Group chief vows to defend €131m sugar compensation ‘with force’

THE row between Greencore and farmers over the €145 million EU compensation package for exiting sugar processing erupted again yesterday.

Greencore boss David Dilger dismissed claims by the Irish Farmers Association that they were entitled to the bulk of the money, and said he and his board would fully defend shareholders’ interests.

The group says it is entitled to €131m of the €145m compensation package, but the IFA disagrees.

The Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan will determine Greencore’s share of the restructuring, and, “all I can do is assert 100% confidence on our entitlement to that money”, said Mr Dilger.

Prior to the publication of Greencore’s first half results yesterday sugar beet chairman Paddy Jordan said “the livelihoods of the country’s 3,700 growers had been destroyed”.

He said the recent report commissioned by the IFA showed beet growers’ facing losses of €150m. “There is an incontrovertible case for payment of this EU money to the country’s beet growers,” he added.

But Mr Dilger rejected those claims. “I don’t accept that,” he said.

Mr Dilger said he would resist strongly any third party intervention to have the money paid to farmers.

“I can’t answer for the action of others. All I can do is describe to you the process whereby Greencore has determined what its entitlements are here through the best legal, financial and economic advice available.”

“I can be strong and confident with you in relation to this,” he told journalists attending the group’s first half results presentation in Dublin yesterday.

“We will defend the entitlement of the shareholders of this group with all the force that we can,” he added.

It emerged also the group has its 900 acres of land at Mallow, Carlow and in Britain valued at just e40m in its books.

Some estimates put a value of €300m on the Carlow land alone, but the group says it has no idea of the total worth of its property bank.

It will not be selling off any of it prematurely in an effort to cut its debts, which have fallen from over €870m at end March 2001 to €423m at end March 2006.

Greencore has appointed top advisers to deal with the land development question and a senior executive has also been assigned to seeing this process through.

Pressed to give some indication of what the land is worth Mr Dilger said: “I haven’t got a clue and our advisors don’t know either.”