Dalgety plc—as Dalgety and Company—was for more than a century a major pastoral and agricultural company or stock and station agency in Australia and New Zealand. Controlled from London it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and Australasian exchanges.
With the mid-20th century decline of the pastoral sector, particularly where Dalgety held the leading position in the synthetics bedevilled slumping wool trade, new investment was made in different sectors in other countries and Australasian investments sold down until it became a foods and agricultural business of the northern hemisphere.
A successful conglomerate, its core businesses were badly damaged by the wholesale slaughter of British beef animals following the discovery mad cow disease did, as suspected, move from cattle to humans. In 1996 and 1997 Dalgety sold 75 per cent of its whole business leaving its principal investment in animal (porcine) biotechnology. Renamed PIC International after its own biotech subsidiary it merged in 2005 with a matching (bovine) business Genus plc for a market valuation in the same league as Dalgety had attained in the 1990s.
History Until the second half of the 20th century when it moved operations to the Northern Hemisphere and transformed itself into a conglomerate the major portion of Dalgety's business was the Australasian wool trade pioneered by John Macarthur in New South Wales. Dalgety depended on the woolgrowers. Soon after F G Dalgety went into business on his own account Australia's sheep numbers had reached around 20 million. Thirty years later there were more than 100 million but by 1903 by prolonged drought flocks had almost halved and numbers did not come back to 100 million until 1926. By that time UK took about 50 per cent of Australia's total wool exports. UK demand rose during the Second World War but as the war ended it was found the UK government held 10.4 million bales. In conjunction with officials from Australia New Zealand and South Africa a joint arrangement was made in 1945 to ensure its orderly sale and the sale was completed in 1951. Later the same year American demand generated by the outbreak of the Korean War pulled wool prices up to nine times the UK contract price of five years earlier but the following year Australia's returns from wool were halved.Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book Australia, No. 85, 2003
Wool prices continued to fall but bottomed in 1971 when there were a record 180 million sheep, the sheep numbers to some extent compensating for low wool prices. Price stabilisation schemes were organised with Australian government support. That support was withdrawn in 1999.
"It was during the 1990s that the Australian wool industry came to fully realise that wool is merely one of a number of fibres which apparel makers can choose to use in their garments, and that demand for wool depends significantly on the relative prices of substitute fibres, particularly the high quality but cheap synthetic fibres being produced today."Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book 2003, The Wool Industry looking back and looking forward
In 1998 synthetics provided 49 per cent of apparel fibres, cotton 42 per cent, cellulosic 5 per cent and wool only 3 per cent.
Frederick Dalgety In December 1842 Canadian Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety arrived in Melbourne, first settled in August 1835, as manager of a new firm which he soon bought. By 1848 Dalgety was an independent and well-to-do merchant concentrating on the settlers' trade providing merchandise for the squatters and buying their produce. He visited England in 1849 to strengthen his facilities for both credit and the disposal of colonial produce and returned to Victoria in 1851. In the 1851 gold rush Dalgety continued with general business, enlarged his pastoral trade, sold merchandise to the gold diggers and bought much gold from them. In 1851-55 he made about £150,000 from his gold speculations alone.
Dalgety & Company
In 1854 Dalgety moved to London to establish the headquarters of his metropolitan-colonial enterprise though at that time it dealt mainly with the Victorian pastoral industry. He took with him as London partner Frederick Du Croz and left Charles Ibbotson as a colonial manager-partner in Geelong. He came back to Victoria in 1857 to establish James Blackwood as another manager-partner in Melbourne but after 1859 he lived permanently in England and his business headquarters remained there to the end of the 20th century.
By 1884 Frederick Dalgety had ten partners including managing partners and they had operations in London, Melbourne, Geelong, Launceston, Dunedin, Christchurch and Sydney.
Dalgety & Company Limited
Dalgety, Du Croz and CoDalgety and Company, Limited. The Times, Monday, 11 January 1909; pg. 15; Issue 38853 and their various partnerships were forced into incorporation as a joint-stock company by their clients' increasing demand for capital and the competition from other joint-stock companies and banks. Dalgety and Company Limited was registered in London on 29 April 1884.UK register of companies, Companies House, Company No. 00019739 The new incorporation was listed on the London Stock Exchange in August 1884.
Over the next three years Dalgety branches opened in Queensland and Western Australia and the properties and other assets of the company increased by 50 per cent. Dalgety continued in active management as largest shareholder and chairman of directors until his death in 1894. He left at least seven stations in New Zealand but his Australian properties had been sold in the 1880s. Dalgety and Company Limited continued to grow after its founder died. In July 1898 an agreement was reached with the Russian consul in Melbourne for the use of Russian ships to transport wool from Australia to Europe. at WebCite
By 1909 there were branches at Melbourne and Geelong; Sydney and Newcastle; Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville; Adelaide; Perth, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie, Albany, Geraldton and Carnarvon; and in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier and Wellington.
