‘Waitaki recovery hinges on more rationalisation’

Press, 30 May 1989, Page 18

‘Waitaki recovery hinges on more rationalisation’

PA Wellington Decisions have yet to be taken on further steps to rationalise the meat industry, Waitaki International’s managing director, Mr Barney Sundstrum, said yesterday. Waitaki’s continued profit recovery would be affected by the speed and extent of co-operation by meat companies to reduce processing capacity, he said. The company reported on Friday a $5.5 million

interim profit, turning around a $25.4 million loss in the previous half year ended April 1988. Mr Sundstrum said another interim loss “would have been a possibility” but for the steps taken last year in the South Island, including the closing of Waitaki’s Burnside and Islington works.. “If those two sheds had been there, then the result would not have been nearly as good,” he said. Mr Sundstrum con-

firmed Waitaki and other companies had commissioned a study by merchant banks Southpac and Jarden Morgan on further rationalisation possibilities. The study would look at “various permutations and combinations” in the industry, he added. He could not say when the study would be complete, or further decisions made. Further rationalisation “wouldn’t hurt” next year’s Waitaki result, he said.