Arrabawn to get natural gas

Arrabawn co-op is to get natural gas from next year. CEO Connor Ryan confirmed that the plant in Nenagh should be running on natural gas by the second quarter of 2015. He added that energy is their largest cost and that they spend around €5m on oil every year. The connection will bring significant savings of €1m-€2m depending on commodity prices. Arrabawn are the anchor tenants for the connection.

Tyson sells poultry business to JBS

Tyson Foods, the US-based meat processor, has announced that it will sell its poultry businesses in Mexico and Brazil to rival JBS for $575m in cash. According to Donnie Smyth chief executive, Tyson hasn’t had the “necessary scale to gain leading share positions in these markets.”

Danone infant formula sales are down 13%

Danone has reported a significant fall in sales from their infant nutrition division, reflecting the backlash since the false safety alert triggered by Fonterra last year.

Sales of infant formula fell 13.1% for the half year. China was most affected, reflecting the false botulism scare last year. Danone is currently suing Fonterra and estimates the cost of the scare to be €350m following a full product recall and loss of intervening sales. They have since adopted a “multi-brand approach” to get sales back on track.

Meanwhile, the company saw double-digit sales growth of infant formula in Latin America and in the Africa and Middle East regions.

Overall group revenue was down by 5.3% to €10.5bn as the volume of sales fell by 3%. The group’s fresh dairy products division reported a 6.3% fall in turnover to €5.6bn.

Greencore’s strong interim results

Greencore delivered strong revenue and operating performance in its core convenience foods business. First half revenues were up 8.2% to £619.8m, while operating profit was up 14% to £37.2m.

The company also announced that it is to make a multi-year investment of £30m in its Northampton facility in Britain, after winning a bid to service a new customer with chilled sandwiches.

The company also announced that it had disposed of its foodservice desserts business, Ministry of Cake, for £11m. Greencore is investing heavily in the US, with the recent acquisition of Lettieri’s and in their own facility at Jacksonville, Florida.