NUTRI FEEDS

COMPANY PROFILE

2015

www.nutrifeeds.co.za | +27 (0) 56 344 2200

company profile

Maximising profit and production Editorial: Rebecca Bingley

The manufacture of animal feed in South Africa has become big business and this month, IndustrySA speaks to Fanie Schoeman, National Sales and Marketing Manager at NUTRI Feeds – a company that has successfully established a sterling reputation as a leading South African animal feed manufacturer and with its new and unique products on the market, NUTRI Feeds is helping customers to maximise both profit and production.

With the manufacturing of corn gluten feed first introduced in 1882, the late 19th century saw many changes, not least the start of the industrial-scale production of animal feeds. As advances in the benefits of both human and animal nutrition and that of a balanced diet became known, so did the importance of raw materials in processing methods.

The content quality of the fodder fed to our livestock on a daily basis is absolutely imperative – cattle, dairy and poultry in the care of farmers do not have the freedom to forage and so therefore mealtimes must be carefully planned, ensuring the necessary nutrients are provided and catered for.

What is fed to our livestock of course has important implications on the quality of the products – eggs, meat and milk - subsequently produced.

The leading South African animal feed

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manufacturer, NUTRI Feeds, has mills located in Viljoenskroon, Mafikeng, Bloemfontein, Botswana and Zambia. With a growing footprint, the company’s products are now distributed across 280 outlets in South Africa with exports to Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia.

DEEP ROOTS IN SOUTH AFRICA The roots of NUTRI Feeds – with its main activities currently focused on the developed South African animal feed – date back to 1949 as Sentraalwes Coop began its production of animal feed at Viljoenskroon under the brand, Senwesko Feeds, in its ‘A’ plant. Two decades later and a new modern feed mill is constructed – ‘B’ plant, in 1972.

Both feed plants underwent extensive upgrades in 1984, allowing both to reach a capacity of 40 tons per hour.

NUTRI Feeds

Through various acquisitions – the company bought Westa Feeds from Suidwes Coop in 1992 and became a private company in 1995 - Senwesko Feeds formed a joint venture with Vaalharts Feeds and Vryburg Feeds at Christiana (Midwes Feeds) in 1996, before becoming the sole owner of Midwes Feeds in Christiana just two years later.

From 2002 to 2004, Senwesko Feeds consolidated its production at Viljoenskroon and closed down Christiana before it was sold to its new owners in 2007 with Senwesko Feeds re-branding to NUTRI Feeds.

COUNTRY BIRDS HOLDINGS Today, NUTRI Feeds is part of Country Birds Holdings Ltd (CBH), which prides itself on providing South African families and households with high quality products. Executive Director

since March 2005, Kevin William James has an extensive and experienced poultry career which began with managing a small laying operation in Zimbabwe, before establishing Ross Breeders Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited and merging it with Crest Breeders International (Pvt) Limited. Using his achievements in the South African poultry industry, James set up Country Bird Holdings in 2005.

With a 100% shareholding in Supreme Poultry and NUTRI Feeds in South Africa, the group comprises of the Poultry South Africa and Animal Nutrition South Africa segments. CBH now owns 60% of the Botswana operations, 100% of the Zambian operations and 85% of the Zimbabwe operations to date. With operations now extending into Botswana, the DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Country Bird Holding’s strategy is to expand

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company profile

further into Africa, looking to seize opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa and existing growing markets.

Speaking with NUTRI Feeds’ National Sales and Marketing Manager, Fanie Schoeman, he explains to IndustrySA that the company’s current focus is on the South African animal feed market: “It is important for NUTRI Feed’s future development that it gains access to new, less-developed or developing markets with an above average growth potential.

“The Mafikeng and Viljoenskroon Mills are ideally situated within the maize producing belt of South Africa and in close proximity of the Senwes and NWK Silo storage facility.”

Schoeman joined NUTRI Feeds in 2009, working for the company for almost four years before moving to a different sector of the business for 18 months but now heads up the sales and marketing department.

Today, NUTRI Feeds retains its vision as a responsible leader within the South African animal feed industry, ensuring it complies with environmental initiatives. Becoming the first Animal Feed Manufacturer in the world to be both ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 certified, the company

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“It is important for NUTRI’s future development that it gains access to new, less-developed or developing markets with an above average growth potential”

NUTRI Feeds is also the first Animal Feed Manufacturer in South Africa to have attained OHSAS 18001 accreditation, helping to cement its strong position within the increasingly competitive South African animal feeds industry.

