Earlier this year, the company’s ambition of amalgamation was achieved, meaning it could now focus on the "really big issues" ahead, general manager Jeremy Anderson said.
The MIC was set up to receive the headwork assets constructed by the Crown in the 1970s, which were sold by the Crown to the farmers that the scheme was designed to serve.
Previously, it was owned by the three distribution companies: Maniototo West Side Irrigation Company Ltd, Maniototo East Side Irrigation Company Ltd and the Waipiata Irrigation Company Ltd.
The MIC owned the headworks for the whole Maniototo irrigation scheme, which supplied water for hydro-electric generation to the two Manawa Energy (previously Trustpower) power houses on the scheme, Mr Anderson said.
Water used for electricity generation was subsequently supplied to the distribution companies for their shareholders to use for irrigation, stock and domestic water supply.
The amalgamation meant efficiencies could be achieved from a business perspective; rather than having four companies and all having administration costs, there was just one. It also removed the need for four boards of directors in an environment where people were busy and time poor, Mr Anderson said.
In addition, there were regulatory changes and implications for how difficult it would be to reconsent, so it was about helping facilitate continued access to freshwater in the future.
The board of seven directors, chaired by Greg Kirkwood, had a balance of farming, governance and business experience, and included co-opted member Hayden Dillon, the co-founder of the NZX-listed New Zealand Rural Land Company, which was one of its largest shareholders.
A strategy day would be held in Oamaru this month to reset the company’s strategy, look at its policy management, ensure everything was "fit for purpose" and start to look at the bigger picture around some of the ambitions it had, he said.
That might include management oversight of smaller companies and the MIC was already talking to some irrigation companies within its wider area. It was also looking to be a bigger part of freshwater discussions and be a conduit between its landowners and regional authorities and other stakeholders.
The amalgamation had been a significant piece of work — it had been talked about "off and on" by different iterations of the boards for years but did not go ahead until the resources were in place to facilitate it.
Two years ago, the board visited Opuha Water in South Canterbury to get some insights into the challenges it had about bringing about seven companies into one central group and the lessons learned from that.
The formal process took about 18 months and included a lot of engagement with shareholders, including understanding and mitigating concerns.
The scheme was still made up of a majority of family farming businesses, whether drystock or dairy.
A long-form amalgamation was chosen and merging the three distribution companies into the MIC was a relatively seamless process without the need for a prospectus.
For shareholders, the biggest administrative change was changing the bank account number water charges were paid to.
Both the MIC board and the boards of the distribution companies showed strength and tenacity to proceed. There was a strong mandate to proceed, he said.
Water came from the same place for all three companies and the challenges were external, not internal.
A celebration in September was held to recognise the efforts everyone put in.
The MIC had strong stakeholder relationships with Tiaki Maniototo and both he and business support manager Renee Weir were on its governance group, Mr Anderson said.
Having been through the Upper Taieri Scroll Plain management plan, much had been learned which would result in the MIC being better placed with all the changes that were now coming.
Momentum needed to be maintained and "we can’t just sit and let other people make decisions for us", Mr Anderson said.
The MIC scheme covered about 11,000ha and, given the regulatory environment, the opportunity to expand the area was not really there.
Other avenues needed to be explored and there could be a chance to sell water for generation if the conditions suited.
The priority was to provide reliability to shareholders.
He had also been building relationships with the heads of other irrigation companies as they all faced the same challenges, and had engaged with Irrigation New Zealand and supporting the advocacy that organisation did nationally, Mr Anderson said.
