KEY POINTS:
Arthur Jordan chuckled when he came across minutes from a shareholder meeting held in 1982 - the business had decided to take a major leap forward and upgrade its rickety old typewriters for the newer golfball model.
Now, as he strolls around FIL's multi-million-dollar, award-winning, eco-friendly premises, Jordan finds it hard to believe this is the same company he and two friends bought for $5000 in 1979.
Dairy hygiene and animal health supplier FIL - Farmers Industries New Zealand Limited - exports its products around the world and was recently named the Bay of Plenty's sustainable business of the year.
But Jordan thinks the greatest testament to the company is that he and co-owner Dave Hancox have stuck it out as business partners for 29 years and barely had a tiff.
He reckons it all comes down to being regular "Kiwi blokes" who understand other regular Kiwis.
Jordan, Hancox and their friend Tom Johnson were senior managers for a chemical cleaning company when they bought FIL.
At first it was not large enough to support the three of them so Jordan held the fort while Hancox and Johnson ran a company which cleaned geothermal bores in Rotorua.
FIL had just two other employees at the time, so all the wives would be mobilised to help when the workload stacked up.
But in 1993 FIL developed a new product for the treatment of foot rot in sheep, and this turned the business into a farm household name and allowed the three men to work full-time for FIL.
"That one chemical lifted us to a new level," Jordan says.
And that's how the business has moved forward since - by coming up with cutting-edge solutions to farmers' problems.
Jordan says he is proud to have created products that have been "really important to the New Zealand economy and really addressed a problem that existed in the New Zealand market".
The main offices are in Mt Maunganui and Timaru, which is handy for transport via the ports and places the company close to its customers.
Sales reps regularly report back to meetings, raising issues and ideas for products that they have picked up from the field.
Jordan is proud that his 40 staff - his "family" - have been with the company for an average of eight years.
Johnson left the company in 1990, leaving Jordan and and Hancox as the sole shareholders.
The two lead the company by example, never leaning towards the "high life" and reinvesting "virtually all" capital back into the business, Jordan says.
That's kept the company in good stead, growing at around 30 per cent year on year.
"We could have led the high life but we would have sucked the company dry," he says.
It's not just fellow New Zealanders who respond to this no-frills attitude: FIL found the same approach was also marketable overseas, especially in Ireland.
Irish farmers think New Zealand dairy farmers are fantastic, Jordan says, so that country was FIL's first target when it began exporting in the 90s. The company now exports to 17 countries with its biggest markets in Australia, the US, Britain and Ireland. Jordan aims to push exports from 15 per cent of FIL's sales to 50 per cent over the next 10 years.
Its most significant export product is the same one that got it on to the global market in the first place.
As the name Tail Paint suggests, it is paint that is brushed on the tail of the cow to identify when it is on heat and able to be artificially inseminated.
FIL has built its reputation on half a dozen key products and they are constantly evolving, driven by developments in science and also market attitudes.
In the early days many of FIL's formulations used pesticides.
"We wouldn't get away with that now," Jordan says.
These days, because the market demands it, the company uses natural materials wherever it can.
"Although we are a chemical company I think we put a lot more effort into sustainability than a lot of others who might be seen as do-gooders," Jordan says.
Being an outdoorsy bunch, the team at FIL has always been dedicated to reducing the negative impact of the company and its products on the environment, he says.
FIL's previous general manager initiated the push towards sustainability four years ago, but when the company started looking into it as a style of business, it realised it had been following many of the principles already.
It just bumped up the commitment when it decided to build a new, eco-friendly building.
Completed last year, FIL's head office in Mt Maunganui stores rainwater in two 30,000-litre tanks and treats it for process use. There's solar heating and another heating system using a boiler which burns recovered waste car oil. Louvre systems maximise light and reduce heat over summer.
It was a costly undertaking, but Jordan says customer feedback and staff satisfaction, not to mention 80 per cent energy savings, have more than paid it off.
Judges at this year's National Sustainable Business Awards said it was difficult for a chemical company to be green but FIL demonstrated that it was possible to be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable no matter what industry you were in.
Jordan says that just as farmers are expected to be accountable for their environmental management with effluent systems and nutrient management plans, FIL is aware of what future export clients will demand.
Overseas buyers are increasingly requiring evidence of environmental sustainability from farmers and exporting companies like FIL, he says.
But for Jordan, the greatest reward has been on the faces of the staff who are so proud of where they work and are taking the concept of sustainability home with them every day.
"Many people can't see the rewards, but some of these rewards come from your own staff and are much bigger than you understand," he says.
FIL
* Supplies agriculture industry with hygiene, health, nutrition and animal-marking products.
* In operation since 1978.
* Partners who own the business have been with the company for 29 years.
* Now has 40 staff and exports to 17 countries.
* Aims to lift exports from 15 per cent of sales to 50 per cent over the next 10 years.
