The Commerce Commission has cleared the sale of day-old chicken production units owned by Bromley Park Hatcheries to the Australian-owned Inghams Enterprises.
In New Zealand, Inghams has breeding operations, hatcheries, contract growing and processing operations and it produces day-old chicks for its own manufacturing needs but does not sell them to third parties.
The Bromley Park purchase, valued at $8.6 million, will safeguard Inghams’ own needs and the sale of chicks to third parties will continue as before, the applicant said.
Commission chair John Small said his commerce watchdog was satisfied the sale is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any part of the NZ market.
The century-old Batkin family-owned Bromley Park Hatcheries has three divisions, two of which are being sold.
Bromley Park brings into NZ the Cobb and Shaver genetics that underpin our meat chicken and egg-laying industries.
Inghams seeks clearance to buy the Cobb Commercial and Riverlands businesses, based mainly at Tuakau, South Auckland, which sell Cobb parent stock to the Pacific Islands.
The Shaver/SXB business in Canterbury, which produces day-old chicks for the egg-laying industry, is not being sold.
Because Bromley has exclusive rights to the distribution of the Cobb breed in NZ, the proposed Inghams purchase had vertical integration implications for the whole poultry sector.
Inghams faces strong competition from Tegel, which also sells day-old chicks, and it claimed the Bromley purchase would not harm other poultry companies like Brinks and Turks.
The Commerce Commission agreed and cleared the sale to proceed.
