SELF-STYLED agribusinessman Stephen Birkbeck has high expectations for his Indonesian pearling company following the expansion of its existing farming licences in Bali.
SELF-STYLED agribusinessman Stephen Birkbeck has high expectations for his Indonesian pearling company following the expansion of its existing farming licences in Bali.
Mr Birkbeck, the chairman of listed pearl farming outfit Atlas South Sea Pearl, said Atlas was one of the world’s largest suppliers, producing more than 300,000 loose pearls each year, which generated $3.6 million in revenue during the first half of this financial year.
Last week, Atlas announced it had negotiated the purchase of nine farm leases for $540,000 from an unnamed seller with existing pearling operations in Indonesia, subject to due diligence, which would substantially increase the company’s annual pearl production.
“Having nine additional leases is huge for us,” Mr Birkbeck told WA Business News.
“It potentially gives us an extra kick of 30 to 50 per cent in improved production volume.”
The company said the new farming leases, located in the province of East Nusa Tenggara (a collection of islands stretching east from Bali towards Timor), helped spread the geographical risk while increasing capacity.
Mr Birkbeck was confident the deal would go ahead following an extensive inventory count currently taking place utilising Atlas’ 500 employees in the region.
The extra nine leases would supplement the company’s existing two licences in Bali which includes five farming leases dotted along the island’s north coast and the other two licences containing five leases found near Alyul Bay on Waigeo Island, located near the western tip of Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea.
Atlas currently has five retail outlets in Bali – in the popular tourist centres of Ubud, Seminyak, Sanur and Nusa Dua – with the last located at the company’s Penyabangan farm-cum-tour operator business in northern Bali.
Mr Birkbeck took over the chairman role from the long-standing George Snow in December last year after the latter sold almost 10 per cent of the company to the incoming chairman.
Mr Birkbeck said his extensive luxury branding and supply chain knowledge, stemming from his days managing the world’s first emu farm and then establishing Mt Romance (the first Australian company to export cosmetics to France, the world’s leading beauty products market) meant the company would be rebranded and relaunched in July with a Perth retail outlet a possibility.
He said his self-funded chemical dissection of oysters had yielded good results, identifying new uses for most parts of the oyster, potentially opening up fresh streams of revenue for the company from as-yet-untried commercial ventures.
