Heinz to sell interests in IOT |26 September 2005

This will happen as the international food processing company sells "its European sea food and frozen and chilled food businesses."

IOT's general manager David Bentley said this to Nation on Friday September 23 as his company celebrated victory as the safest workplace for the third consecutive year.

He also said that no buyer for the shares Heinz owns at IOT had been identified yet.

"The decision was reached only recently," he said, when asked if a Mauritian firm is poised to buy Heinz's shares.

Mr Bentley promised to give further details this week.

Heinz announced recently that it is considering trimming European operations and may sell off a host of brands for about $1 billion in a global move that will allow the company to focus on its ketchup and other core products.

For the third time in as many years, IOT emerged as the "Overall best winner" in the annual Safety Week competition organised by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Employment and its partners in the private sector.

Mr Bentley attributed IOT's victory to hard work.
"I'm very proud of our full time safety team who promote awareness, and all our employees for their awareness which has led us to win this award for the last three years," he said.

Seychelles Breweries Limited (SBL) took the second best overall place.

IOT and SBL also won the best and second best prizes in the manufacturing companies' category respectively, where Seychelles Marketing Board's tea factory took third place.

Representatives of the winning companies were presented with their awards during a ceremony which was held at the Exiles Club on Friday afternoon when Safety Week 2005 drew to a close.

In the construction companies category, Laxmanbhai's carpentry workshop came first, followed by Allied Builder and Harry Builders.

First prize in the workshops and garages category went to the Public Utilities Corporation, while second and third prizes went to Echo Car Hire and MEC Retreading.

In the hotels and tourism sector, Le Relax Hotel took first position and was followed by Coral Strand Hotel and Banyan Tree Resort.

Yummy was the best take away in its category and was followed by Hotpot and Pirates Arms while in the business services category, Mauritius Commercial Bank was deemed the safest workplace, Seychelles International Business Authority the second as the State Assurance Company of Seychelles took third place.

Merlin Communications, Air Seychelles and Hunt Deltel took the three prizes in the transport and communication sector in that order.

Megjhee Kakyangi won first prize in the trade and commerce category in which MPS Supermarket came second and Mohan Shopping Centre third.

Haircare Salon won first prize in the hairdressers category and Marlaine M. Salon got the second as Monique Hairstyle won third prize.

Also to receive prizes at the same ceremony were winners of the safety poster competition in which Samantha Coopoosamy of Seychelles Polytechnic won R400, being the only entrant in the post secondary category part of the contest.

Mitchell Meriton of Anse Royale school won R400 in the secondary category in which Kevin Harryba of the same school got R300 for coming second, and Anissa Chang Lai Seng of Independent school won third prize which earned her R200.

Two middle primary prizes went to Anse Etoile school students Jules Dugasse who won the R300 first prize reward and Wayne Adeline who won the R100 third prize.

Second prize in that category went to Daniel Volcy of Baie Lazare school who pocketed R200.

All lower primary category prizes went to Port Glaud school after Ted Laporte won the R300 first prize, Irinie Huang got the R200 second prize and Sophie Lesperance won the R100 third prize.

The Praslin Secondary School team won this year’s public speaking competition as that of Plaisance took second position and the Beau Vallon school group third position.

Jilianne Beaudoin of Praslin was judged the best main speaker of the competition.