ABP Food Group Ltd

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ABP Food Group (Anglo Beef Processors) is a privately-owned food processor, operating across 9 countries.ref It processes, produces, and exports beef and meat products. The company specialises in beef processing, de-boning, and retail packing; supplies frozen beef, lamb, and pork burgers; grill steaks and mince products; and a range of meat-free vegetable soya based products. It also distributes cooking oils to the catering trade in the UK; collects, recovers, and treats used cooking oil and food waste from food processing and food retailing industry, and converts it into renewable biofuels in the UK and Ireland. In addition, the company produces and supplies a range of pet food products in pouch, aluminium/plastic trays, canned, and dry formats.

Property: the group also has a valuable property portfolio which includes the Miesian Centre on Baggot Street, part of which is rented by the State for about €10m a year, and the Setanta Centre on Nassau Street, for which they have a €100m redevelopment plan. The group also has an interest in the Irish healthcare sector, with shareholdings in the Blackrock Clinic, the Galway Clinic, and the Hermitage Clinic, in Lucan, Dublin.Jun.2019

WRAP-UK-Plastics-Pact.svg Signatory to WRAP's voluntary, sanction-free Plastics Pact initiative, that proposes creating a circular economy for plastics by reduce packaging and tackling food waste. Strangely, the Pact does not apply to the products themselves.

Ownership

Laurence Goodman was ranked as Ireland's 21st billionaire by Forbes in 2019.ref The Goodman family's assets are controlled by one or more entities in Liechtenstein, via a complex web of Irish and international companies. Goodman has fought bitterly to resist attempts to pry into the details of the group's ownership structure and its beneficiaries.Jun.2019,Mar.2019, OpenCorporates-sm.svg, OpenCorporates-sm.svg

Registering the group offshore means very little tax is paid on declared income, ably assisted by an ex-KPMG accountant.ref

Divisions + Brands

Timeline

ABP Food Group Ltd

  • Sept.2019: Irish meat firm ABP Food Group announced 100 more temporary lay-offs at its plant at Cahir, County Tipperary, as a result of the ongoing dispute between beef farmers and the meat industry. Since the start of the blockades, ABP has temporarily laid off 1,463 staff across the country. Fellow Irish meat firm Kepak has laid off 1,400 staff as a result of the same dispute.ref
  • Feb.2019: ABP Food Group was the latest meat processor to reveal plans to expand into the plant-based arena.ref
  •  ??.2019: ABP took control of Longford-based pet food manufacturing firm C&D Foods after it purchased the remaining 15% stake owned by CEO Philip Reynolds. The company already had an 85% stake in the business after the purchase of 50% in 2008 and a further 35% in 2011 in what is now one of the biggest European pet food suppliers.ref
  • Jul.2018: Scored a second win in China with an agreement with Beijing Hopewise to launch a range of "premium" Irish beef products on the e-commerce platform JD.com (one of the largest business-to-consumer online retailers in China) to launch a range of premium Irish beef products.ref
  • Feb.2018: ABP was the first Irish and European beef processing company to secure a contract in China. ABP secured a contract with restaurant chain Wowprime Corporation to supply beef to 400+ of its restaurants in China.ref ref
  • Oct.2016: Sklodowsky: the ABP empire grew again with its acquisition of Polish meat processor Sklodowsky. The purchase brought the total number of Polish plants under ABP control to 3. The group previously bought a plant in 2011 and 2013.ref The purchase of Sklodowsky brought ABP's Polish production capacity up to 250,000 cattle and opens new markets in Poland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, France, Spain, Slovenia and Lithuania.ref
  • Oct.2016: ABP/Slaney Meats: the dominant market player took another large slice of the pie by gobbling up the 5th-largest player. Approved by the European Commission's competition authority.ref
  • Dec.2015: ABP Food Group decided to end production at a plant in north-west England.ref
  • 2015: Glydee and Branganstown farms were awarded a combined EU payments total of €483,753.ref
  • 2015: ABP became the first European company to export to America, following the opening of the market after a 16-year long embargo on European beef products. ref
  • Jan.2014: ABP acquired a second Polish production site from Italian meats firm Ferrarini.ref
  • Apr.2013: ABP Food Group sold its Silvercrest facility, one of the plants at the centre of the horsemeat contamination scandal, to fellow meat producer Kepak. The Silvercrest facility was one of the plants at the centre of the horsemeat contamination scandal.ref
  • Jan.2013: ABP Food Group acquired the Debbie & Andrew's premium sausage brand from Dutch group Vion.ref
  • Jan.2013: 4 of ABP's subsidiaries were accused of supplying meat adulterated with horsemeat: Silvercrest in County Monaghan, Dalepak in North Yorkshire, Freshlink in Glasgow, ABP Nenagh in County Tipperary, Ireland and Dairy Crest, Rossington.ref Asda, Waitrose,ref Tesco, the Co-operative Group and Aldi cancelled contracts with ABP Food Group because of the adulteration.ref,ref,ref,ref,ref
  • 2011: ABP Food Group Ltd: the company was renamed.ref,ref

