Dawn Meats gets EU green light for acquisition of Elivia stake

Waterford-based Dawn Meats has won EU competition approval for its acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in Elivia, France second largest beef and veal processor.

The deal with Elivia’s owners includes an option for Dawn Meats to increase its stake in Elivia, which has a €1 billion turnover, to 70 per cent by 2019.

Chief executive of Dawn Meats Niall Browne said: "In a consolidating industry we believe that this deal brings considerable scale and knowledge sharing benefits to both parties."

"Our aim is to leverage our leadership position in traceability and sustainability so that we are at the vanguard of meat marketing internationally. Our scale, premium positioning and routes to market will benefit our customers and thousands of farmer suppliers in Ireland, the UK and now, via Elivia, in France."

Elivia will continue to be managed by its current chief executive Guy Wermeister under the terms of the deal.

It comes after Brazil's JBS, the world's largest meat packer, last week announced it had agreed to pay $1.5 billion for Moy Park, the British unit of rival Marfrig Global Foods.