{"id":110282,"date":"2025-10-31T07:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T07:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/110282\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T07:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T07:45:14","slug":"dawn-meats-deal-in-new-zealand-a-head-scratcher-for-local-farmers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/110282\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn Meats deal in New Zealand a head scratcher for local farmers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dawn Meats<\/a> chief executive Niall Browne\u2019s victory lap in New Zealand<\/a> last week ended with him as poster boy at the inaugural EU-New Zealand Business Summit in Auckland. <\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, the Irish meat boss had been at the other end of the country as the 4,300 farmer shareholders of Alliance Group backed Dawn\u2019s 270 million New Zealand dollars (\u20ac132 million) offer for a controlling stake in the Invercargill-based exporter. <\/p>\n

At the summit, pictured next to New Zealand\u2019s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, Browne had the look of a relieved man after seeing off a last-minute challenge from high-profile Alliance shareholders eager to keep the meat co-operative under New Zealand control.<\/p>\n

Looking just as relieved was Luxon, who had a living, breathing example of a major European chief executive with money to invest to parade in front of the hundreds of businesses at the Auckland event. <\/p>\n

In the New Zealand meat industry, however, there has been much head-scratching at Dawn\u2019s pursuit of the country\u2019s biggest lamb processor, and third-largest overall. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dawn Meats pursued NZ deal due to lack of openings in Ireland and UK, says chief executiveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The 93 per cent premium for shares in a company that had run up losses of $200 million in 2023 and 2024 and whose bankers were breathing down its neck due to its high level of debt made it seem a full price. <\/p>\n

Viewed alongside declining livestock numbers and the industry\u2019s seemingly intractable problem of excess processing capacity, it appeared generous. <\/p>\n

And then there were the touted benefits to customers of beef and lamb year-round, augmented by out-of-season supply from Alliance. <\/p>\n

Browne let slip that he had been visiting New Zealand for 20 years buying lamb from Alliance, prompting the question as to what new sources of supply there were to tap. <\/p>\n

It also fuelled suspicions that the counter-seasonal argument was merely a line to win over sceptical farmer shareholders. <\/p>\n

Dawn\u2019s real interest is thought to lie in scaling up Alliance\u2019s smaller beef operation. Unsurprisingly, New Zealand beef exporters aren\u2019t welcoming more competition in the local livestock market at a time when margins are already thin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to get a material beef business is to rip the heart out of the procurement market,\u201d one predicted. \u201cDawn will learn quickly that is not a recipe for making money.\u201d <\/p>\n

Time will tell. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dawn Meats chief executive Niall Browne\u2019s victory lap in New Zealand last week ended with him as poster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,79090,79091,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-110282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cantillon","10":"tag-dawn-meats","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}