Community investment

Lion Nathan is a foundation sponsor and board member of DrinkWise Australia, an evidence-based organisation that promotes responsible drinking. Established by the alcohol industry and governed by a board of industry and community members, its long-term aim is to see intoxication, ‘risky’ and ‘high-risk’ drinking behaviour become socially unacceptable.

www.drinkwise.com.au

Lion Nathan is a significant supporter of the Pathways Foundation, which provides opportunities for parents and children to spend quality time together participating in programs that help strengthen the family bond. Through these programs, Pathways helps young people make the fundamental emotional shift from being a child to becoming a young adult by providing a contemporary, community based rite of passage.

We committed to this initiative because some young people are tempted to misuse alcohol during the transition from childhood to adulthood. Moreover research shows that strong child-parent bonds can help combat alienation and feelings of inadequacy, which are often the precursors to substance misuse.

Our support in 2010 specifically contributed to the development and roll out of the Pathways to Manhood, Pathways into Womanhood, Female and Male Leadership Training, Raising Children and Teenagers Educational Seminars, the expansion of Pathways into NZ and towards raising the profile of Pathways.

The Pathways Foundation continued to provide scholarships to disadvantaged men and women to undertake the leadership development program. This, combined with the provision of scholarships for disadvantaged families, is helping to create change across all areas of Australian society.

In August the Canberra South Coast Region of Pathways piloted a successful one-day school-based program, which has great potential for growth within the school system.

www.pathwaysfoundation.com.au

One area of alcohol misuse is underage drinking. Young people who are marginalised and have limited options in life are at particular risk. Our support of Youth off the Streets contributed both to the overall service and more specifically to a parenting program for disadvantaged and socially disconnected young parents. The program’s broad goals are to promote: the wellbeing, health and functioning of families and children by enhancing parents' knowledge, confidence and skills; development of safe, nurturing environments for healthy emotional growth of children; positive social learning, competencies, confidence, wellbeing and educational outcomes for children; and self-sufficiency and independence of families within the wider community.

www.youthoffthestreets.com.au

Creating long-term, meaningful employment is recognised as an effective way to prevent misuse in Indigenous communities.

Lion Nathan has entered into a partnership with the predominantly Indigenous community of Brewarrina (“Bre”) in northwest New South Wales to support the implementation of a sustainable tourism venture. We are providing funds as well as a team of people who are partnering with community members to pass on their skills and expertise to ensure the venture is self-sustaining when we withdraw at the end of our five-year commitment.

Much progress has been made on the cultural tourism project. The 40,000-year-old fish traps have been cleared of the reeds and silt that were clogging them and the surrounding riverbanks have been cleared and revegetated with native flora. New pathways and log seats, picnic tables and chairs, which will be painted by the local community, have been installed. The external surrounds of the museum have been landscaped and paved, ready to be planted with native food and medicinal plants.

Importantly, the project has enabled the employment of eleven Indigenous locals and has provided numerous volunteering opportunities.

Examples of the skills development and training received by locals include Aboriginal Tour Guiding; soil conservation; native food plant identification; erosion control; and work experience opportunities such as museum curation at Macquarie University’s Museum of Ancient Cultures, historical research at the National Museum of Australia, an archaeological dig at Cuddi Springs and opportunities for locals to try their hand at Indigenous artwork.

The local school revised its curriculum to involve their students in science, history, and Indigenous art projects based around the fish traps and museum, as well as a memories project to capture the stories of their elders.

In August 2010 the museum had a ‘soft’ opening for community members and over 250 tourists have been given a preview, with great feedback received. According to a spokesperson at the Brewarrina Business Centre: “The benefits flowing from the success of this project are more than just cultural and heritage. The project presents the real potential to turn around the depressing and destructive socio-economic trends that have become entrenched in the area and give long-term prosperity to future generations, beginning with the present one.”

We once again sponsored the White Tie Dinner, White Ribbon Foundation's major fundraising event. The foundation promotes culture change around the issue of violence against women through a national media campaign as well as education and male leadership programs. It has over 230 ambassadors who are often high profile men, willing to take a stand and serve as positive role models to other men in the community.

www.whiteribbonday.org.au

The Foundation for Youth Development aims to help New Zealand children reach their full potential through programs that help build self-esteem, promote good values and teach valuable life, education and health skills. It teaches 16,000 young people through three programs: Project K for 14-15 year olds, Stars for Year 9 students and Kiwi Can. Through supporting activities that improve young people’s self-worth and leadership abilities we can contribute to reducing the likelihood of young people misusing alcohol.

Lion Nathan supports the Foundation by providing beverage products for use at their fundraising events. We are also promoting the opportunity for our people to participate as mentors in the Project K program as part of our ongoing commitment to leadership development.

• Australian Conservation Foundation
• Inspire
• Redkite
• Red Cross Society
• World Society for the Protection of Animals
• Australian Cancer Research Foundation

• Cancer Society
• Down Syndrome Association
• Heart Children
• Red Cross Society
• SPCA
• United Way

• Staff at each site choose three local charities
• They donate up to $2.00/week pre-tax from their salaries (a maximum of $104.00 a year) to one of the three nominated charities
• Payment is made annually to each charity
• National Foods match staff contributions dollar for dollar

In 2010 National Foods people donated $33,029.

In 2010 National Foods entered into a partnership with Landcare Australia to help implement environmental initiatives such as natural resource management, sustainable farm practices, biodiversity and water efficiency.

Landcare is a non-political partnership between the community, government and business to protect and repair Australia’s magnificent, yet stressed, natural resources. It comprises approximately 4,000 Landcare and 2,000 Coastcare groups made up of volunteers who work together on environmental projects.

