Banker 'fizzes' with motivation

Ian Farrelly says there is so much opportunity on the land, and he believes the next 10 years "could well be the decade of farming".

If ASB rural banking chief Ian Farrelly lost his job tomorrow, he would have at least two other careers up his sleeve.

The 43-year-old, who is now on a month's "holiday" of 5am starts and 12-hour working days - could work on his three dairy farms, his big calf-rearing business or, says Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen, he could make a good living as a motivational speaker.

The Farrelly subdivision business could also offer employment. And he probably would not even have to sell any of his eight racehorses.

Farrelly does not do things by half. His former boss at ASB, Ralph Norris, says he is a person "who makes things happen" in banking and farming.

The Te Awamutu calf-rearing business, where Farrelly is presently toiling, is one of the country's biggest, with annual turnover of $3 million. Farrelly, from a non-farming background, and wife Donna and 10 staff reared 7500 calves last year.

The couple also farm 1000 beef cattle, mainly bulls, on the 324ha home farm. Within 10 minutes of home are the three dairy farms, owned with friends.

Farrelly has headed ASB's rural bank since he was 30, when it had a lending book of $35 million. Today it has 14 per cent of the rural market and a book worth $4 billion. He has 200 staff.

At the Te Awamutu branch six of the 13 staff are rural managers and own farms. Three of the six are aged 30 and under.

Farrelly says most of his staff have businesses or investments and syndicate interests outside their day jobs as bankers. It is not a condition of employment, but an appetite for personal success is certain to be whetted. But not by cheap interest rates. The days of such perks for bank staff have gone, Farrelly says.

"We target progressive staff. I've been keen to help people grow. I don't want a whole lot of bankers that live in town, have one house and one job. We are dealing with people who have many millions and are astute business people. They want to deal with successful people.

"My whole way of leading and growing the team is to get people working in the best environment, and being the best people they can be. One of the wrong things about some corporates is that you have to dedicate yourself to them.

"I want our staff to be successful and have longterm careers, but I've found it's not sustainable if you just have your job. I want them to be great parents, great friends, great partners and have interests outside work."

Farrelly says the banking industry has a staff turnover of between 13 and 20 per cent a year. ASB rural division's turnover is 3 per cent.

Norris, who headed the Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned ASB before taking on the chief executive's job at Air New Zealand, says Farrelly is "the key ingredient" in ASB's rural banking success.

ASB this month posted a $382.8 million full-year profit, 21 per cent up on the previous year and boosted in part by an increase in rural market share, according to chairman Gary Judd.

If Farrelly sounds like a slave-driver with ulcer-making expectations of his staff, it is a false impression. As Pedersen puts it, Farrelly simply "fizzes".

"He's absolutely enthusiastic about agriculture. He encourages bankers to be farmers. That gets a lot of traction with farmers. I haven't met many other people so genuinely enthusiastic about farming," Pedersen says.

Farrelly believes the next 10 years "could well be the decade of farming".

Around 60 per cent of ASB rural lending is to dairy farmers, but Farrelly's team has been making a big effort with sheep and beef farmers.

"There's so much opportunity in that industry. It's more conservative and been hurt a bit more in the downtime. On average the farmers are quite a bit older and their confidence has been knocked so that they haven't grown in the last decade like dairy farmers."

Farrelly is concerned that land prices in dairying heartlands like Waikato have become too high in relation to milk payout. But he does not believe the premium will ever come off, and he gets "frustrated" with doomsayers who look only two or three years ahead.

"That knocks confidence. Farmers are investing for the next 10 to 20 years. In the next 20 years, dairying will be a fantastic industry."

The farmers who get into financial trouble tend to be those who could not balance the books, not those who have paid top dollar for land, he says.

Farrelly, who was headhunted from the National Bank to start ASB's rural division, would prefer a low profile.

"To me success and excellence is not about what you have or how many dollars you have amassed compared to others. Success is about what you have done compared to what you would like to do."

He says he and his wife started "with nothing but a burning ambition" to own a farm.

He recalls them scrambling to raise $1000. They started calf rearing with 70 calves 13 years ago after buying and selling a couple of houses. With a loan they bought a rundown 121ha Te Awamutu farm and quickly flicked off 81ha to a neighbour, retaining 40ha as the nucleus of today's home farm.

They learned calf rearing by trial and error, and today have two milk tankers on the road every season collecting milk from farmers. "There's an old saying that the last 10 per cent makes the money. A lot of people do a job or run a business 90 per cent well. The reason we do well is that we probably do all parts quite well."

ASB rural banking chief

Ian Farrelly

Age: 43

Interests:
* Three dairy farms
* Calf rearing
* Beef farming