There’s nothing like a good trawl of the French companies’ registry to occupy The Dealer on a blustery Sunday afternoon.

What about activities declared by Elivia, the major beef processor in which Dawn Meats agreed to buy a 49% stake in November 2014?

Well, at least 10 companies in the Elivia group have been shut down and amalgamated into their parent company since the beginning of 2015. They were originally set up to run local factories or perform other specific tasks within the group. This is all being rationalised away.

The pace accelerated after the European competition authority cleared the merger just over a year ago and did not abate: one of the subsidiaries was wound down between Christmas and new year last.

Other milestones included a €30m capital increase at the end of 2014 and the appointment of Dawn Meats chief executive Niall Browne as a director of Elivia on 21 August 2015.

More recently, just last month, Elivia appointed the international accountancy firm Ernst and Young as its new auditors.