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- Tiger Brands has announced the completion of the sale of its value-added meat business.
- That includes its Polish factory in Polokwane, which was identified as the source of a listeriosis outbreak.
- The sale agreement specifically holds Tiger Brands liable for the ongoing class action lawsuit claiming damages to those who died and became ill.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Tiger Brands said on Thursday that it had completed the sale of its value-added meat business, in a deal worth more than R300 million, to Country Bird Holdings, the owner of the Supreme Chicken brand.
That includes processing plants in Germiston, Pretoria, and the Polokwane factory where Enterprise Polony is made. That facility was identified as the source of the Listeria bacteria that, in 2017 and 2018, caused one of the deadliest outbreaks of listeriosis ever recorded. With all conditions now met, the sale is effective from November 1, Tiger told shareholders in a brief statement.
Country Bird agreed to pay R153 million for the processing plants, plus what had been estimated to be just under R160 million for inventory.
Tiger Brands said it had begun a strategic review in 2017 that ultimately led to the removal of the value-added arm, although the process was delayed by “the unfortunate events of 2018.”
But the giant consumer brand company will remain the liable party in a class action lawsuit for damages related to the listeriosis outbreak. Responsibility for damages will rest with Tiger Consumer Brands, with a guarantee from the Tiger Brands general group, under the indemnities included in the sales contract, Tiger said in August.
In March, the national health department said it had conclusively traced the listeriosis outbreak to Enterprise’s Polokwane factory in an investigation that involved the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, three foreign advisers to the World Health Organization, and inspectors. governments from two different departments. .
DNA fingerprints had matched Listeria monocytogenes from sick people to samples collected at the factory.
Tiger Brands was forced to remove the affected products from the shelves 18 days after learning of the contamination.
Country Bird has said it will keep the Enterprise branding for polony, which it considers too iconic to discard.
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