New Zealand’s agribusiness landscape is dynamic and ever-changing. For farm owners and managers to stay on top of their business performance, it’s important to understand not just the overall numbers and trends within their business, but also how these compare to other farms in their area. Performance benchmarking is key to this.

As New Zealand’s largest network of specialist agribusiness advisers, the BDO Agribusiness team is able to leverage our unique, in-house benchmarking software in providing clients with access to a rich data set of anonymised farm business performance metrics. With reporting customised to your specific business goals and needs, BDO’s agribusiness benchmarking service helps sheep, beef, and dairy farmers discover deeper insights into their business performance, enabling you to understand the opportunities and make smarter decisions, improve profitability and plan effectively for the future.

 

How benchmarking helps agribusiness leaders

Benchmarking can help high-performing agriculture businesses to maximise operational efficiency, ultimately enhancing cash flow and property values.

Benchmarking helps to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that agribusinesses can use to compare internally over time or externally against industry or bespoke peer groups. It’s a powerful tool for:

• Improving financial outcomes through identifying operational inefficiencies and opportunities
• Enhancing governance by increasing accountability and transparency.
• Managing risk by exposing anomalies and heightening awareness on key measures.
• Planning for the future with data-driven goal setting and succession strategies.

 

Unlock insights with BDO agribusiness benchmarking

Our benchmarking service offers agribusiness leaders the data insights they need to analyse their performance, compare with peers and ultimately improve their farm’s success. Our agribusiness advisers work with clients to identify the metrics that matter to them most. Applying our extensive national data set, regional knowledge and unique benchmarking software, we can create bespoke comparison groups to help visualise how your farm is performing compared to industry and other relevant operations in their area. BDO’s industry-leading agribusiness benchmarking service offers:

• Sector-specific insights: Tailored for sheep, beef, and dairy sectors, looking at industry-recognised KPIs across P&L, balance sheet, and bankability metrics.
• Flexible comparisons: Historic data allows you to measure against yourself, the industry, and bespoke groups built from BDO’s extensive agribusiness database and industry knowledge. 
• Graphical presentation: Easy-to-understand graphs make data more engaging and actionable.
• Sensitivity modelling: See how changes to your farm’s operations and outcomes – for example, reducing costs or increasing sales – could impact profitability and other key metrics.
• Real-time monitoring: Your BDO advisor can run the tool as soon as GST data is available, enabling timely insights and faster decision-making.

 

Start the conversation

When supported by guidance from your trusted adviser, benchmarking can help you identify and maximise opportunities to improve your agribusiness. Whether you're planning for succession, setting board-level targets, or simply wanting to better understand your business, BDO agribusiness benchmarking can give you the data insights you need to challenge your performance and proactively advance your business.

Speak to your BDO adviser today to learn how our agribusiness benchmarking service can support your business goals.