The rural retail and services supplier announced a surplus of $12m for the year to March 2009, after providing $22m of rebates to rural shareholders. It will distribute a bonus rebate to its 24,000 shareholders of $9m with about $3.6m of that in cash and $5.4m as additional CRT shares reports Stuff. Chairman Don McFarlane said its three main areas rural retail, fuel, and seeds and grains enjoyed growth in sales and market share in a favourable market. Its fuel distribution business was proving a growth driver. The rural supplies market in which it traded might have grown, but CRT's growth was larger, suggesting it had increased its market share. CRT has 30 retail centres in the South Island, from Invercargill to Motueka."I think the pie has grown, and we think probably our slice of pie increased too and that is suggested by the figures."Mr McFarlane was reluctant to say which competitors might be losing market share. "It's probably fair to say that it has been a competitive marketplace ... and some of our competitors have been facing major structural challenges which have not endeared them to some of their customers." Although some in the dairy sector were under pressure, those in the meat and wool sector were doing well. Mr McFarlane said there were pressures on dairy farmers who had recently converted but the well-established would weather the downturn. "There's no sign at this stage of large-scale departing from the industry or pressure from the lenders to force that. That may change but for the moment there's no evidence of that," Mr McFarlane said. CRT was introducing a credit facility for its 24,000 shareholders. It was backed by its bank, BNZ.
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