In 1930, Rosario Cordina established a small farm in Sydney, New South Wales. His teenage son Joseph quickly recognised an opportunity to provide fresh, ready-to-use chickens to the local restaurant scene and this led to the birth of Cordina Farms in 1945. It has since evolved to become a leader in the Australian market with operations still echoing the family values instilled in those early days.
Fourth-generation Louise Cordina leads the business today together with her father John Cordina, who has headed up the family firm since 1975. She remembers doing odd jobs around the office from when she was a very young child and then working in the businesss factories for pocket money when she was old enough. Since joining the business full time in 1996, it’s been a natural progression through the ranks until moving into the role of CEO of one of the group’s entities in 2010. More recently, Louise has stepped into the leadership role across the broader group. “I think when you can say your first childhood memory is of a chicken factory then you know you have well and truly grown up in the industry,” she laughs.
“In our immediate family there is only myself and my sister. When we were very young, people used to ask us what we wanted to be when we grew up. My sister was always going to be an entomologist and I was going to be Daddy. Neither of us were too far off; my sisters now a cardiologist and my passion for leading the business has never changed.”