Anglo-Irish Beef Processors

  • Jul.2004: Freshbake Foods's Glasgow operation was bought by Irish Food Processors through its UK subsidiary, Anglo Beef Processors Ltd. Freshbake Foods went into administrative receivership last month.ref
  • 1995: Goodman reassumed control of the business with the help of private backers and by 1999 had paid them off and assumed full control.ref
  • Mar.1994: ABP Foods Unlimited Company was set up.
  • May.1991: Granada Television broadcast an episode of investigative programme "World in Action", examining the core business of Goodman International, how its operations were funded by national and European Community export insurance and credit schemes, EC export subsidies and the variable premium paid on cattle. It claimed that Goodman's dominant position in the Irish and British beef processing industry may not be in the best interests of consumers. It also made allegations of inappropriate political influence by Goodman.ref The next day, Opposition parties called for a full judicial inquiry into the allegations made on the programme.ref The Tribunal of Inquiry was established in May.1991. The outcome was that no wrong-doing was found to have been committed by Goodman or his company, although some very irregular practises were demonstrated and a window was opened on the murky world of Ireland's beef industry. The fall-out from the tribunal led to the collapse of two govts. Ultimately, it set an unwanted precedent for how Ireland's legal system would deal with subsequent allegations of high-level corruption and white collar crime. Although no findings were made against AIBP, the Beef Tribunal confirmed the perception that an old-boys-club existed in which Irish business and political elites made decisions to benefit one another at the expense of the public interest, a conclusion reinforced by subsequent tribunals of inquiry. Goodman fought tooth and nail and, although the process damaged his business which ultimately went into receivership, he survived to rebuild a personal fortune.ref
  • Aug.1990: Goodman's companies accounted for 40% of the national beef kill, and had turnover in the region of £1bn, almost all of it in exports.
  • Feb.1985: acquisition of the Waterford plant of Clover Meats (after that company's collapse). It included the purchase of National Proteins, a by-products plant processing meat and bone meal from edible offal.ref He took over the ailing Waterford company Clover Meats in 1985, including a subsidiary called National Proteins, which produced Meat and Bone Meal. This later drew Goodman's company into the BSE scandal.ref
  • Dec.1984: Dalgety plc's entire fresh meat division was purchased by Anglo-Irish Beef Processors, buying entry into the British meat market. It included facilities in York, Blisworth, Wellingborough and Reading, as well as distribution depots in Jersey and Berkshire.ref
  • Sept.1983: Goodman won a $33m contract to supply beef to Iran. Goodman praised then Minister for Agriculture Austin Deasy, whose visit to Tehran "greatly facilitated the securing of the new contract".ref
  • Apr.1983: Goodman won contracts to supply $50m worth of fresh frozen beef to Iran and Morocco. At the time of the deal, Goodman complained that because there was no Variable Premium subsidy scheme in the UK, exporters there had an effective subsidy of $300 a tonne on beef exporters, thus enabling them to undercut Irish exporters.
  • Mar.1983: AIBP acquired the 4 Northern Ireland factories of the animal by-products processors Robert Wilson. By this stage AIBP was slaughtering 250,000+ cattle a year, and 10,000 cattle were being fattened at Goodman's feeding lots in Louth.
  • Jan.1982: It was announced that Anglo-Irish Beef Processors had won a £25.5m contract to supply beef to Iraq. The contract involved supplying 9,000 tonnes of boneless consumer cuts and frozen bone-in meat and was part of an overall order for 54,000 tonnes of beef placed by Iraq.ref
  • Jul.1981: it was announced that the IDA would put £2m towards the £9m expansion of Goodman's plants. One of his companies, Irish Agricultural Feed Company, also built a feed manufacturing facility at Castlebellingham, and a complex to "over-winter up to 15,000 cattle to boost supplies to the factories at a time when few cattle are finished for slaughter". The complex "was the result of 14 years research".ref
  • 1981: Expansions of Goodman's Irish operations were part-funded by the IDA, which offered £2m towards a £9m plan.ref
  • Oct.1980: Fermanagh Meats in Enniskillen was acquired. The plant processed ~1,000 head of cattle a week.ref
  • Jun.1980: it was announced that Goodman would invest £10m for a new meat plant in Ardee, County Louth, "when it reaches full production". It also announced an additional £10m investment to expand operations at Cahir, Nenagh and Bagenalstown.ref
  • Apr.1980: Anglo-Irish Beef Processors purchased a meat plant at Bagenalstown, County Carlow from Meade-Lonsdale for around £2.2m.
  • 1979: Goodman was on the advisory committee for HSBC's opening of operations in Ireland, along with Dermot Nolan, Michael Carvill and Peter Hutson.
  • late.1960s: Anglo-Irish Beef Processors: Goodman bought the Dundalk-based firm, which put him into the processing industry in a substantial way. He began exporting, building up contacts in the Middle East in particular. He sold meat to Libya, Iran, Iraq and Egypt – often going himself as salesman.
  • 1954: Irish Food Processors Ltd: Irish businessman Laurence Goodman, 6th generation of a livestock and meat exporting family, founded the company.ref The Goodman family has business interests in property, healthcare and productive arable and beef farming.