Hi everybody! Now the fourth and final placement of the trainee program has started. I spend this last period being closest to what is most unique for Lantmännen, namely our owners: the farmers! I am working with one financial part of the farmers’ ownership in Lantmännen, at the department of Owner Relations (Ägarrelationer). It is super interesting to learn how the ownership structure works.
The Owner Relations department consists of seven people manage information flows both from and to the approximately 29,000 owners. Their work consists of everything from members’ meetings in various districts, conferences where all elected officials participate, communication about our business, the company newspaper Grodden etc. For you to get an idea of how the information flows, the country Sweden where our owners are, is divided into 28 districts from the north to the south, with a district board in each. These district boards consist of elected members. The election of these boards is carried out at an annually arranged meeting. At this meeting the council to the “Föreningsstämma” is also elected.
http://lantmannen.se/omlantmannen/press-och-media/publikationer/tidningen-grodden/
The task I work with for Owner Relations is called “Emissionsinsatser” and is part of the economic dividend issued to the owners every year. This year, Lantmännen paid 463 million SEK to its owners. Another activity that I and my supervisor attended was an introductory activity for new employees where we visited a farmer at his farm. I thought it was interesting since the visit was very business-oriented and focused on how an agricultural farm can be developed with various businesses! In the autumn I plan to participate in several shareholder meetings around the country to get to know our farmers even better.
A dimension that I have gotten even more perspective on at the Owner Relations department is how many different roles the members of the economic association Lantmännen have, and the complexity this implies. The farmers are business partners when they buy and sell to Lantmännen, they are owners of the cooperative association, and some are even elected officials. This has its challenges since these roles are quite different from each other. One moment the farmer perspective is as a supplier when he or she sells their grain to Lantmännen Lantbruk, the other is as a customer when he or she buys for example a tractor from Lantmännen Machinery, and finally, a third perspective is like a shareholder, interested in the economic result. You can almost view it as if there is three different Lantmännen caps on the same head; customer, supplier and owner 🙂
This is, as well as the department of Owner Relations, unique for Lantmännen, which I really appreciate familiarizing myself with.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!
I wish you all the best
/Pauline Lidberg