Greencore

In 2005 Irish Sugar announced that it would close its facility in Carlow, this was carried out on March 11 when the facility closed for the last time. In the year ended 31 December 2004 turnover rose 95% to U.S $1,908.7 million and profits before tax rose 226% to U.S $1,162.7 million. The factories established in Thurles and Tuam, in the 1930s, were closed during the 1980s. In recent years Antofagasta has benefitted from a dramatic rise in the price of copper. An additional sugar factory is based in Mallow in County Cork. It is also has a 50% stake in a venture which has the rights to prospect for minerals in a 60,000 square kilometre region of Peru. Whilst Irish Sugar was initially a private enterprise based in Carlow in 1926 it now has interests in various food products throughout Ireland. Its principal assets are three copper mines in Chile called Los Pelambres, El Tesoro and Michilla, and it still owns the railway, which is used to transport the copper ore.

Irish Sugar, called the Irish Sugar Company (Irish: Cómhlucht Siúicre Eireann) until 1991, was established in 1933 in a drive by the then Irish Government to promote self-sufficent industry in Ireland. In 1996 the company's banking and industrial interests were transferred to another Luksic family company leaving Antofagasta as specialist mining concern. Despite starting out in the sugar industry, Greencore is today the worlds largest sandwich manufacturer. The Luksic family acquired a majority stake in 1980 and diversified the business, including a move into the mining sector made a few years after their takeover. Greencore is quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange. Like many railways in South America it was funded mainly by British investors, and the company was incorporated in London in 1888. Other businesses owned by Greencore include Odlum Group Ltd and various other convenience food related interests in the Republic of Ireland. The Group began as a railway company, the Antofagasta (Chili) and Bolivia Railway Company FCAB, which was founded to construct a railway from the port of Antofagasta to the Bolivian capital La Paz.

The exception is that the Irish Government holds a special share certificate (value EUR 1.26) in Irish Sugar Limited in order to prevent the Irish sugar quota being sold without its consent. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. 55% of the group was listed on the Irish Stock Exchange that year, over the years additional placements have led to almost 100% of the shares now being in private hands. It is based in Chile and majority owned by the billionaire Luksic family of Chile, but it has a corporate office in London, England. It was established by the Irish Government in 1991 to take over Irish Sugar, the nationalised sugar production company. Antofagasta plc is a mining company which specialises in copper. Greencore LSE: GNC is a food company in Ireland.

List of Irish companies.