports, road and rail networks, as well
as coastal shipping – are essential to a thriving New Zealand economy.
Improved productivity, however, can never compromise safety, and I’m pleased that
our “safety always” mindset and proactive reporting culture continues to grow at Port
of Tauranga.
We encourage the reporting of all incidents, no matter how minor. In the 2025
financial year our Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate, increased from 13.2 to 16.
Per million hours worked. 91% of these recordable incidents were low in severity
involving minor soft tissue sprains and strains.
As New Zealand’s largest port, we take a leadership role in health and safety across the
port industry. Our General Manager of Health and Safety, Pat Kirk, is on the Port
Industry Health and Safety Leadership Group and a senior member of the Port Industry
Fatigue Working Group. In recent years there has been significant cross-sector
collaboration on the safety front, and we support the continuous improvement
approach from all parties involved.
Now looking at the detailed cargo trends over the past year:
Log exports were the only significant commodity group to experience a drop in volume
following a reduction in wind throw logs, post-Cyclone Gabrielle.
As a result, Export Log volumes for the year decreased 5.9% to 6.3 million tonnes.
Total dairy volumes increased 2.1% to 2.1 million tonnes, supported by a 50% increase
in export transhipment.
An increase in the proportion of refrigerated meat and dairy as well as growing
kiwifruit volumes, contributed to a record year for refrigerated containers or Reefers as
we call them.
These increased 19.8% to 245,000 TEUs, which also put pressure on our terminal
electrical plug-in capacity - resulting in increased use of diesel generators.
This increase is reflected in our carbon emissions inventory for the year, and we will be
installing additional fixed plugs for the coming reefer season to reduce generator
usage.
The kiwifruit season runs from March to October, spanning two financial years. On an
annualised basis, the 2025 financial year saw a 30.9% increase in kiwifruit volumes.
Bulk cargoes saw significant increases in volume, including stock feed up 46.5%, and
fertiliser up 18.1%, reflecting the buoyant dairy sector.
We hosted visits from 94 cruise ships over the past year, with the first cruise vessel of
this Cruise season arriving on 16
th
October. As part of a nationwide trend, we are
expecting cruise numbers to reduce to around 85 visits this summer, however with a
tendency to larger ships we expect a similar number of passengers to last season.
In response to New Zealand’s urgent energy needs, coal imports resumed at Tauranga
after two years’ hiatus. Coal is handled through a specialist enclosed conveyor and
hopper system and then railed directly to Huntly Power Station. This ensures it is a
dust free operation with no additional road traffic.
Air quality continues to be a focus for us, and we have seen continuous improvement
in air quality metrics throughout the year, in conjunction with increased monitoring
both, inside and outside of the port gates.
As Julia mentioned, we are pursuing other decarbonisation opportunities while we wait
for the go-ahead on the resource consent and deployment of electric automated
stacking cranes.
With the support of EECA funding we will trial New Zealand’s first fully electric straddle
carrier. We already have several hybrid straddles in our fleet, with another six on order.
The new electric straddle trial gives us the opportunity to test performance and
charging infrastructure within our unique operating environment.
In February this year, we commissioned a new container crane, after dismantling our
two oldest cranes, and we will order additional cranes to serve the new container berth
once the Stella Passage resource consent is granted.
We have also ordered our first hybrid tug to replace the Sir Robert. The new tug,
expected to be delivered in 2027, will be larger at 32 metres in length and will provide
greater towage capacity for larger vessels.
Later this year, we will also commence the second stage of our already consented
capital dredging project. This will deepen the main channel to 16 metres below chart
datum.
This will allow the larger container vessels already calling to transit at both low and
high tide, as well as provide the ability to cater for the next generation of container
vessels expected in the future.
I’ll now give a quick update on our first quarter’s activity.
Total trade volumes for the quarter were 6.6 million tonnes, up 5.9% on the same
quarter last year. Total container volumes were 319 000 TEU, up 9% on the same
quarter last year.
