Going back to our roots

RD1's roots go back almost 100 years. We've partnered with the New Zealand dairy industry through the tough times and the good. The industry that now stands is one that is globally recognised and respected. It remains the backbone of our country and we're incredibly proud to service the heart of this industry - our farmers.

Our history:

• RD1's heritage can be traced right back to the earliest dairy cooperatives and a time when farmers used to bring in their milk by horse and cart and trade this for farm supplies, such as kerosene used for lighting in the dairy shed.
• By the 1950s the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company (NZCDC), Kiwi Cooperative Dairies and the Bay Milk Co-op Dairy Company had a collection of trading departments attached to the dairy factories.
• In 1987, AnchorMart Ltd was formed from the retail divisions of NZCDC and the Kaipara Dairy Cooperative.
• AnchorMart merged with the Waikato Valley Co-op in the early 1990s and bought Albany Farm Services.
• Over the next decade a series of mergers and acquisitions took place, including the purchase of the Bay Milk Co-op and the merger of NZCDC with the South Island Dairy Company (SIDCO) which allowed Anchor Mart to open stores in the South Island.
• The new millennium saw AnchorMart launch RD1.com to adopt an online retail strategy.
• In 2001 a huge merger took place between the dairy giants New Zealand Dairy Group, Kiwi Cooperative Dairies and the New Zealand Dairy Board to form Fonterra.
• Kiwi Cooperative Dairies owned a chain of rural retail stores branded Town & Country Agri-Centres. Some of the TCAC stores had previously been owned by Kiwi's legacy companies (Tui Dairy Company and Northland Cooperative Dairy Company) and were re-branded when those companies were taken over by Kiwi in 2000.
• In 2002 RD1 was born, created by the merger of AnchorMart and the Town & Country Agri-centres. It stood as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonterra.
• In 2006 RD1 announced a joint venture with Australia's leading agribusiness company, Landmark. This joint venture offered RD1 and Landmark the opportunity to leverage off each other's capabilities and to form a Dairy Alliance in the dairy regions in Australia with 17 of Landmark's stores.
• July 2011 Fonterra buys back the 50% share of RD1 to return the company to a strong New Zealand ownership position.
• July 2011, RD1 purchases six more retails stores in the Taranaki/King Country area in the sale of Allied Farmers retail arm. RD1 now has 63 retail stores, two truck based mobile stores, a Livestock and Nutrition Division and is New Zealand's leading rural retailer.

RD1's focus is not only on dairy, our stores and networks also service all other farming sectors, including lifestyle farmers. We're continuing to expand our reach of 63 stores to cater for these markets and the growing dairy industry.