Country Bird backtracks on bird supply

Marthinus Stander, CEO of Country Bird Holdings (CBH), who has confirmed his company will not be renewing its bid for Sovereign Foods, has been asked to retract comments about supplying chickens to companies that do not have their own parent stock.

jlastras via via Wikimedia Commons

In a story published on September 18, entitled "Avian flu at Sovereign a game changer, says CBH", Stander said: "Only Rainbow, Astral, Quantum and Country Bird have their own source and when there are problems, we stop supplying to third parties." Stander has been asked to retract that statement and has done so.

CBH's decision not to renew its offer for Sovereign, which was suspended in 2016, came days after Sovereign announced it had detected avian influenza at a layer house on a farm that forms part of its broader Uitenhage operations. A few weeks earlier Capitalworks, a private equity firm, had announced a R12 a share offer for Sovereign.

Stander expressed concern that Sovereign would struggle to restrain the effect of avian flu. He believes bird flu will do more damage to Sovereign because it does not have its own parent stock and relies on other poultry producers.

Source: Business Day