Tiger Brands ready to re-enter market

Tiger Brands, the owner of Enterprise Foods products such as polony, viennas and russians, has kept the factories closed in the aftermath of the listeriosis outbreak but this week said preparations for the reopening of the facilities were “advanced”.

This follows health minister Aaron Motsoaledi's announcement on Monday that the listeriosis outbreak was officially over.

The announcement could see Tiger Brands make moves to restore lost credibility and reopen its production facilities in a bid to claw back market share in a depressed consumer market.

Following the outbreak of listeriosis in March 2017, Tiger Brands recalled readyto-eat chilled processed meats and closed four meat-processing facilities. The recall and related costs amounted to R365m, according to the company.

Tiger Brands also incurred a loss of approximately R50m for every month of ceased operations. “We have not calculated any impact on brand perception,” the company said.

But following the government’s announcement, the company said plans to reopen the three factories and an abattoir were advanced. It was liaising with the department of health to ensure alignment and collaboration ahead of reopening the facilities.

“We have been working very closely with the local municipalities who are responsible for issuing the relevant operating licences and we hope to make an announcement in due course regarding the resumption of certain production activities,” the company said.

Tiger Brands said it had worked closely with national and international listeria experts to get to the bottom of the listeria detection at its Polokwane facility and had implemented suggestions for improvements at its facilities.

Tiger Brands said it had plans to re-enter the market, without elaborating.

“We are mindful that we need to work hard to ensure that we restore trust through our actions,” it said.