Co-operative Bulk Handling
 |
|
| Cooperative | |
| Industry | Agriculture |
| Founded | 5 April 1933 |
| Headquarters | West Perth |
|
Area served
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Western Australia |
|
Key people
|
Andrew Crane (CEO) Neil Wandel (Chairman) |
| Products | Grain marketing, logistics |
| Revenue | $3.72 billion (September 2015) |
| Profit | $82.7 million (September 2015) |
|
Number of employees
|
1,200 (September 2015) |
| Website | cbh |
The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym for Co-operative Bulk Handling), is a grain growers' cooperative that handles, markets and processes grain from the wheatbelt of Western Australia. CBH has a permanent staff of around 1,200 and annual revenue of $3.72 billion.
CBH was formed on 5 April 1933, at a time when a royal commission on bulk handling of grain was in progress, and after over 20 years of failed proposals for bulk handling of grain in Western Australia.
The trustees of the Wheat Board of Western Australia and Wesfarmers registered the company together with capital of £100,000 divided evenly into 100,000 shares. The cooperative was formed under the principle of one person, one vote, regardless of the amount of grain supplied.
CBH merged with the Grain Pool of WA in November 2002, after the Parliament of Western Australia passed legislation allowing the merger to go ahead.
In 2016 the Australian Taxation Office revealed that despite generating more than $3.4 billion in revenue in 2013-14, the company had paid no tax. This made it Australia's biggest revenue earner not to pay tax in the period under review.
During the early years most grain movement was by rail over the Western Australian Government Railways network, with sidings and branch lines specifically serving wheat growing areas. Many of the branch lines and rail facilities have not been updated or maintained, with road transport increasing in many areas.
In 2009, CBH decided to put its rail grain haulage services out to tender for the first time. It aimed that the amount of grain transported by rail rise from 50% to 70%. CBH settled on a business model that saw it invest in new locomotives and grain wagons, with day-to-day operations contracted out.
In December 2010, CBH awarded Watco WA Rail a ten-year contract to operate services in the south of Western Australia. To operate the services, CBH purchased 22 CBH class locomotives from [|MotivePower]], Boise and 574 grain wagons from Bradken, Xuzhou.
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