A major landmark business transaction was finalized under the radar recently when the local operations of Rainbow Chickens in Tzaneen, were acquired by local entrepreneurs.
As of September 1, Rainbow Chickens locally officially started operating again as Bushvalley Chickens, owned by Ryall Chicken Producers, which is owned by Ian Preece, Shane Budd, Leon (Pilot) de Villiers, Johan Lombard and Alister Swartz.
“We were previously supplying chickens to the Rainbow abattoir locally and when the opportunity to acquire the Rainbow operations in the area came up we considered it in our best interest to expand our investment and we now look forward to the future with great excitement and a lot of new ideas,” Preece told the HERALD in an interview.
Read: TZANEEN: Boere die hoenders in oor die hoenders want ‘hulle ry die pad moer toe’
De Villiers was also involved with then owner Ant Rogers of Bushvalley Chickens before it was acquired by Rainbow in September 2011 in a transaction worth around R100million.
Preece confirmed that no job losses will occur due to the take-over and production should also remain constant for the time being.
This acquisition is generally very good news for the local economy.
It is a well-known fact that local entrepreneurs invest considerably more in local economies than corporates do.
Rainbow was also limited by national factors which do not play such a major role in the local economy.
Read: Avian flu: What you need to know
