| Company type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Fisheries, meatworks |
| Predecessor | Talley's Fisheries Ltd[1] |
| Founded | 1936 |
| Founder | Ivan Peter Talijancich[1] |
| Headquarters | Motueka ,New Zealand |
Number of locations | 31[2] (2016) |
| Subsidiaries | AFFCO Holdings,Hall's Group,Open Country Dairy |
| Website | Talley's Website |
Talley's Group Limited is a privately owned, New Zealand–basedagribusiness company that provides seafood, vegetable anddairy products.[1] Talley's was established in 1936 inMotueka by Ivan Peter Talijancich (later known as Ivan Talley) as a manufacturer of seafood, and has since grown into one of the largest agribusiness companies in New Zealand.[3][4]
The company'sPort Motueka site incorporates the Group Head Office, theSeafood Division and theDairy Division. TheVegetable Division began operations in 1978 at Motueka, but has since been relocated toBlenheim andAshburton.[5] The meat division,AFFCO Holdings, has been majority-owned by Talley's since the early 2000s.[3]
In 2016 Talley's diversified into coal mining in a joint purchase withBathurst Resources of formerSolid Energy mines atStockton,Rotowaro andMaramarua.[6]
The company's firstfishing vessel was theJanie Seddon. Built in the United Kingdom in 1903, theJanie Seddon was one of twosubmarine minelaying vessels brought out from England to New Zealand that same year. TheJanie Seddon was based inWellington, with its twin, theLady Roberts, based inAuckland. TheJanie Seddon was used in port duringWorld Wars I andII, and was also theexamination vessel during World War II.
In 1936 theJanie Seddon was purchased by Talley's Fisheries, and was their first vessel. Retired in 1955, she is now a rusting hulk on the Motueka foreshore, near the headquarters of Talley's.[7][8][9]
Talley's has courted controversy for its approach to industrial relations,[10][11][12][13][14] and has lobbied for curbs on trade unions and the watering down of occupational safety legislation.[15]
In 2015 Talley'slocked out union members. The workers were allowed back to work five months later in 2016 when the lock-out was ruled illegal. Talley's was ordered to pay $144,000 to the Meat Workers Union for repeated breaches of union access rights.[16][17][18]
Talley's has been found guilty on many occasions over health and safety breaches, including an incident where a fisherman was decapitated.[19][20][21][22]
Between 2018 and July 2021, Talley's Group faced formal enforcement actions 43 times fromWorkSafe New Zealand, including 22 health and safety improvement notices and a recommendation for prosecution.[23] In December 2020, was fined $334,000 when they pleaded guilty over two different breaches where employees injured their hands.[24]
In July 2021, Talley's threatened an injunction to preventOne News running a story on leaked photos showing potential health and safety breaches.[25] Talley's denied these claims, saying the photos were taken out of context.[25] Following further allegations, Talley's initiated an independent review of their health and safety policies and WorkSafe New Zealand announced they were taking a closer look at their operations.[23][26]
In October 2021, it was revealed that a femaleMinistry of Primary Industries (MPI) fisheries observer was repeatedly sexually harassed during a ten-week fishing trip.[27] This led to an industry-wide review of health and safety of the inspectors by MPI, and another private review undertaken by Talley's themselves.
In December 2021, Talley's Group filed a defamation suit against TVNZ for their reporting of the above health and safety issues, saying that TVNZ had made a "series of false and defamatory broadcasts."[28][29]
In June 2023, Talley's was fined $502,500 for the death of a worker in Affco's freezing works that was described by the presiding judge as a 'wholly avoidable event'.[30]
In 2016, Talley's invested in a 35% share of Wellington-based Bathurst Resources' Stockton mine on the West Coast, as well as the Rotowaro and Maramarua mines in the Waikato.[31] Talley’s is now the largest New Zealand investor in coal mining.[32]
A subsidiary of Talley's, Amaltal Fishing Co., was convicted and fined for trawling inHikurangi Marine Reserve in March 2019.[33] Amaltal Fishing Co. denied the charge, and Talley's denied responsibility.[34][35]
In January 2021,RNZ reported that Talley's was one of company's in New Zealand that regularly breached theirtrade waste consents.[36][37] In response, Talley's said that they were making substantial improvements towards "full compliance, all of the time" at theirMotueka plant.[38]
In June 2021, Talley's replaced their polystyrene packaging with cardboard packaging, saving an estimated 180,000 polystyrene containers from landfill each year.[39]
Also in June 2021 Talley's was criticised byGreenpeace and theAustralian Marine Conservation Society for their use ofbottom trawlers in their fishing business, citing the negative environmental impact.[40] Talley's said that they were responsive to these concerns, and worked with government bodies to only trawl areas with healthy fishy stocks.[40]
Another case found Amaltal breached the conditions of its fishing permit in 2018, when Amaltal Apollo bottom-trawled onLord Howe Rise, an area protected by theSouth Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation.[41]