Australia's largest fully family-owned red meat processor Thomas Foods International has taken a 50 per cent stake in another family-run company, Vic-based Frew International.
The announcement comes just days after TFI revealed it had sold its fresh potato business to Mitolo Family Farms.
The Frew meat processing company, now renamed Frew International, was established by the late Arch Frew in 1984, with his son Robert Frew managing the company since 1999.
It owns and operates a modernised meat processing facility in Stawell, Vic, with daily processing capacity of more than 6000 lambs, sheep and goats sourced through saleyards or directly from farmers throughout eastern and central Australia.
TFI is also under second-generation management, with chief executive officer Darren Thomas at the helm of the business started by his father Chris Thomas. In addition to its soon-to-be-rebuilt flagship abattoir at Murray Bridge, the Adelaide-based company has processing plants at Lobethal and Tamworth, NSW. It also owns domestic wholesale, foods service and export business Holco, and exports across the globe, with subsidiary companies located in Asia, Europe and the United States.
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Under the arrangement, both companies will continue to operate independently with Robert remaining as Frew International managing director and Darren joining its board as executive chairman to help guide global growth and future strategy. The new corporate structure takes effect from July 1.
Darren said the investment into Frew provided great benefits to both companies over the long-term and in particular to Frew's longstanding livestock suppliers and customers.
"Both companies have had a mutual respect for each other over many years," he said.
"We are both family-owned and family-grown which means a lot in our industry, particularly to our customers and livestock suppliers.
"For us, it was important to partner with a company that has a similar focus on quality and running a business based on strong family values. This investment is not only aimed at helping facilitate Frew's exciting growth prospects but also enhancing TFI's offering across the meat industry including some of Frew's existing key markets that TFI has not served in recent years."
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Robert Frew said he could only see benefits to the company's customer relationships, commitment to service, quality, team and community under the new Frew International banner.
"Our well-established and focused national retail domestic customer relationships and export markets, in particular the Middle East, will benefit substantially through combining our increased procurement, supply chain, access to markets and processing volumes," he said.
"Our two companies had already established a great working partnership, with Holco purchasing products from our company over many years. Today's announcement strengthens our companies' high quality 'farmgate to plate' offering for consumers right across the globe."
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