type cooperative industry manufacturing food livestock marketing & supply agribusiness founded 30 september 1948 1948 09 30 1 headquarters dunedin new zealand products meat revenue nz 2309m 2013 14 2 operating income nz 2320m 2013 14 2 profit nz 0.474 m 2013 14 2 total assets nz 760m 2013 14 2 total equity nz 319m 2013 14 2 subsidiaries silver fern brand website silverfernfarms.co.nz silver fern farms limited is a new zealand multinational meat co operative owned by 16 000 new zealand sheep cattle and deer farmers . 2 the company is new zealand s largest livestock processing and marketing company . it has investments in manufacturing meat processing transport of live stock export logistics and meat marketing with associated companies including nz lamb group new zealand and australian lamb company limited the lamb co operative inc robotic technologies limited livestock logistics nationwide limited . farm brands limited kotahi logistics lp ovine automation limited and alpine origin merino limited . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 re organisation 1.2 external investment 2 key brands 3 processing plants 4 references history edit it was established in 1948 as the primary producers cooperative society based initially in the south island of new zealand as a meat marketing cooperative predominantly of sheep . it became known as ppcs limited but remained a minor player in the meat industry until the early 1970s when a new management team was appointed . the removal of subsidies to farmers the new zealand meat board ceding its monopoly on sheepmeat marketing and meat processing industry over capacity gave the cooperative opportunities to utilise its profitability built up over the previous decade . so in the 1980s it expanded from only minor processing operations by taking over meat processing cooperatives and companies in initially the south island and later the north island . in 1986 released asset value was returned to the farmer shareholders by the creation of a holding company apex limited . apex was a vehicle that allowed the acquisition of canterbury frozen meat . 3 major consolidation of the new zealand meat industry continued through the 1990s with ppcs actively involved but not getting caught out like competitors such as affco holdings . 3 however in 2006 it was forced to take over hawkes bay based richmond meats to resolve issues resulting from a secret investment that had commenced in the late 1990s . this saddled the cooperative with debt . it was renamed silver fern farms in 2008 based upon one of its long standing brands . a takeover by pgg wrightson fell through due to the 2008 financial crisis . in june 2008 pgg wrightson had made an unconditional offer to buy half of silver fern farms for nz 220 million but in september was unable to complete the equity raising required to finance the offer and defaulted . 4 it had to pay 42 million in compensation to silver fern and wrote off a total of 50 million for the compensation and due diligence costs . 5 by 2013 the cooperative had accumulated significant losses leading to a company restructuring . 6 the company is currently just profitable . re organisation edit on 1 october 2014 silver fern farms limited reorganised the business into three species based units creating two new 100 % subsidiaries silver fern farms beef ltd and silver fern farms venison ltd. 2 external investment edit on friday october 16 2015 silver fern farms accepted a 50 50 partnership proposal for an investment of nzd 261m with a subsidiary of bright food group shanghai maling . 7 the full transaction which is subject to new zealand and chinese regulatory approvals is expected to complete i key brands edit silver fern silver fern farms premier selection silere alpine origin merino grass fed premier selection reserve beef processing plants edit as well as twenty directly owned processing plants in new zealand as of 2014 the cooperative has investments both in new zealand and overseas in other packing and processing plants and their technology . it will also process its farmers produce with other processors . references edit silver fern farms limited 149713 companies office . ministry of business innovation and employment . retrieved 21 february 2015 . a b c d e f g h silver fern farms annual report 2014 pdf . retrieved 21 february 2015 . a b meat wars . retrieved 21 february 2015 . craig norgate steps down as chairman of pgg wrightson . 23 july 2009 . hembry owen 8 may 2010 . the rise and fall and rise and fall of norgate . the new zealand herald . retrieved 4 may 2010 . the restructuring of silver fern farms . retrieved 21 february 2015 . proposed investment by shanghai maling aquarius co. ltd shanghai maling pdf . retrieved 5 december 2015 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title silver fern farms & oldid 744101384 categories agricultural cooperativesmultinational companiesmultinational food companiesfood and drink companies of new zealandcompanies based in dunedinmeat industrymeat packing industry1948 establishments in new zealandhidden categories use new zealand english from august 2015all wikipedia articles written in new zealand englishuse dmy dates from november 2011pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 03 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you 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