Waikato Milking Systems' new owners - Tainui Group Holdings, Ngai Tahu Capital and Pioneer Capital - are keen to grow the company, either "organically" or through acquisitions, chief executive Dean Bell says.
Tainui Group, which manages the commercial assets of the Waikato-Tainui people, and Ngai Tahu Capital, which which holds investments sitting outside the tribe's subsidiaries, together with Pioneer, bought around a third each of the Hamilton-based company in April.
The company is New Zealand's biggest manufacturer and designer of milking systems - from the stainless steel to the software that helps run the cowsheds - with annual turnover approaching $100 million.
Bell joined the company for 24 years ago when it was part of Carter Holt Harvey (CHH).
When CHH was sold to International Paper in 1996, Waikato Milking Systems was sold to Dairy Equipment Company (DEC) of the United States. Bell worked for a division DEC in the US and returned to New Zealand in 2004 when DEC went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.