Donaghys Buys Tasman

Media Release

Friday 1 Dec 2006

Donaghys Buys Tasman

Rural manufacturer Donaghys Industries is ending 2006 on a high with the purchase of the New Zealand Tasman Dairy Hygiene and Animal Health business, its fifth acquisition in 14 months.

Tasman is currently part of Jasol, a division of George Weston Foods. The Tasman Dairy Hygiene range was originally brought to New Zealand by Tasman Chemicals one of Australia’s largest suppliers of dairy hygiene chemicals which has been operating successfully for 40 years.

This final business acquisition for 2006, rounds out the range of technical products Donaghys supplies to dairy farmers. It gives Donaghys the ability to broaden its offer to farmers to include best of breed vat & shed sanitation, and mastitis & bloat control. The NZ dairy farm hygiene market is valued at around $35 million per year.

“We started out looking at just the distribution of the Tasman products here in New Zealand,” said Jeremy Silva, Donaghys managing director.

“But the more we learned about farmers’ desire for Tasman’s products the more it made sense to buy the whole Tasman New Zealand business, so a deal was struck. We’re delighted by the outcome.”

The deal includes all of Tasman’s New Zealand line of business for farmers including intellectual property, manufacturing processes, its sales and distribution arm, as well as marketing collateral and the brand. George Weston Food’s subsidiary Jasol will continue to be active in the dairy factory hygiene business along with a number of other chemical related sectors where they operate as a market leader.

“One of the exciting things for us is the potential for our scientific team at Donaghys laboratories to apply their skills to the Tasman products with the aim of further enhancing potency and efficacy.”

The acquisition will see all chemical production move to Donaghys Christchurch-based applied technology factory in February 2007.

2006 has been a watershed year for Donaghys. It has aggressively acquired International applied technology businesses including Southern Ocean Ropes, Jenkins Biolabs, National Ropes and the Novatex Australasian bale net distribution.

Started in Dunedin in 1876, Donaghys Industries is one of New Zealand’s largest rural manufacturers. It has representation in Australia, Europe and North America as well as Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

ENDS

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