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The Verkerks brand sells salami and small items to many supermarkets in New Zealand.
photo: RNZ/Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Small commodity meat business Verkerks has sold its Mid Canterbury abattoir to a major Japanese meat company for $15 million.
In June, New Zealand-based Japanese subsidiary SFJ Holdings received approval from the Overseas Investment Office to acquire the company’s meat processing plant in Ashburton, based on a “benefit to New Zealand” test.
The multimillion-dollar sale includes 37 hectares of meat processing land and all of the shares in the Verkerks’ Ashburton Meat Processors company.
The well-known Verkerks brand sells salami and small goods to many supermarkets in New Zealand. Its founder Aalt Verkerk founded the company in 1957, formally known as A Verkerk.
In 2012, before Verkerk’s death, his daughter Mary-Anne Mills was appointed to the helm of the company.
Mills, the company’s owner and plant supervisor, said the sale has not yet been completed.
“To quote my dad, ‘Nothing can be sold until the check clears the bank,’ ” she said.
Mills said the business has changed over the years, influencing the decision to sell the plant.
“I think we should focus on our core business,” she said.
She said she understood meat processing operations at the plant would continue after the change of ownership, and production at Verkerk’s Christchurch plant would continue as normal.
She said the Verkerks brand will live on.
The Overseas Investment Office said in its decision that SFJ Holdings plans to expand its factory and establish a new beef processing chain to start processing Wagyu beef.
Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed manufacturer and meat marketer S Foods established its New Zealand company SFJ Holdings in April 2019, according to company registration information.
S Foods started exporting Wagyu beef to New Zealand in June 2016.
S Foods was founded in 1967 and as of February this year had capitalization of more than $48 million and more than 2,400 employees, according to its website.
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