| Industry | Food |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Hiestand Holdings AG |
| Successor | Aryzta AG. |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Defunct | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Based in Dublin, Ireland, operations in Europe and North America. |
| Parent | Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society Limited (until 1996) |
| Subsidiaries | Origin Enterprises (since 2007) |
IAWS Group plc was an international food and agribusiness group. The Group had lifestyle food operations in Ireland, the UK, France, the USA, and Canada serving over 50,000 customers. This lifestyle food business focuses on niche high-quality growth segments of the bakery and convenience food markets.
The Group had its roots in the Irish agricultural industry and continued to maintain a leadership position in Ireland and the UK in the areas of animal feed, fertiliser and marine protein.
IAWS Group plc was listed on the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges and was publicly quoted since 1988. It delisted at completion of business on 20 August 2008 following its merger with Hiestand Holding AG to found Aryzta AG. Aryzta commenced trading on the ISE and SWX Swiss Exchange on 22 August 2008. IAWS Group plc is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Aryzta AG.
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In North America, IAWS was mainly known for its Cuisine de France range of French-style bread-based products and La Brea Bakery known for their higher end of Artisan Breads. Otis Spunkmeyer was acquired by IAWS in November 2006.
In addition to Cuisine de France and La Brea Bakery, IAWS also operates and owns the following brands in Europe: Delice de France, Pierre's, Shamrock Foods, Roma, Carroll Cuisine, Hubert, and Coup de Pates.
The company was spun off from the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society (IAWS Co-Op) and floated on the Irish Stock Exchange in 1988. The company acquired most of the Society's then businesses, in the food, fertiliser, and agribusiness areas at that point. For most of the 1990s the company was managed by Philip Lynch, first as chief executive officer and later chairman. In 1996 the IAWS Co-Op took its shareholding in the company below 51% for the first time. Lynch retired as chairman in 2005, as the IAWS Co-Op (of which he is now chief executive) prepared to sell the last of its shares in the company and itself float on the stock exchange, as One51 plc. IAWS Co-op changed its name to One51 plc, but did not in the event float on the stock exchange.
On 5 June 2007, IAWS spun off the agribusiness activities - which had been themselves spun off from the IAWS Co-Op to form IAWS Group in 1988 - as a new company Origin Enterprises plc, listed on the Irish Enterprise Exchange and the Alternative Investment Market. Aryzta retains a majority shareholding in Origin.
In summer 2008 IAWS announced that it would merge with Swiss company Hiestand Holding AG to form Arzyta AG. The new company is incorporated in Switzerland and has listings on the SWX Swiss Exchange (the Zurich Stock Exchange) and the Irish Stock Exchange, but has dropped IAWS' listing on the London Stock Exchange. Trading in IAWS ceased on 20 August 2008 with Arzyta commencing trading on 22 August.
The formation of ARYZTA AG enabled the industrial merger of IAWS Group, plc and HIestand AG. The reason for this is that it is not legally possible to merger a EU company with a Swiss company. The creation of ARYZTA AG, a Swiss company, allowed HIestand AG to merger with ARYZTA AG while concurrently ARYZTA AG took over IAWS Group, plc, thereby facilitating this clever industrial merger between two frozen bakeries which had complimentary bakery offerings and capabilities and operated in complimentary part of Europe.