In 1927 operations were broadened to include East AfricaDalgety And New Zealand Loan Limited. The Times, Tuesday, 5 November 1963; pg. 17; Issue 55850 and then in 1959, by exchange of shares, the majority shareholding in African Mercantile Company was bought. African Mercantile Company was like the Australian business but in East Africa with eleven branches in Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzibar.Dalgety And Company. The Times, Wednesday, 11 November 1959; pg. 20; Issue 54615
In the late 1950s Dalgety's business sector began to decline.
1960s By 1961 Dalgety's core business was the operation of wool stores in the state capital cities along with wool broking in which it had built its position and become the world's largest wool-selling house. As stock and station agents Dalgety arranged the sale of livestock and maintained a strong merchandise operation. It also operated freight and passenger agencies for leading air and shipping lines. There was a substantial business as insurance agents.
Business was carried on at 446 centres; Australia 275, New Zealand 154, Kenya 7, Tanganyika 6, Uganda 3, Zanzibar 1 together with numerous subsidiaries. A United Kingdom subsidiary was developing the group's agricultural and trading interests within the UK.
To shore up declining profit margins various decisions were made. Multi-storey wool stores on valuable sites were sold off and replaced with single storey buildings on city outskirts. The single storey stores allowed the operation of modern more efficient handling machinery but the sale of old stores did not pay for new wool stores and Dalgety raised more capital by issuing debentures to investors in London.
Dalgety & New Zealand Loan Limited Dalgety and Company Limited merged in November 1961 with New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited, one of its principal competitors in Australia's eastern states and New Zealand. Dalgety and Company Limited changed its name to Dalgety and New Zealand Loan Limited marketed as Dalgety NZL. With assets of £44 million in 1963 the merged entity was the largest pastoral combine operating in Australasia.
East Africa The East Africa activities were sold into a new combine with Smith Mackenzie and Company, trading from Zanzibar since the early 19th century and now the East African subsidiary of Inchcape and Company both parties taking equal shares.Dalgety And New Zealand Loan Limited Inchcape and Co. Limited. The Times, Tuesday, 7 December 1965; pg. 17; Issue 56498
Dalgety wharves
1970s In which Dalgety begins to switch investment and operations from agribusiness to northern hemisphere food.
Dalgety Australia and Dalgety New Zealand
As of 30 June 1970 Dalgety New Zealand Loan changed its name to Dalgety Limited —much later changed by legislation to Dalgety plc. On the same date it made itself a holding rather than operating company when new Australasian operating subsidiaries Dalgety Australia and Dalgety New Zealand took over Dalgety's two branch businesses.Dalgety. The Times, Friday, 6 February 1970; pg. 20; Issue 57787Dalgety. The Times, Tuesday, 10 November 1970; pg. 29; Issue 58019 The group had 66 per cent and 23 per cent of its net assets in the two countries.Dalgety's Entrenchment Down Under. The Times, Saturday, 17 January 1970; pg. 14; Issue 57770
Dalgety Australia took over the Stonyfell winery in the eastern foothills of Adelaide in 1972, but by 1978 it had been taken over by Seagram's, at which time the winemaking part of the business at Stonyfell was wound up.
Catering supply
Smithfield's Peter Dumenil & Co specialising in meat processing and supply of meat, poultry and game for the catering industry was bought.Dalgety builds up in Britain. The Times, Friday, 28 February 1969; pg. 32; Issue 57497
Animal feeds
A small English livestock and animal feeds business was brought into the group, Grossmith Agricultural Industries.Dalgety £1.5m. bid. The Times, Saturday, 17 May 1969; pg. 11; Issue 57562
North American lumber and poultry
Intending to move their activities nearer the consumer Dalgety had expanded into North America in 1966 acquiring Balfour Guthrie, a San Francisco-based import-export and insurance business owning a Canadian business in wholesale lumber and a Californian business growing poultry.Dalgety Crosses The Pacific. The Times, Wednesday, 10 August 1966; pg. 13; Issue 56706 In 1974 Balfour Guthrie bought Spiegel Frozen Foods In Salinas California which harvested and froze "own brand" vegetables.Change of Diet. The Times, Thursday, 12 August 1976; pg. 17; Issue 59780
In 1968 Dalgety acquired one of the largest potato marketing organisations in BritainDalgety expands UK farming business. The Times, Wednesday, 17 April 1968; pg. 26; Issue 57228 and in 1969 a pastoral property business, New Zealand and Australian Land Limited, by exchange of shares.Dalgety takes control. The Times, Thursday, 6 March 1969; pg. 26; Issue 57502
Pig Improvement Company, PIC
In 1970 Dalgety set up joint ventures with Tata and Consolidated Goldfields but most significantly of all acquired a biotech interest, a UK-based hybrid pig breeder which supplied live boars to pig farmers.Hybrid. The Times, Wednesday, 9 September 1970; pg. 23; Issue 57966Dalgety moves into Pig Improvement. The Times, Wednesday, 9 September 1970; pg. 26; Issue 57966 The pig breeder, Pig Improvement Company, incorporated in 1962 would make very strong growth towards the very end of the 20th century. As the new heart of the old Dalgety business, an international pig and now also a shrimp breeder, PIC merged in 2005 with another biotechnology leader, cattle breeder Genus plc.