Meat companies reach agreement over factory

Meat companies Affco and Anzco said yesterday they had reached agreement over a mothballed food factory in Waitara, north Taranaki.

The battle had been due to go before the Supreme Court next week.

The Anzco Foods joint venture with Itoham Foods would "now proceed to commence operations in the near future", an Anzco statement said.

Affco and Anzco have been embroiled in a long and costly dispute about the uses to which the former Affco meat works in the town's main street can be put.

Affco sold the mothballed works in 1999 with a 20-year encumbrance restricting slaughtering and meat-based processing on the site.

Anzco and Itoham said their plans for a meat products food factory did not break the encumbrance and spent more than $20 million redeveloping the site.

Affco then went to court to enforce the encumbrance and won in both the High Court and Court of Appeal.

The Supreme Court was next Tuesday due to hear Anzco's application to appeal against the Court of Appeal decision.

Anzco said yesterday that an agreement had been reached between the parties.

- NZPA