While many business have struggled through the global recession of the last three years, one proud New Zealand company has been bucking the trend.

The predecessor to the farmer owned cooperative, we now know as CRT, was started in 1963 by South Island farmers, searching for cheaper on-farm inputs.

Fifty years ago the fledgling company turned over a few thousand dollars – in the year to March 2011, and now with 25,000 shareholders, CRT turned over a billion dollars.

The company has announced it will pay its shareholders a bonus rebate from its operating surplus, of $8.4 million.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for CRT – the company says its new feed mill in Rolleston was hard hit, and many staff affected, by Canterbury’s September’s earthquake..

“They all suffered damage particularly those silos. And there was a lot of grain on the ground and that sort of damage. It’s now up and running and fully covered by our insurers, so we’re very fortunate we’re able to make such fast progress. We wanted it to be up and running before the new harvest season.

“The strength of that mill is the fact that we can buy from our farmer-suppliers, process the grains, and feed and return the market back to our customers. So it’s a very convenient commercial closed loop.”