Bellamy’s: Organic Food Manufacturing Company In Australia

Quality Organic Food Products

The company Bellamy’s is an organic food manufacturing company which is based in Australia and is known for its good quality products. The company carries out the sales process in different ways and chains like it distribute its products to the supermarkets, pharmacies and many other independent stores across Australia. It also sells its products directly to the customers using the online marketing system. Because of the high quality of the products, there has always been the huge demand for exports. The company exports its products to Singapore, Hong-Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand and China. There were very serious and high demands for the organic products in Asia which made the company open to new headquarters at Shanghai and Singapore. The company is famous for upbringing food which is fully organic and has been termed and positioned with the title of “premium” in the market. In 2013, the company experienced a heavy growth in the sales of the food which was made on the basis of the baby formula. The Bellamy’s have always been trying to make its product better than the best and have also succeeded in the past few years which have resulted in the capture of more than 95 percent of the organic food manufacturing market in the woman old.

The company Bellamy’s is required to follow the basic and much-needed rules of the ASX corporate governance principles. It also needs to take suggestions and recommendations which may help it to improve the firm’s performance in the near future. The different principles which are needed to be followed by the firm are as follows:

Laying solid foundations for the management

The top management structure of the company is aware of their main task of making and carrying out the decisions in a successful manner and also act in accordance to the much needed and specialised rules and regulations set by the corporate governance principles. The board should act diligently to its customers, suppliers, and shareholders as they are the main business regulators and under the constitution, it is also clearly mentioned, that the board is accountable to the shareholders for all its dealings (Levine & Prietula, 2013). The board have recruited many managers and administrators like the CEO and executive managers, who have been given the task of managing the tasks and the performance of the firm (Bellamy Corporate Governance, 2017). The responsibilities are also checked by the top management structure by making regular checks within the organisation which are carried out by the formal authorities. The seniors of the firm have been given a particular task or job responsibility which they are needed to perform and submit the report to the board so that they can assess that the firm is working in a proper manner or not (Lapsley, 2012). The board is also provided with many powers which are mentioned in the charter which is available in the company’s website.

Sales and Distribution

Structuring the board and adding value

The board constitutes of four major non executive directors of which two are completely independent and non-executive Directors. The charter constitutes the skills, experiences, expertise and the period of office of the directors which are disclosed on the 9th and 12th pages. According to the top management structure of the firm, a good team of the management and board structure which is equipped with all the skills and information required is a must to have a successful business in the future (Bellamy Corporate Governance, 2017). This principle also signifies that the skills and the experience is a much needed factors for the managers or the board of directors as they need to carry out several different tasks and then periodically check whether they have been done according to the specified plan or not. Also, the remunerations and the nominations committee suggested that the directors are having good skills, expertise, and experience in order to, carry out its responsibilities (Ferris et. al, 2010).

Acting morally and fulfilling responsibility

The board have made and constituted a code of conduct which is needed to be followed by each and every member of the firm as it is a very major or important part of the corporate governance method and also it helps the business to work in a smooth and specified manner as it encourages clean and successful dealing with the customers and the stakeholders of the firm (Kaplan, 2011). The code of conduct mentioned by the firm should always be kept in mind by each and every individual working in the firm and also the top management and the other executives are also included in the same (Bellamy Corporate Governance, 2017). The board have also taken into force the diversity policies which helps it to maintain the moral situation of the company. Also, there has been security trading policy that helps the firm or have a clean and perfect environment and thus follow the ASX principles. This policy helps to maintain employees and the other directors in accordance to the conduct which is needed by them to act and thus is very sensitive in nature.

Safeguarding the integrity of the corporate reporting

The board have appointed an audit committee which will help the firm to work in accordance to the corporate governance principles. The duties of the committees are being formulated and then give to them so that they can work in a specified manner. These types of committees generally help the board in order to formulate its activities and also help the board to solve the issues using the information collected (Needles & Powers, 2013). The information collected can be used to find the faults in the company’s management system and then they can be treated by the use of proper means. The board also receives certain information from the CEO, CFO and the financial managers which are also helpful for the firm to decide and identify if any correction is needed to be made in the management procedure (Bellamy Corporate Governance, 2017). Also, there is a regular check on the accounts of the company so that no problem may arise because of it during the audit process.

Exports to Asia

Making a balanced and timely disclosure:

The board of directors has been continuously formulating the disclosure policies which may help it to establish all the processes and the management in a dutiful and appropriate manner and also it may check whether all the information provided is correct and provided to the stakeholders or not. This policy has helped the firm to perform the tasks more diligently. The company also give each and every piece of financial information to its investors in order to fulfil the conditions of this principle (Parrino et. al, 2012).

