After a number of adjournments, the required majority of creditors of Progress Milling on Monday voted to adopt the business rescue plan (BRP) presented by a consortium with a vested interest in the milling business environment.
The consortium is now the new owners of Progress Milling and will for the near future, continue with the business under the same name and style. Creditors will be paid by agreement and under conditions reflected in the BRP. Small scale farmers will also receive their claims in the normal course of business.
This intervention ended the uncertainty that creditors and employees of the company had to live with since March when the directors of A M Alberts (Pty) Ltd that is operating as Progress Milling declared that the business is in distress and requested the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission to place the business under business rescue and approve the appointment of Mark Poole and Eric Sono as business rescue practitioners.
The positions of all employees of Progress Milling are secured and the BRP makes provision for a salary increase at the rate of the current Consumer Price Index plus 1%. All conditions of employment as on 11 March 2016 will also remain in place.
Poole and Sono developed a BRP that was presented to creditors but the required 75% support could not be obtained since an alternative BRP was filed by a consortium on 20 July shortly before the meeting and a primary creditor did not vote in favour of the alternative BRP.
After much deliberation and negotiations with the dissenting creditor, the consortium comprising Louis Dreyfus Commodities Africa (Pty) Ltd, Il Molino CC and DH Brothers Industries (Pty) Ltd, trading as Willowton filed a final BRP that was adopted on Monday after the business rescue practitioners resigned. The finally adopted BRP reflects that remuneration and expenses paid to Poole and Sono amounted to just under R7 million.
After the meeting, Progress Milling Corporate Communications Director Masenya Masenya said to Polokwane Observer that he was very excited about the future of the company.
“The new Progress Milling will ensure that technology and skills are injected in the economy. Youth, women and people with disabilities are going to be considered for participation in the new Progress Milling programmes. We are aware that retail and grain production are in decline and we wish to argue that the resources which are locked in the public sector are not being put to better usage as there are buildings which are remaining as white elephants throughout the province. We will ensure that those buildings are either used as cooperatives or for enterprise development as we do not believe in exporting money due to lack of raw material in the province,” Masenya said and added that it is possible to elevate the small scale farmers to commercial farmers if the assistance and cooperation of the public sector could be sourced.
Story and photos: BARRY VILJOEN
>>barryv.observer@gmail.com
Featured photo: Business Rescue Practitioners Mark Poole and Eric Sono with their attorney, Jan Reitz, left, deal with the business rescue plan for Progress Milling.
