Battle for SWS to be decided by Christmas

THE fate of South Western Services (SWS) will be known before Christmas. The sale process will be handled by Merrion Capital and all sides are committed to the sale this time.

Following One51 pulling out of talks last year to buy parts of the business, the decision to sell it on was a unanimous vote of all parties, including the four West Cork co-operatives and Reox, formed last year as a trading company independent of Dairygold.

SWS has a €100 million indicative offer from Ion Equity already on the table. Ion understood it had the bid sewn up, but the board put the business on the open market last week.