Respecting the rights of the Shareholders:

The board have framed the policies relating to the company’s relation with its stakeholders. The decisions made by the company should be conveyed to the respective shareholders so that they can make the financial decisions on the basis of the newly implemented objectives. Also the company’s website states about the policy of information disclosure to the shareholders (Bellamy Corporate Governance, 2017). These types of communication may also prove to be helpful to the company while fulfilling the needs of the shareholders and thus respecting their rights.

Management and recognition of risk

The board constitutes of a risk management committee which helps the firm to analyze its framework and then find all the possible prevailing risks. The risk which prevails upon the company is also to be mentioned in the official website of the firm. These committees have the main objective of finding the financial and non-financial risks of the firm and then reporting them to the seniors so that they may take necessary actions and precautions to diverge the risks from its path.

Remuneration of the responsibility

The board of directors of Bellamy’s have continuously made efforts in order to carry out the processes and practices in accordance to the principles so that there may be good results obtained in the future. There were many challenges which were forced upon the firm and thus demanded to change the strategy. The board redesigned the strategy which helped it to attract and motivate new stakeholders and investors for the company (Bellamy Corporate Governance, 2017). If all the responsibilities are carried out with integrity then the firm will have a very good overview and performance which will help to increase the investments and profits.

The company has set up a risk management structure which allows it to find the risks present in the environment of the firm. The risks are then observed by the top management and then a plan is formulated which may be helpful in the assessment of the new risk-free strategy. The risk management structure also helps the firm to find the financial and accountable risk which may help the firm to manage the account in a better way (Carmichael & Graham, 2012). This will also help the firm to manage the account in accordance with the audit process. The board also asks the committee to find any other risk let it be an environmental, economic or social risk which prevails upon the firm (Roach, 2010).

ASX Corporate Governance Principles

The company Bellamy have mostly focused on:

1.    The company even after working from Australia is exposed to the risks from competitors like the Blackmore.
2.    The main focus of the Bellamy is to attain and attract a huge group of customers so that the moral environment of the firm can be attained.
3.    The company also prevails in the foreign food export services, which is a major advantage to grow in the market.

Focus on risks and methods in order to avoid them

The audit risks can be evaluated by the use of the inspection methods like the audit processes, analytical procedures, etc. The inspection method helps the firm to analyze the financial documents in a much-elaborated manner. The audit and the analytical procedures are also being used to identify the risks which may have emerged in a specific operation which was carried out by the firm recently (Hoffelder, 2012). These risk assessment procedure will be helpful if the auditors need any material to analyze the statements of the firm. Further, the auditor can shed light on the financial performance of the company through the use of ratio analysis and provide a valid judgment. The ratio can pertain to various areas such as profitability, liquidity, and solvency (Choi & Meek, 2011). Going by the ratio calculation, valid judgment can be provided in this regard.

Conclusion

The firm has failed to operate in accordance with the safety standards and copyright issues. The firm financial risk changes have also been proved to be a major threat to the firm. These additional risks and the compliance pose the threats to the company. Therefore while conducting the audit process; the auditors should always note the small threats so that they can be avoided in the upcoming future. The company should also try to adapt new and improved technological measures in order to get rid of the financial risks.

References

Bellamy Corporate Governance. (2017).  Bellamy’s Corporate Governance Statement 2017 [online]. Available from: https://investors.bellamysorganic.com.au/Investors/?page=corporate-governance [Accessed 3 April 2018]

Carmichael, D.R. and Graham, L. (2012)  Accountants Handbook. Financial Accounting and General Topics, John Wiley & Sons.

Choi, R.D. and Meek, G.K. (2011)  International accounting. Pearson .

Ferris, S.P., Noronha, G. & Unlu, E. (2010) The more, merrier: an international analysis of the frequency of dividend payment. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. [online]. 37(1), pp. 148–70. Available from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2009.02174.x 

Hoffelder, K. (2012)  New Audit Standard Encourages More Talking. Harvard Press.

Kaplan, R.S. (2011) Accounting scholarship that advances professional knowledge and practice. The Accounting Review [online]. 86(2), pp. 367–383. Available from https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.00000031

Lapsley, I. (2012) Commentary: Financial Accountability & Management. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management. [online]. 9(3), pp. 291-292. Available from https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0408.00081

Levine, S. S., and Prietula, M. J 2013. Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance.  Organization Science, Harvard Press

Needles, B.E., and Powers, M. 2013. Principles of Financial Accounting. Financial Accounting Series: Cengage Learning.

Parrino, R, Kidwell, D. and Bates, T. (2012) Fundamentals of corporate finance. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Roach, L. (2010)  Auditor Liability: Liability Limitation Agreements. Pearson

Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:

Turnitin Report

Formatting

Title Page

Citation

Outline

Place an Order