Silver Fern Farms and Report It Now™: the ethical infrastructure behind one of NZ’s most recognised food brands

How Silver Fern Farms uses independent ethics reporting to back up the values behind their brand.

Silver Fern Farms is one of New Zealand’s most recognised and respected food brands. As the country’s largest red meat exporter, the company sources pasture-raised beef, lamb and venison from more than 6,000 New Zealand farms and processes it at more than a dozen sites across the country — from Invercargill to Dargaville — before it reaches consumers in markets as far afield as the United States, Japan, Germany, China and the Middle East.

With around 4,500 widely distributed employees and a brand promise built around ethics, environment and animal welfare, living up to that promise consistently — at every level — is both a cultural and a commercial imperative.

Nathan Campbell, Silver Fern Farms’ Head of Employment Relations, is direct about the role an independent reporting channel plays — not just as a governance tool, but as a matter of brand integrity.

“Our customers expect their meat to come from an organisation that genuinely looks after its people, its animals, and the environment,” says Nathan. 

“If you’re making that promise in the marketplace, you need systems in place that give you confidence you’re actually keeping it. That’s exactly what EthicsPro® does — it’s an independent channel that sits outside our normal reporting lines, so we get the honest picture.”

Complex environments, deliberate solutions

With eight years in the role and more than two decades in employment relations, Nathan has watched the expectations placed on New Zealand employers change considerably.

“Legislation has changed, of course,” he says, “but the bigger shift has been cultural. People want to work for an employer whose values they respect — and they come with a clear expectation that they’ll be treated fairly and ethically.”

“Twenty years ago, the mindset was more transactional: you came to work, did your job, got paid, and that was that. Today, people’s values and their working lives are far more connected. What an organisation stands for actually matters to them.”

Managing a consistent culture across a workforce spread from the bottom of the South Island to the upper North Island, across corporate offices and multiple processing sites, is no small task. 

Nathan is frank about the challenge: it requires solid systems, not just good intentions.

“You need solid documentation, absolutely — but what really matters is whether your systems reflect that documentation in practice. Every employee, regardless of their role or location, needs to know they’ll be treated consistently, even if they need to speak up about something serious.”

For Silver Fern Farms, that’s where Report It Now™ fits in. The adoption of EthicsPro® was part of the company’s evolution toward a more structured corporate governance model — a deliberate decision to ensure every employee, regardless of where they worked or who their manager was, had a safe and independent pathway to raise concerns.

Culture by design

Silver Fern Farms has taken a deliberate approach to embedding the reporting channel into its existing structures — ensuring it functions as part of the organisation’s everyday culture rather than a mechanism employees only discover when something goes wrong.

“Our code of conduct outlines the way we work and informs employees how to let the business know if they see things that don’t align to those values. Report to your leader. If you don’t feel comfortable, report to HR. If you don’t feel comfortable doing any of those things, use one of the anonymous hotlines, or contact Report It Now™ as a confidential service.”

It’s also embedded in the company’s fraud and bribery policy, and reinforced annually through site posters, smoko room reminders, and digital screensavers in corporate offices. The aim, Nathan says, is for the channel to feel like a natural part of how the business operates — not something employees only think about in a crisis.

“The view from the top doesn’t always reflect what’s happening on the ground,” says Nathan. “What matters is that every employee — regardless of their level or location — has a genuine, safe means to raise concerns if something doesn’t feel right.”

The value is in the grey

The value of an independent reporting channel, Nathan argues, runs deeper than case volumes or fraud losses alone.

“I think it’s really about culture and confidence,” he says. “That’s a grey area, but it’s hugely important. And then the black and white part is really having a confidential channel like EthicsPro® that we know — if someone really sees something but doesn’t have the confidence to raise it internally — they’ve got the opportunity to raise it.”

“That’s not something we could do on our own without that independent channel.”

Interestingly, only about a third of reporters at Silver Fern Farms choose to remain fully anonymous — suggesting that the majority feel confident enough to identify themselves. 

Nathan is careful not to take that trust for granted.

“The biggest risk is really that employees don’t believe that their report will be treated confidentially. But the only way we can shore that up is to ensure we never breach privacy, and never use the information in a heavy-handed manner. We get a reasonable volume, so I’m relatively comfortable that it remains a channel people trust.”

Where commerce and culture meet

For Silver Fern Farms, investing in independent ethics reporting isn’t just good governance practice — it’s inseparable from the commercial promise the company makes to its customers.

The company’s Plate to Pasture strategy positions its products at the premium end of global markets, built on values which include environmental stewardship, animal welfare and people. That kind of brand promise, Nathan argues, creates an obligation that goes beyond marketing.

“You can’t make promises in the marketplace that you’re not keeping — or can’t demonstrate you’re keeping. This isn’t just about internal culture. EthicsPro® is part of how we ensure our values are real and demonstrable, not just words on a page.”

For Silver Fern Farms, the investment in independent ethics reporting connects directly to something more fundamental — the kind of employer the company is determined to be. Enriching people’s lives is one of five strategic goals sitting at the heart of the company’s Plate to Pasture 2030 strategy, alongside its commercial ambitions and environmental commitments.

“Our leadership has a genuine desire to be a good employer and to live our values — not just talk about them,” says Nathan. “Enriching people’s lives is a goal we’re committed to delivering on, and EthicsPro® is part of how we do that. It gives every person in our business a real, safe way to be heard. For a company serious about its people, that matters enormously.”

The case for acting early

Nathan’s message to HR leaders and employment relations managers still weighing up whether to invest in an independent reporting service is direct.

“What EthicsPro® has done for Silver Fern Farms has given us confidence that we’re not missing anything — that we’re giving our people the best opportunity to report to us in a safe manner.”

“It gives us confidence that we know what we need to know — and that we’re not going to be blindsided by something that should have been caught earlier.”

“We’re giving ourselves the best possible chance to find issues and resolve them internally, before they become something bigger.”

It’s a pragmatic framing — less about idealism, more about the practical confidence that comes from knowing your systems are doing their job. And from a company whose brand is built on the integrity of what happens across more than a dozen sites, thousands of farms, and supply chains that reach consumers around the world, that confidence isn’t optional.

Find out how EthicsPro® can help your organisation build the same confidence. Visit reportitnow.co.nz