An Ashburton meat works company looks to create more jobs in and expand its services for locals following its sale to a Japanese company.
Ashburton Meat Processors in Netherby, formerly owned by salami producer Verkerks, has been bought by SFJ Holdings.
An Overseas Investment Office decision made in June revealed that SFJ Holdings, who come under Japanese business S Foods, would acquire all shares of the meat works and 37 hectares of land for $15 million.
Verkerks chairperson Terry Pierson said while the meat works has traded hands, not much would change for its 150 staff.
“The employees, they remain there on the same conditions, the abattoir continues as they are.”
“As far as AMP is concerned, in its day-to-day operations, nothing changes. It’s exactly the same. All that changes is the shareholder.”
Pierson said SFJ Holdings intended to expand production and increase staff.
“At the moment it’s a local plant doing local servicing and their intention is overtime to grow the business to be an export business as well.”
Approval for SFJ Holdings’ purchase was granted under the Benefit to New Zealand test, a checklist that decides if a foreign company’s acquisition of local land will benefit our economy, environment, or help in advancing policy.
The decision reads that the purchase will create jobs in Ashburton and increase export opportunities for the plant, with the addition of a beef processing chain which will be used to process wagyu, amongst other products.
Verkerks has built a name for itself with its fermented meat goods over its 70 years of mass production, said Pierson.
“The brand has become a very strong and iconic New Zealand brand now. We’re in all 400 supermarkets out there [in New Zealand].”
The sale of the Ashburton meat works had been a long time coming, he said.
“We didn’t have a sign on the fence saying ‘for sale’ but we always entertained anybody that came to us with a serious proposition.”
“And the Japanese came and made us an offer.”
The deal was meant to have been made years ago but Covid made travel and negotiations difficult, putting the sale off for four years.
The company does most of its processing at a Papanui facility, Pierson said, and while meat would sometimes be sent to Ashburton, it was a separate business.
“We think that, in the modern world, because it’s so complicated and things are so tough, that you really need to be able to focus on your core business.
“We had two businesses, and the business we wished to focus on in the long term is the brand.”
Pierson said the amount of detail made public in the decision astonished him.
“Completely blindsided, we naively thought as a small company the OIO would be private. We didn’t realise it would be published in the way that it was.”
Pierson said there would be no reason Verkerks couldn’t continue using the meat works to process products in the future following the sale.
