Family owner of Baiada Poultry ‘shelves plans for company sale’

The family that owns Baiada is understood to have shelved any sales plan. Picture: Glenn Campbell

DataRoom reported in June that the Australian family owned Baiada Poultry appeared to be looking for a buyer, with Rothschild & Co working for the business.

Now this column has learned that American multinational Tyson Foods was running the ruler over the business, according to sources.

However, the understanding is that the family owner of Baiada was holding out for an offer of at least $2bn for the poultry producer, and that did not surface.

As a result, talk in the market is the family has opted to shelve any sale plans for now.

Arkansas-based Tyson is the world’s second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef and pork after Brazil’s JBS.

The Camilleri family is the owner of Baiada. It has been in family hands since Celestino Baiada founded the business after moving to Australia from Malta in 1916 and branching out in NSW as a poultry farmer.

Today, the company is one of the country’s two largest poultry producers – the other is Inghams – operating throughout Australia with 5150 people and generating about $1.8bn of annual revenue.

Poultry producers face headwinds right now due to higher feed costs brought on by the war in Ukraine restricting grain exports, labour shortages, east coast floods and higher logistics costs linked to the pandemic.

Market experts say that private equity firms are interested in gaining exposure to companies producing protein amid a global food shortage, but they are targeting companies which can pass on price rises to customers.

Also challenging for poultry producers is that their main customers are supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles, and although contract agreements in the past have accommodated cost escalations, it is unclear whether that continues to be the case.

In its recent full-year result, Inghams warned customers it may increase prices to accommodate higher costs.