UNIQUE PRODUCTS With a wide range of unique and competitive animal feed produce now available, NUTRI Feeds holds an enviable position in the market by ensuring its products help to maximise both livestock production and profit for the client – largely achieved through unique manufacturing processes and careful procurement strategies.

This includes: optimal weight gain, optimal food digestion, absorption and conversion which helps to utilise the least possible feed to achieve maximum marketable weight, healthy bone and muscle growth from birth through to slaughter, maintaining a healthier rumen environment for the best production results and providing safe and easy mixing with minimum wastage.

One of the company’s new and innovative products - NUTRI Milk feeding program – is a concept within the dairy feed market which offers a range of customised feed options and solutions.

Truly unique, it helps to address the differences in feeding management, milk production potential and available roughage.

The fractional analysis process helps to establish the exact nutrient profile of farm-produced roughage amongst other feed sources which helps to provide exact customised feed formulation on the farm and more specifically, protein and energy quality and content. This helps to ensure maximum rumen microbe protein production.

The new concept will also allow for effective interaction between the energy and protein sources in the products. NUTRI Milk’s product line varies in crude protein percentage with protein content options ranging between 15% and 23%.

FURTHER EXPANSION With a vast history working within the poultry feeds industry in South Africa, Schoeman explains that for NUTRI Feeds to continue to grow successfully, it must increase its volumes following a number of strategies. For example, the possible synergies and the potential for cost reduction by either closing down excessive production capacity or by introducing single species production. The

possible increase in margins by further enhancing NUTRI’S differentiation strategy or the volume growth by entering new market areas with the NUTRI brand name.

“We must ensure that we regain lost broiler business through highly active and aggressive feed formulations and customer support and service and lastly, to regain lost ruminant business through improved product quality and visible quality control and follow up procedures (ruminant pellet quality).”

Looking to gain access into new and developing markets, Schoeman explains the company has identified a number of future growth potential areas which includes competing for external broiler business in the market, acquisitions or mergers with competitors and increasing high margin ruminant volumes.

“The Zambia mill, together with the mill in Botswana, represents an excellent base for future expansion and growth in these lucrative markets,” explains Schoeman. “The

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company profile

“The Zambia Mill together with the mill in Botswana represents an excellent base for future expansion and growth in these lucrative markets” PAGE 6

NUTRI challenge will be to minimize the risks associated with these markets (currency risk, raw materials) respectively and to transfer mill management and formulation skills to these markets.”

CONTINUED SUCCESS A s t ron g re g i on a l pl a ye r i n S out h Afri c a , Sc h oe m a n e x pl a i n s t h a t l ook i n g t o t h e fut ure , N U T R I Fe e ds i s l ook i n g t o s us t a i n thi s pos i t i on a n d dom i n a t e e x i s t i n g re g i on a l are a s . “ I n t h e l a s t fe w ye a rs , t h e re h a v e be e n a num be r of s m a l l e r c om pa n i e s t h a t h a v e s t a rt e d suppl yi n g t h e s e a re a s . T h e re a s on for t h a t i s tha t t ra n s port be c a m e v e ry e x pe n s i v e due t o the fue l pri c e s , s o t h e bi g g e r pl a ye rs ope ra t i n g

NUTRI Feeds

i n t he cities co u ld not re ach the outag e are as i n S ou th Af rica. So the compe tition be came qu i t e s tro n g an d w e saw the opportunity in t h a t – w e s u p p ly the pe ople locate d in the m o r e ru ral areas and those in the ope n marke t t o o so th at’s ho w w e g re w the ope n marke t.”

Growing the business steadily over the last few years since it was established, NUTRI Feeds has successfully reached and is now running at full plant capacity, not only supplying in-house business but operating within the open market too – “this gives an indication of how well our products are working,” adds Schoeman.

NUTRI Feeds has also concentrated heavily on staff development and training, especially

in the last six months, helping the business to successfully move forward and grow regionally.

So, what can much of this company’s success be attributed to? With roots dating back over five decades and a strong presence in South Africa in recent years since its inception, Schoeman explains: “Much of our success can be attributed to the quality of the products we produce. We don’t sell products on price but on what it can do for you – so you look at what income you can produce from it. We have a very cost effective product that we sell to customers which is different to companies that just go out and sell a product. Customer service is also very important to us, together with the quality products that we continue to produce.”

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