Although Karan Beef acknowledges that a June 2000 agreement it had with Irvin & Johnson (I&J) constituted a contravention of the Competition Act, it emphasised in a statement issued on Wednesday that it never intentionally contravened the law.
Karan Beef confirmed in the statement that it agreed with the Competition Commission to pay an administrative fine of R2.7m as settlement.
Although the Competition Commission found a particular clause in the agreement between Karan Beef an I&J to be anti-competitive, "at no stage did Karan Beef intentionally contravene the law as the agreement in no way limited the supply of products by Karan Beef to the food services industry and large wholesalers", Karan Beef said in the statement.
"A clause within the agreement stipulated Karan Beef would cease to supply under its own brand any contract products manufactured on behalf of I&J, to any retail chains," it said.
"At no point in time did Karan Beef produce or supply value added products other than burger patties to I&J. Karan Beef has confirmed that the I&J business constituted only 1.6% of the company’s turnover."
Karan Beef added that, while the plant in question was not viable and was closed in 2015, there were no job losses as all staff were absorbed into other Karan Beef operations.
Fin24 reported earlier that the Competition Commission said the two companies had been charged with dividing markets in the supply of processed beef products such as beef burger patties, steak sizzlers, crumbed beef steaklets, viennas and boerewors.
This referral follows an investigation that dates from September 2017 against the two firms.
The commission also asked the Competition Tribunal to impose an administrative penalty of 10% of I&J’s annual turnover.
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Pelo Agricultural Ventures announced recently that it was set to aquire a majority shareholding in Karan Beef for up to R5.2bn.
* Sign up to Fin24's top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER