Foods group IAWS is likely to locate its next Canadian Cuisine de France bakery in Calgary, chief executive Mr Philip Lynch said yesterday.
Speaking after the IAWS a.g.m., Mr Lynch said the first €75 million (£59 million) bakery in Ontario, being developed in a joint venture with the Tim Hortons restaurant chain, was likely to be commissioned sometime between July and September and would begin to make a contribution in the 2002/03 financial year.
He said the two parties would decide on the next phase once that was completed. "But at this stage it looks like Calgary," he said.
Mr Lynch added that the La Brea bakery in New Jersey was expected to begin operations in May, saving on the substantial costs of transporting La Brea's bread from California.
IAWS owns 80 per cent of La Brea, the top producer of artisan and gourmet bread in the US, which has a presence in every state there. IAWS has the option to buy the remaining 20 per cent of La Brea over the next three to five years under an agreed formula.
Mr Lynch dismissed the possibility of a merger with Greencore and said: "Greencore doesn't need to merge with us and we don't need to merge with Greencore." Greencore and IAWS have recently agreed a rationalisation of their Irish flour milling interests, which has seen IAWS close its Bolands mill in Dublin and transfer its production to Greencore's Odlums mill.
IAWS has taken an initial 24.9 per cent stake in Odlums. Following the closure of Bolands, the high-profile site on Grand Canal Dock has been sold to property company Dunloe Ewart.
Last year, IAWS said it was involved in discussions with its 42 per cent shareholder, the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society, on the sale of the plc's riverside properties in Cork and Waterford to the society. Since then, a major development plan for Cork has seen five property developers approach IAWS about buying the 31-acre waterfront site in Cork, which is in the middle of the development area. "One of the developers will probably win the day," Mr Lynch said, adding that IAWS was also in discussions with the Office of Public Works on the sale of its waterfront site in Waterford.
