Dawn Meats lines up 65% stake in NZ’s largest lamb processor

Irish meat processor Dawn Meats, which trades as Dunbia in the UK, is set to acquire a 65% stake in Alliance Group, New Zealand’s largest processor and exporter of sheepmeat.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, will see Dawn Meats become its “preferred long-term strategic partner” and could help Alliance Group further develop its lamb exports to the UK and mainland Europe.

See also: AHDB partners with French butchers to increase lamb exports

Dawn Meats will provide NZ$250m (£110m) of investment for its stake in the business as part of a recapitalisation package, after Alliance Group ran into funding problems with its bankers.

Alliance Group is a farmer owned co-operative with roughly 4,300 shareholders, which operates six meat processing sites in New Zealand.

Dawn Meats and Dunbia process about 1m cattle and 3.5m sheep annually across 24 sites.

Alliance Group chairman Mark Wynne said:

“With Dawn Meats’ balance sheet power, strength in beef and market access across the UK and Europe, and Alliance’s strength in lamb and market access across China, wider Asia and North America, there are significant commercial and operational synergies at stake.”

Niall Browne, chief executive of Dawn Meats, said:

“Having the ability to grow in partnership with some of New Zealand’s leading farmers and create year-round supply for our customers between the northern and southern Hemispheres is an opportunity we are deeply committed to and take very seriously.

“Our ‘can do’, keep-it-simple and commonsense culture aligns naturally with Alliance.

“The opportunity here is to create a dynamic industry competitor with a unique combination of customer relationships, resources, skills, routes to market and industry knowledge that will give us a powerful competitive edge, both locally and globally.”

Market access

New Zealand has maintained a foothold in the UK market for decades, and the 2022 UK-New Zealand trade agreement established quotas that increase tariff-free access each year.

The UK imported more than £100m worth of sheepmeat from New Zealand in the first five months of 2025, including roughly 15,000t of frozen meat, 2,000t of fresh cuts, and 3,000t of offal.

Farming groups have warned that given Dawn Meats’ strong relationships with customers in Europe; it is inevitable the deal will streamline supply chains between New Zealand and the UK.

There are also expectations that larger cuts of lamb could be brought over for further processing at UK sites before being sold across European markets.

One industry source told Farmers Weekly that New Zealand already had strong market access to the UK, and the current tariff-free quotas offered a huge amount of space to meet demand, putting pressure on the domestic industry.

The National Sheep Association (NSA) identified issues around imports standards, seasonal supply and a declining domestic sheep flock, but welcomed the resilience the deal would bring to the meat processing sector.

An NSA spokesman said: “Above all, imported lamb must meet UK environmental, animal health and welfare standards to be fair to livestock, farmers and shoppers.

“How New Zealand imports can be used by importers to take the extreme highs out of the UK lamb price seen in some years will need monitoring, as it could pose questions to store lamb finishing.”