Our new partnership with Landcare will build on the previous Dairy Farmers’ Creating Greener Pastures initiative which has been successful in helping dairy farmers identify key environmental issues such as waste water management and providing them with tools to find more environmentally friendly ways of dealing with this waste. We will work in consultation with Landcare, dairy farmers and growers to determine the priority environmental issues and regions to be supported under this new partnership. Key areas of focus are drought, nutrient loading and salinity.

Through our partnership we will also support some of the community Landcare projects to help build community skills, knowledge and engagement.

Since 2001, under our Pura Milk brand in Australia, we have been the major sponsor of the children’s mentoring organisation Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). BBBS is the leading and longest-serving youth mentoring organisation in Australia, supported by an international heritage spanning more than 100 years. The program is based on the simplicity and power of friendship.

In New Zealand, under our Yoplait brand, we were the first national sponsor and continue to be a sponsor of the BBBS program.

Lion Nathan National Foods joined forces with Landcare Australia, in conjunction with MobileMuster to help their “Old Phones, More trees” campaign in 2010.

This campaign has so far helped plant over 200,000 trees across Australia. In 2010 MobileMuster/Landcare planted around 30,000 trees.

West End Brewery in South Australia receives contributions from the many local people who use its water fountain. The fountain has been dispensing fresh filtered water from a natural aquifer underneath the brewery since 2000. It has raised over $1 million since June 2002 – a sum returned to the communities in which many South Australians live, work, develop and grow.

The West End Community Fund (WECF) is a committee of three Lion Nathan SA staff and one external patron who review all requests and decide where the money will be distributed.

Since July 2009, 40 rainwater tanks have been distributed to community football clubs who experience below average rainfall.

The fund also supports the West End River Run and West End Slowdown. The former is run by the local charity Novita Children's Services and raises around $100,000 each year. The latter is a legends match, which takes place around Labour Day weekend in October. Money raised goes to the Little Heroes Foundation (formerly McGuinness McDermott Foundation). More than $100,000 is raised each year.

Another initiative supported by the fund this year was the Picadilly CFS (Adelaide Hills) which received vital resuscitation equipment for its station.

www.wecf.org.au

The earthquake in Christchurch on 4 September 2010 caused widespread damage. Miraculously no one was killed and none of our people injured, though our Canterbury Brewery building and our Christchurch warehousing facility suffered structural damage. We also lost a massive amount of stock (almost 70%) from our warehouse inventory, with significant losses at our brewery and four of our Liquor King stores. Production at the brewery ceased for around 10 days and we were forced to seek stock from other facilities throughout New Zealand to supply customers.

Our people pulled together and worked tirelessly to help others and ensure we were back in business and servicing our customers as soon as possible. The spirit and support of our people was inspiring.

With clean water in short supply in Christchurch, we delivered tankers of water to the City Mission from the brewery spring and offered our water source to Civil Defence for them to fill their fleet of emergency relief tankers.

Speight’s Brewery has always had a strong connection with the natural environment and those who enjoy it responsibly. To reinforce this relationship the brewery established an environment fund to support not-for-profit groups working to preserve and protect Dunedin’s natural environment.

The fund was launched in August 2009 and has an annual pool available for environment projects within the city council’s boundaries, with preference given to initiatives concerning the preservation and protection of local water resources and environments.

A panel of five independent judges, experts in biology, ecology, governance, business and local Dunedin issues is responsible for awarding the grants.

Funding is generated from an annual lump sum of NZ$25,000 from Speight’s, a donation of 10 cents for every litre people take from the spring at the brewery (each year the public take approximately one million litres of water from the spring) and from the brewery store’s sale of reusable water bottles.

In June, three Dunedin conservation groups were named the 2010 recipients of the Speight’s Environment Fund.

A total of $12,210 was awarded to the Orokonui Eco-sanctuary Eelery, the Owhiro Stream Enhancement project and the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust.

• The Orokonui Eco-sanctuary Eelery is planning to use the money to establish an eelery in one of the eco-sanctuary’s ponds, eradicate weeds and replant native fauna to improve the wetland habitat and educate the public about the importance of clean water for the survival of our native aquatic species.
• Fish and Game Otago will undertake a stream restoration project of the Owhiro Stream to improve water quality and enhance the area for fish and exotic bird species.
• The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust is using the money for plantings to restore the Tavora Reserve for the support and protection of the rare penguin.

www.speightsfund.co.nz

The Queensland floods in January were the worst floods experienced by the state in 50 years, with more than 200,000 people and over 40 towns and cities affected.

In response to this devastating natural disaster, LNNF donated $100,000 to the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal. Our people also generously donated $86,500 to the fund and LNNF matched these donations dollar for dollar, bringing the total donation to $173,000. The amount of money raised was substantial and something our people can be proud of.

We provided stock donations to volunteers by giving out slabs of XXXX Gold totalling more than $20,000. Further requests for product were granted where possible.

In addition we provided stock donations to the retail value of $180,000 to our customers who were severely impacted, to help them get back on their feet quickly. Our Beer Systems team gave further support by sanitising and restoring beer systems.

XXXX partnered with Queensland Cricket to give thousands of people affected by the floods and those who volunteered to assist them free entry to the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. SES workers who came to the game in uniform or with official ID were offered a free ticket for themselves and a mate. XXXX also donated all profit from beer sales at the game to the flood relief efforts as well as $500 for every “four” and $1,000 for every “six” hit during the match.

Our JV partner, Bacardi also donated US$50,000 from its USA office.