Based on the first quarter’s results, and notwithstanding any significant changes to
trading conditions, we expect full-year underlying earnings to be in the range of $137
to 147 million.
Underpinned by our people, operational resilience, and diversity of cargos and income,
we remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable financial returns over the long-
term.
I would now like to thank our team, our customers, business partners and service
providers for the vital roles you all play in our success.
We sincerely appreciate our customers’ support and understanding as we push for the
much-needed Stella Passage resource consent and acknowledge the costs and
frustration incurred as a result of ongoing delays.
I’d also like to show appreciation for the ongoing support from our communities both
in the Bay of Plenty and further afield. We take pride in being part of the progress that
drives prosperity and wellbeing for New Zealand.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the continued trust and support in Port of Tauranga
by you; our shareholders, thank you.
Together, we are connecting New Zealand and the World.
Ngā mihi nui, kia koutou katoa.
Thank you.
---
Port of Tauranga reports strong start to financial
year with increased cargo volumes in first quarter
Port of Tauranga Limited (NZX:POT) today reported strong first quarter
results, with cargo volumes increasing in the first three months of the
2026 financial year.
In the three months to 30 September, total trade increased 5.9% in
volume compared to the same period last year, to 6.6 million tonnes.
Container volumes increased 9% to 319,649 TEUs
1
.
Port of Tauranga Chief Executive, Leonard Sampson, told the company’s
Annual Meeting of Shareholders today that the first quarter’s strong
performance was underpinned by increased bulk imports and
containerised export transhipment.
“It is pleasing to see increased cargo volumes despite the berth capacity
constraints we are currently seeing at the container terminal. We
continue to focus on productivity gains to ensure we are offering the best
possible service at New Zealand’s busiest port,” he said.
Based on the first quarter results, and notwithstanding any significant
changes to market conditions, Port of Tauranga expects full year
underlying Net Profit After Tax
2
to be in the range of $137 million to $147
million.
For more information, please contact:
Rochelle Lockley
GM Communications
021 865 884
Email rochelle.lockley@port-tauranga.co.nz
1
TEUs = twenty foot equivalent units, a standard measure of shipping containers
2
Underlying NPAT is a non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) measure and differs from reported NZ
IFRS profit for the year. Underlying NPAT excludes items considered to be one-off and not related to core business
such as revaluations, impairments and gains or losses from the sale of major assets.
Media Release
31 OCTOBER 2025
---
Annual Meeting of Shareholders
31 October 2025
Julia Hoare
Chair
• Leeder
Sir Robert McLeod
• BrBrodieodi
e Stevens
Board of Directors
Alison Andrew
Dean Bracewell
Fraser Whineray
Julia Hoare
Doug Leeder
Brodie Stevens
Scott Campbell
(Future Director)
Senior management team
Leonard Sampson
Chief Executive
Simon Kebbell
Chief Financial Officer
Rochelle Lockley
GM Communications
Melanie Dyer
GM Corporate Services
Pat Kirk
GM Health and Safety
Dan Kneebone
GM Property and Infrastructure
Blair Hamill
GM Commercial
For the year ended 30 June 2025
Total trade increased 7%
25.6
24.7
23.6
25.3
15.9
15.7
15.8
16.4
9.7
9.0
7.8
8.9
FY22FY23FY24FY25
tonnes
(millions)
TotalExport incl Tranship LoadImport incl Tranship Unload
For the year ended 30 June 2025
Group underlying earnings up 23.2%
104.058
112.357
117.792
102.290
126.036
$0.000
$20.000
$40.000
$60.000
$80.000
$100.000
$120.000
$140.000
FY21FY22FY23FY24FY25
millions (NZD)
9
For the year ended 30 June 2025
Ordinary dividends increased 13.6%
13.5
14.7
15.6
14.7
16.7
10
12
14
16
FY21FY22FY23FY24FY25
CPS
CGI of Stella Passage Project zones
Stella Passage Project -
Proposed berth extensions
at Sulphur Point and Mount
Maunganui wharves
CGI of future berth extension and automation, Sulphur
Point
CGI of automated stacking
crane and truck exchange
Climate-related DisclosuresReport 2025
150 hectares of commercial land adjacent to Northport
Northport Group Limited
Resource consent granted for Eastern development
Northport Group Limited
Leonard Sampson
Chief Executive
New Zealand port productivity
Source: FIGS, Ministry of Transport
•Direct correlation between vessel on
time performance and port productivity.
