Farmer fury as mart deal falls through

HAVING raised nearly €300,000 through a share initiative, negotiations by a local group to purchase and reopen Sixmilebridge livestock mart have fallen through after the vendors, Golden Vale Marts, rejected their bid.

And this week GVM group chief executive, PJ Buckley revealed the group will have to splash more cash if they hope to acquire the property. GVM, he added, has received a number of expressions of interest in the vacant site at Ballysheen and the bid by the Sixmilebridge and District Farmers Group “didn’t match expectations”.
“They are not the highest bidders and if you are selling a property normally, you will sell to the highest bidder. We have no specific timeframe to close a deal on the mart site in Sixmilebridge.
“We have different expressions of interest and we are considering them at the moment,” he told The Clare Champion.
According to a spokesman for the Sixmilebridge and District Farmers Group, set up following the sudden closure of the mart last December, they are “dismayed and frustrated” by the actions of the GVM Group to reject their improved offer of €300,000, up from an initial bid of €230,000, without outlining the real reasons why.
They claim that GVM’s reluctance to close a deal and decision to shelve the sale for the foreseeable future is to protect existing trade at their Kilmallock-operated mart.
“GVM will be more aware than most that if the mart is to be a viable proposition then time is of the essence, yet they continue to procrastinate.
“Is continued closure of the Sixmilebridge mart more important than rewarding the loyalty of the community who supported the GVM Group for so long?” the spokesperson declared.
When this allegation was put to Mr Buckley, he replied, “That’s their view but they haven’t matched our expectations of price and theirs is not the highest offer”.
In light of the latest development, a meeting was held in Sixmilebridge this week and community activist, Fr Harry Bohan said the message from the meeting was that with or without the existing GVM site, a need exists to re-establish a mart facility in Sixmilebridge.
“Once more we are experiencing big business placing more emphasis on their profit margin than on the needs of their customers. The future lies in people taking control of their own destiny by rebuilding their local economies through local ownership.
“Must we still watch idly from the sidelines while our interests are determined by board meetings and profit and loss margins?” he asked.
Last December, the GVM Group placed the property, located on a 4.5 acre site on the Newmarket Road, up for sale on the open market and immediately a campaign was launched to set up a local co-operative society to purchase the mart and reopen the facility for weekly sales.
Such a situation prevailed when the mart first opened for business in 1973. It was founded by a group of local businessmen and traded as Bunratty Farmers Export Mart. The mart subsequently changed hands in 1986, when purchased by the Golden Vale Co-operative group.
Support for the shares venture spanned across the border into County Limerick, as the fundraising campaign gathered momentum. To date, over 500 shares at €500 a share have been sold.
“When people on the ground went looking for financial support from their respective communities they were astonished to find that not only was there an unwavering appetite among the farming community for the restoration of the mart but there was total support from the non-farming communities.
“In tandem with this exhaustive collection and canvassing campaign, negotiation was also taking place with GVM and a generous final offer of €300,000 was made to them for the property. However, GVM has deferred giving a decision on the sale of the property for another unspecified period of time.
“The farming community are dismayed and frustrated at the lack of urgency being shown to them, given that these very people supported GVM for the past 25 years. Continued closure of Sixmilebridge mart has additional adverse consequences for the local economy,” the spokesman said.