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Ryman Times
A note from Gordy D Dear residents, staff, shareholders and everyone else who makes a up the Ryman family – Merry Christmas! The year has flown by and I’ve loved my first six months in the role of Chief Executive. I’ve visited a lot of villages and construction sites and I've really enjoyed spending time with residents, their families and staff. There is a lot going on everywhere throughout Ryman as you can see. We reported another good financial result in November. We also took the time to remind market analysts and investors what Ryman is all about – the care of our residents. This sometimes gets lost in translation in the finance world but we left them in no doubt that care for our residents is at the very heart of what we do. So, one of the highlights for me during the year, has been seeing the commitment of the team to continuous improvement in care. More than half of our villages now have four-year accreditation from the Ministry of Health, which is a very rare achievement in this sector. This is the gold standard of care, and reflects our commitment to continually improving what we do. We also know that our staff have loved myRyman – our new care application – at the villages where it has gone live. We believe it will improve our care standards even more. I’ve also been impressed with the difference our new
Delicious menus made in our residents’ lives. I’ve shared lunch with a lot of residents during my travels and believe me, everyone loves having a menu choice! I do too! I’d like to congratulate our group operations manager Barbara Reynen-Rose on her 25 years of service – she hates the limelight – but she deserves an accolade for all her hard work and innovation over so many years. She has a lot of responsibilities but her key role is to oversee the clinical care of all our residents. She’s done that superbly and she can be proud that she has made a whole lot of difference to many lives over a long time. I was recently at the reopening of Malvina Major village, which has undergone a complete transformation. It looks fantastic and we had a great celebration to say thanks to the residents and families for their patience during the refurbishment. The construction team has also done a great job, as has the village team who worked hard to keep everyone happy during the process. I know a whole lot of our staff will be working over the holiday break and I’d like to thank you all for working through this special time in the villages. I know your care and commitment at this time of year is hugely appreciated by our residents and their families. For those of you who are getting a break I hope you can relax and have a happy and a safe time with your families and friends. Merry Christmas everyone, see you next year! Kind regards, Gordy
Results round-up Ryman has reported a good first half of the financial year, and plans to build a seventh village in Victoria. Chairman Dr David Kerr told shareholders and analysts at the results announcement in Auckland that underlying profit rose 11.4% to $85.2 million, thanks to continued growth in resale volumes and strong demand for villages. Dr Kerr said strong gains from the resale of occupancy rights had driven the result, as Ryman’s unique villages and high-quality care offering continued to be in strong demand. “We are pleased to be able to report another good first half result and we have a great pipeline of villages to develop. We are in a very strong financial position, and our total assets are now $5.3 billion.’’ The site of the seventh village in Victoria is at Mt Martha on the Mornington Peninsula. The landbank in Victoria is now close to matching that in New Zealand, reflecting plans to expand at the same pace in both markets. Work is now well under way on three new villages in Auckland and one in Melbourne. Ryman has another
10 villages in its landbank and the development team is busy looking for new sites in Victoria and New Zealand with long-term demand just beginning to take off. “We know that we have great demand ahead but we will only be successful if our residents and their families love what we do. Our latest survey results show that the investments we’ve made in improving the resident experience have hit the mark, and our retirement village residents are telling us they are happier than ever,’’ Dr Kerr said. “As a board, we are also delighted to see that we are achieving consistently excellent external clinical audit results, which shows that our care is of the highest quality and is continuously improving.’’ Ryman village staff have been given further pay increases and improved entitlements. A new leadership programme is also being rolled out to support Ryman’s current leaders and identify the next generation needed as the company grows. Ryman remained concerned about New Zealand’s immigration settings and would continue to lobby at a Government level to support members of the Ryman family who were born outside of New Zealand, he said.