ONFARM
Lending, not gifting Waikato dairy farmers Kevin and Cherie van der Poel are taking a hand up, not hand out approach to succession with their children. BY: SHERYL HAITANA
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PHOTOS: EMMA MCCARTHY
hand up not a hand out is the succession philosophy Kevin van der Poel wants to emulate. Kevin’s father Kees guaranteed a loan of $70,000 so he could afford to take on a 420 cow sharemilking job 30-odd years ago. “I didn’t have enough money to do it on my own so I approached dad and used his equity. That was my helping hand. I paid him back within a couple of years. “It gave me my foot up. I always thought if I could do the same thing for my kids, it would be good.” Kevin and his wife Cherie have now started to give their children Hayden and Hannah the same helping hand as the start of a succession strategy. One of their most valuable assets in starting to talk about succession has been the ability to discuss honestly with the children about a path going forward, Kevin says. “Cherie and I have always had a close relationship with our children and talk openly with them.” They have told Hayden and Hannah that they are willing to back their ideas and help them financially, but the money has been lent to them rather than gifted. They want the kids to learn the responsibility and skill set of handling money which will help them throughout their future. “We wanted them to take on their own debt, so they take on responsibility, it is part of their own personal growth,” Kevin says. When Kevin and Cherie moved to America in 2005 with the kids they bought shares in a Limited Partnership which developed a 3500 cow dairy
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operation in Missouri. They moved back to NZ in 2012 and now own two dairy farms within a 10 minute drive of each other near Ngahinapouri in the Waikato. Kevin oversees the farms, while Cherie, a kitchen designer, has recently co-bought a kitchen and cabinetry company in Te Awamutu. Hayden wanted to go farming and went to work for his uncle Jim and another farmer before coming to contract milk on the second property for Kevin. Last year he approached Kevin and Cherie about further progression opportunities.
PROGRESSION PATHWAYS
When it came to sitting down to think about progression pathways for Hayden and succession of their assets, Kevin says he was fortunate to be able to discuss various options with his siblings. They are all farming as well and going through succession planning with their own families so he was able to get a good gauge of options. “I’ve also seen what has worked and what hasn’t worked for some of my peers in the industry.” The succession path they chose had to allow flexibility for all partners, giving Hayden the opportunity to grow and giving Kevin and Cherie the ability to carry on doing what they want to in their own future, with the ability to help Hannah. Kevin and Cherie had experience with an equity partnership while they were in America and wanted more flexibility for Hayden and themselves. “What I’ve seen in equity partnerships is they can be quite limiting, and equity gets tied up. We wanted Hayden to be able to take control of his destiny.”
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