Northern Ireland's Fane Valley extends joint venture with ABP

Fane Valley Co-op in Northern Ireland and the Republic's ABP Food Group are extending their joint venture relationship to include Linden Foods, the UK based meat processing business of Fane Valley.

The partnership will see ABP Food Group take a 50 per cent stake in the Linden Foods company, which is headquartered in Dungannon, county Tyrone. An agreement in principle has been reached by both parties subject to approval by the relevant regulatory and competition authorities. Fane Valley is Northern Ireland's biggest farmers' cooperative

Linden Foods is an award winning fresh meat processor with facilities in Dungannon, Burradon in England and Kettyle Irish Foods, based in Lisnaskea, county Fermanagh. The announcement follows last year's Slaney Foods and Irish Country Meats joint venture between both parties.

Trevor Lockhart, chief executive of Fane Valley Co-op, said, "Linden Foods is a growing company within the UK red meat sector, delivering the highest levels of innovation, quality, service and value to its long established customer base. The business continually challenges the way it works, seeking out new ways to advance and improve. Our experience of working closely with ABP Food Group in the Republic of Ireland has been extremely positive and we now wish to build on this success.

"The joint venture, which will continue to trade as Linden Foods under the current management team, will ensure that the business can capitalise on new commercial growth opportunities within both the domestic and international market place. The involvement of ABP will strengthen our global sales network and assist in ensuring Linden maximises the returns from all parts of the animal, including the 5th quarter. This will be a pre-requisite to delivering sustainable returns to primary producers in a post-Brexit era."

Commenting on the announcement, Frank Stephenson, chief executive of ABP Food Group, added: "We are very pleased to have reached an agreement in principle with Fane Valley Co-Op and look forward to building on our successful partnership with Slaney Foods and Irish Country Meats."

ABP Food Group is one of Europe's leading privately owned agribusiness companies with 46 manufacturing plants across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. The company also operates substantial renewable, pet food and protein divisions. In Northern Ireland, ABP Food Group has two processing facilities located in Lurgan and Newry and employs 650 people.

Fane Valley Co-op is a progressive and successful agri-food business with interests in red meat, animal feed, agricultural supplies, porridge oats and breakfast cereals, animal by-products and fat processing. The co-operative was formed in 1903 and is farmer owned and farmer controlled. Linden Foods employs 1,100 people and is the meat processing division of Fane Valley Co-op in Northern Ireland and England.