|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
From: TSS (216-119-163-253.ipset45.wt.net)
In Reply to: Buffalo Grill faces legal proceedings from the families of two victims of Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease posted by TSS on February 26, 2003 at 11:26 am:
Wednesday, 18 December, 2002, 15:11 GMT Shares in the Buffalo Grill chain of restuarants crashed by more than 90% on the news, before being suspended altogether. It was illegal to import any beef from Britain between 1996 and 2002 because of the threat of BSE, or so-called mad cow disease. The police investigation centres on the possible cause of four deaths in France from the fatal form of the disease that is passed onto humans by eating beef. Two of the four people are believed to have dined in the Buffalo Grill before developing the disease. Expansion plans A spokesman for the firm denied the restuarant had been selling any British beef. The firm's chairman and chief executive, Christian Picart, is amongst those arrested. Buffalo Grill has a total of 260 outlets, having opened 26 new restaurants this year. Its profits have been rising rapidly as part of its successful expansion drive into Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. It was hoping to double the number of its restaurants again within the next 10 years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2587357.stm French chain in CJD inquiry Jon Henley in Paris Shares in the French restaurant chain Buffalo Grill start trading in Paris today for the first time since December 18, when they were suspended amid allegations that the company had illegally imported British beef that could have been infected with the human form of mad cow disease. Analysts predicted the stock, suspended at €13.20, would take a hammering after the chain said on Monday that the publicity had knocked about €3.5m off revenues over the holiday fortnight. Four senior managers of the ranch-house style steakhouse chain and its purchasing subsidiary are under formal investigation - one step short of being charged - in a judicial inquiry into French deaths from the human form of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease . The investigating magistrate, Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, has reportedly established that two of the victims were frequent Buffalo Grill customers. The company, which has more than 150 restaurants in France and a further 50 elsewhere in Europe, has forcefully denied that it broke the French ban on British beef, which was only lifted in October last year. The company is suing an employee of Districoupe, the wholly-owned purchasing unit that supplies beef to all its restaurants, for slander and defamation over allegations made to Ms Bertella-Geffroy that Buffalo Grill imported and served British beef between 1996 and 2000. But two Districoupe managers are in custody, and Buffalo Grill's founder and supervisory board chairman, Christian Picard, and another senior executive both face possible charges of manslaughter, reckless endangering of customers' lives and aggravated consumer fraud. The company's case will not be helped by reports yesterday about an incriminating email written in September 2001 by a quality service manager at the company's headquarters to the head of the restaurants. It said: "This is a delivery of beef from the mad cow disease period. We need to get rid of it." http://www.guardian.co.uk/bse/article/0,2763,870556,00.html tss
|