•Last NZ port call impact exacerbates
impact to Tauranga.
•Project team looking at all areas to
improve productivity while we await
berth extension.
Port of Tauranga – key performance metrics
Global Container Port Performance Index - 2024
PortMaritime services region CPPI Score 2024 Regional ranking
TaurangaAustralasia & Oceania51
Bell BayAustralasia & Oceania42
NelsonAustralasia & Oceania03
TimaruAustralasia & Oceania-44
WellingtonAustralasia & Oceania-55
AdelaideAustralasia & Oceania-86
MelbourneAustralasia & Oceania-87
LytteltonAustralasia & Oceania-98
AucklandAustralasia & Oceania-129
BluffAustralasia & Oceania-2110
NapierAustralasia & Oceania-2711
Otago HarbourAustralasia & Oceania-3612
Port BotanyAustralasia & Oceania-4813
BrisbaneAustralasia & Oceania-9314
FremantleAustralasia & Oceania-9515
For the year ended 30 June 2025
Log exports decreased 5.9%
5,543,540
6,338,716
6,058,019
6,215,623
6,681,899
6,286,355
FY20FY21FY22FY23FY24FY25
log volume - JASm³
For the year ended 30 June 2025
Total dairy volume increased 2.1%
2,120,239
1,993,751
2,010,252
1,942,277
1,924,643
196,326
194,946
237,066
117,904
178,588
FY21FY22FY23FY24FY25
tonnes
ExportTranshipment
Record refrigerated volumes - with strong dairy, kiwifruit and meat
Refrigerated containers increased 19.8%
200,195
209,577
204,685
245,151
FY22FY23FY24FY25
reefer TEU's
Reefer container volumes
export up 20.5%, transhipment up 22.6%
for the year ended 30 June 2025
For the year ended 30 June 2025
Kiwifruit volume up 30.9%
517,309
575,272
625,805
492,002
533,656
695,589
FY20FY21FY22FY23FY24FY25
tonnes (000's)
Cruise vessel visits to Mount Maunganui
Cruise
116
107
00
90
109
94
83
FY19FY20FY21FY22FY23FY24FY2525/26 (F)
cruise vessel calls
•MPI constraints, increased regulatory costs and
vessel repositioning costs impacting 2026/2027
seasons.
•Airborne dust source apportionment study has been
completed. Further monitoring is ongoing.
•Dust concentrations in the industrial area adjacent the
Port activities continue to show improvement.
•Dust levels for FY2025 at levels during Covid lockdown.
Air quality initiatives and improvements
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Dust (μg/m3 of TSP)
Year
Rolling 12-month average dust - Totara Street
Average source mass contributions to PM
10
at Mount Maunganui - December 2023
to February 2025. Source: Davy PK, Trompetter WJ. 2025 (Earth Sciences New
Zealand)
•Total trade up 5.9% to 6.6 million tonnes.
•Total container volumes up 9% to 319,649
TEUs.
•Full year underlying earnings expected to be
in the range of $137 million to $147 million.
First quarter performance and outlook
For the three months ended 30 September 2025
Thank you
Integrated Annual Report 2025
Annual Meeting of Shareholders
31 October 2025
Resolution 1
Re-election of Dean Bracewell
Resolution 2
Re-election of Brodie Stevens
Resolution 3
Remuneration of Directors
Resolution 5
Remuneration of Auditor
Annual Meeting of Shareholders
31 October 2025
Data sourced from publicly available filings. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@nzxplorer.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.
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