Business Times reports that the consortium scrambling to find funding to take over Tiger Brands’ deciduous fruit business in the Western Cape is pleading for extra time, without which more than 4,000 jobs will be lost and 300 farmers face ruin.

Last week Agri SA raised the alarm over the possible closure of the Langeberg & Ashton Foods (L&AF) canning facility in Ashton, which the Growers Consortium, consisting of 160 fruit farmers who supply the facility, wants to buy. The consortium's Grant Smuts said they were confident they would find an equity backer if the food producer gave them until April next year. Tiger Brands confirmed last week it had begun consultations with staff at L&AF about potentially closing, a move Agri SA said could affect more than 4,000 seasonal and permanent jobs and have a disastrous effect on the local and national economies. Smuts said the consortium was speaking to a “number of role players, and we’ve had a lot of interest”, but it needed more time to put together a financial model to make the transaction work. He said this would entail obtaining financing and possibly an equity partner for the consortium. Tiger Brands said it remained open to engaging with interested bidders, including the Growers Consortium, on a possible deal if sufficient funding was secured, but “given the urgent need to make operational decisions, the company requires a timely commitment.” The L&AF facility is one of only two fruit-canning factories in SA. The Food and Allied Workers Union’s (Fawu’s) Dominique Martin said the union planned to do “everything in its power to preserve jobs for its members”. Any retrenchments would “hit the community hard, especially in the challenging economic times we find ourselves in”, he said.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nick Wilson at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

Read too, Patel calls on Tiger Brands to halt retrenchment talks, consider options, at Business Report

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