Thursday, March 28, 2024

Has-been plant gets new growth

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Silver Fern Farms’ defunct Fairton meat processing plant just north of Ashburton is set for new life.
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Family-owned food company Talleys has confirmed the purchase of the plant and adjacent 453-hectare farm.

Talleys operates a large-scale vegetable plant nearby and is a commercial user of several cold stores at the Fairton site.

The site will be used to support vegetable production on the neighbouring farmland. 

Talley’s vegetables general manager Aaron Chudleigh said the acquisition allows for growth and the company is now working through plans and options for the site.

Talleys will continue to use the cold stores and the farm will be operated as an arable production unit.

“This allows us opportunity to grow our vegetable business in the future.”

Development plans for the plant and farm will open job opportunities in Canterbury.

“We are also looking at opportunities to utilise some of the existing SFF staff,” Chudleigh said.

There are 11 SFF staff on the site.

SFF communications head Justin Courtney said SFF has received an unconditional purchase offer.

“We are working with them to have the site ready for handover,” Courtney said.

Handover is expected to happen in October.

While the sale price has not been revealed the 485 hectares of land, comprising the 32ha plant site and 453ha farm, had a combined capital value of almost $40 million in 2018.

SFF ceased all processing at Fairton in May 2017. The pelthouse closed in August last year.

The farm was an integral part of the pelthouse operations in relation to effluent disposal consents and its closing meant the farm was no longer required. 

Following the decommissioning of the pelthouse, the farm and plant site went on the market in January.

The Fairton plant was one of the biggest employers in the Ashburton district for 125 years.

At peak the plant was a three-chain sheep meat operation employing more than 700 staff.

When it closed SFF made no bones Fairton was an unprofitable operation and did not support new investment.

The company cited declining sheep numbers and the chance to process the consolidated volume at its Pareora site south of Timaru as being behind the closure.

Sheep farming was the cornerstone of the Canterbury economy in the late 1800s when the then Fairfield Freezing Works, owned by the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company (CFM), played an important part in processing sheep meat for Britain. The co-operative went on to become PPCS and later SFF.

The Fairton plant closure came six months after the investment, in December 2016, of $261m by Chinese processor and retailer Shanghai Maling to effectively form a 50:50 joint venture partnership with the SFF Co-operative.

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