Kerifresh bid promises stability
Turners and Growers, a subsidiary of the giant Guinness Peat Group, which already has a presence in Kerikeri, has taken a large piece of Kerifresh through a share auction resulting from a breach of the takeovers code. Turners and Growers bought Kapiro Orchard last year.
The Takeovers Panel found that Kerifresh managing director Alan Thompson, director Hamish McHardy, former director Graham Cowley, Lawrence Fletcher and Emma Jane Eastwood and their companies associated with them had broken rules under the code.
Looking to the future for Kerifresh staff, Mr Gibbs says, I don%26rsquo;t see any widespread redundancies. Rather we are looking for good people.
He says the takeover will benefit the financial stability of Kerifresh, with Turners and Growers%26rsquo; strong balance sheet replacing Kerifresh%26rsquo;s fragile one.
Asked about working conditions Kerifresh staff can expect, he says, Staff should be happy. In the height of the season we have 1,600 people working for us throughout New Zealand and I do not recall hearing any grizzles. We like to consider ourselves fair and humane employers.
Turners and Growers managing director Jeff Wesley was in Kerikeri last Friday to discuss the takeover process with Kerifresh managing director Alan Thompson.
Interviewed at the airport, Mr Wesley said there were now two types of grower %26ndash; big players and niche operators.
We are looking at ecomomy of scale. We believe that local growers will find they have more leverage while Kerifresh workers will have greater job security.
Mr Wesley estimated that the takeover process would continue until the first day of March.
Turners %26amp; Growers is New Zealand%26rsquo;s leading distributor, marketer and exporter of fresh produce.
Kerifresh began in 1981 as the result of an export melon producing venture, later expanding into export squash, kiwifruit and citrus industries. In 1992 Kerifresh raised public capital to enable rapid expansion of production of Yen Ben lemons and established the Kerifresh group, comprising three main trading companies:
- Kerifresh Ltd, the holding company for the group, producer and the owner of the group%26rsquo;s land holdings.
- Kerikeri Cold Storage Limited (Kericold) providing kiwifruit and citrus coolstorage and packing facilities to the group and outside suppliers.
- Pacific Harvest NZ Ltd, the marketing arm
Turners %26amp; Growers Horticulture Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turners and Growers Limited, was the successful bidder, at $2.10 per share, for the 21.2 percent of Kerifresh Limited shares auctioned by independent broker ABN AMRO Craigs, on behalf of the Takeovers Panel.
To assist in the takeover process T%26amp;G Horticulture has entered into additional pre-bid agreements with other major Kerifresh shareholders on the same terms.
T%26amp;G Horticulture, which is confident of a successful takeover of Kerifresh Limited, is seeking costs and damages suffered when it suspended its takeover offer.
Alan Thompson declined an interview.
