2026 > Gunther Burghardt, Group CFO, Bega

Improved consumer confidence, smoother AI integration and a heavy dollop of protein yoghurt will shape the year ahead, according to Gunther Burghardt, Bega Group CFO.

Now in his fourth year at the dairy behemoth, Burghardt is charting the course for a successful 2026. Here, he shares his advice and tips for others heading up finance teams.

Navigating the tough calls

If the year ahead is looking good for Burghardt and his team, it’s in large thanks to how they handled 2025. It was a tough year by anyone’s standards with the shutdown of two Peanut Company of Australia facilities in Queensland and the Strathmerton cheese processing and packaging site in Victoria. It culminated in 450 job losses.

However, the restructure cleared the way for growth at Bega, which not only produces cheese, but also yoghurt brands Farmers Union, Dairy Farmers and Yoplait alongside Australian favourites Vegemite and Zooper Doopers.

“There were some tough calls we had to make as a company,” Burghardt said.

“I was so impressed with both the finance team and the broader teams in terms of how they’ve approached those tough calls and those integrations. And that’s been really good. I’m pleased to see that the results are strong.”

The closures were all part of a roadmap to improved profitability and so far, it seems to be working. The company’s 2024-25 results revealed $3.5 billion in revenue and $165 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

“We’re halfway through our five year strategic plan that we set in 2023, and we’re ahead of where we expected to be sort of almost halfway through,” Burghardt said.

“There’s been some tough calls, there’s been some joyous calls to get there, and you always have a mixture of hard work and then some good strategic progress. We’ve had a bit of both and it’s good to see the results coming from that solidly last year. And the question is how do we double down on that momentum in ‘26 and beyond?”

Less bean counting, more bean growing

A large part of the solution lies in analysing data, leveraging insights and making recommendations the company can rely on.

Going beyond the bean counting is a trend Burghardt has witnessed firsthand in his 33 years in finance, which began at Proctor and Gamble in his home country of Canada and traversed the UK and Poland with health and hygiene company Reckitt. He headed finance teams for Treasury Wine Estates in the US, while in Australia he took the helm at Kraft Foods and Blackmores before landing at Bega.

“In terms of finance itself, I always say it needs to be there to help grow the beans and not just count them,” he said.

“I would say this in finance – the bit that’s doing the processes and the accounting is getting smaller and smaller every year and the strategic partnering bit that’s providing the insights, that’s helping the company accelerate its strategy, that’s the bit you really want to continue to double down on and develop further and further.”

Shining a light on the steps to success is the crux of finance leadership today, Burghardt said.

“When you think about why is finance there, what purposes does it serve and today, increasingly one of them is about being a sense maker for the organisation,” he said.

“How do you tell the story of what’s happening in the numbers? How can we leverage the areas that are strengths? How can we intervene in the areas that are struggling?

“We have a proximity to the results and we can unpack those to the trends that are underneath them, and I love that part of the role.

“But even more important is how do we help the organisation make better decisions? I think finance has gone from being a function 20 or 30 years ago that was about accounting to now being one that’s about better decision making.

“If we can do that and we can partner all the other functions and business units to do that, then we can accelerate our strategic progress.”

The year ahead

Interest rate cuts in 2025 helped put the worst of the cost of living crisis behind most Australians. It certainly eased conditions for the food and beverage manufacturing industry, which had been weathering the storm on two fronts: consumers reduced shopping in supermarkets and a decreased consumer appetite at hospitality venues.

“Out of home eating is a big one for us, so cafes, bakeries, corner stores, restaurants – they were flattish last year,” Burghardt said.

“We’re sort of seeing them returning to a slightly more normal growth rate. Inflation is still high, interest rates aren’t falling as quickly as they’d love, but we’re sensing green shoots where the consumer’s kind of stabilising and we think that’s promising.”

An exciting trend for dairy producers is the strong demand for yoghurt, particularly protein yoghurt. Bega’s research has found it’s become a staple for everyone from health-wise consumers seeking minimally processed foods to people on the go who can easily reach for a yoghurt pouch.  

Harnessing the tools

AI is accelerating at Bega. It all started with robotic process automation several years ago and will soon move to the next chapter of higher order AI to optimise pricing and promotions.

In software to be launched later this year, Bega will employ AI that can draw on thousands of data points from historical sales at different price points across a variety of categories. Using this intel, it can generate predictive information on how price movements and promotions will be received by customers.

“If you can be able to partly predict how consumers will react to things, you can give them an offer that’s great for them both in price and in variety and in product choice,” Burghardt said.

Cybersecurity upgrades are another priority for 2026 and for this, Burghardt recommends finance leaders work closely with IT. 

“You’re paying for the amount of data you store and you’re paying for how often you call it down and you access it, so finance needs to work with IT and the business to create these massive databases and these query reports that are every day pulling down data,” he said.

“How you write those queries is vital to your success because if they’re written loosely, you’re pulling down a lot more information than you need to pull down. So that sort of query capability, it’s becoming really important in finances.”

Gunther Burghardt’s tips on staying ahead in 2026

Focus on team engagement >

AI is a great example because it will scare some people. People are worried a little bit about the efficiency, they’re worried about the unknown, they’re worried about something new. How can you demonstrate this incredible new tool and what it can do for the company? When people see that, they get really excited. But when they see nothing, that’s when they get nervous.

Build relationships >

Understand the business units and functions almost as well as if you work there. If you’re going to partner well in strategy or decision making, you need to understand your peers and what matters to them and how their functions and their business units succeed.

Communication & Influencing >

Your success will be in how you communicate and how you influence others. The success of the organisation will rely on you doing that well and sometimes that’s not an innate skill for finance, but people develop it quickly,

Be a great storyteller >

Give the organisation an idea what it looks like when it gets there, how its doing along the way and what it can do more of or where it needs to intervene. And I think that’s the kind of storyteller role that we play in finance. And if you can couple that with a great culture and engaged people that you’re a long way to winning already.