Founded in 1899, Sharpes Stock Feeds is proudlycelebrating 125 years of business. Today, Sharpes Stock Feeds trades as Sharpes Farm Feeds.
From humble beginnings in Petone in 1899, Sharpeshas grown alongside NewZealand’sagriculture to become aleader in nutritious animal feed.
Owned by the Orsborn family since 1937, multiple generationsof Orsborn’s remain committed to the same values of quality, consistency, service and innovation.This feature showcases those values and the innovation of the Orsborn family in serving the farming community.
FROM TOP: SharpesinPetone,1899to1947. Sharpesre-situated in LowerHutt, 1947 to 1961. The Sharpesplant in East Taratahi,2024.
The Orsbornfamilyatthe SharpesStock Feed plant. From left,Olivia, William, Sam, Sara, Alastair,Nickyand Lucy.
THE LEGACY
Leaving schoolaged 17 in 1918, Alan Orsbornstartedout working forWright Stephensons Stock andStation (nowPGG Wrightson),becoming awell known grain and seed broker.Selling seeds to John Sharpe,Alan wasquick to tell John thatifeverhewantedtosell his business,then Alan wascertainly interestedinpurchasing it.
From 1937 to 2024, the Orsbornfamily has continued to prioritise the qualityofits products,the soundnessofthe business,and the needs of the farming community
Both travelled and worked overseas,renewing their friendship when they got back to New Zealand.Marriage soon followed.
Firstloadofgrain from Orsborn’s farm into their ownsilo,1973.
Theopportunitycame in 1937, with funds guaranteed by Alan’s father-in-law. Abook about Petone,published in 1940, records:
“Everyone knew John Sharpeas the soul of honesty and many aman in the Hutt Valley today canlookback with gratitude for help received and advicegiven by the proprietor of the grain store. …The old traditions are being followedbythe new and energetic owner.The storeis still noted for the high qualityof its grain and producewhich is distributed through the Hutt Valley.”
“Fromthe beginning,we’ve been asmall and nimble family-owned business,” says Alan’s son Alastair,“and we remain thattoday.”
Turning 79 this week,Alastair has memories of working forhis father during school holidays. On leaving school in 1962, Alastair worked in sheep and beef farming beforegoing to Massey University. After managing farms and doing afew seasons of shearing, Alastair married Nickyin1971. They’d first met and become friends when Alastair wasat Massey Universityand Nicky wasinPalmerston North, training to become anurse
By 1972, Alastair wasready to join his father and older brother,Ian, in the Sharpes firm. Ian had joined the business in the late 1950s with an accounting background Formorethan 40 years,Ian ran Sharpes from LowerHutt, and wasincharge of doing the books with his wifePaddy.
When Alastair came on board, he ranthe farmand grew the stockfeed business,which allowedhim to be hands-on. Alastair says the combination of Ian in charge of the books and Alastair on the farm, was agood one “Officeand book work was not my forté.”
Alan Orsbornis on theleft
Loyalty through change
Being nimble,Sharpes has alwaysbeen able to adapt with the times Until the late 1950s,the firmhad operated both abulk storeand retail shops selling garden plants,fertilisers and hardware.
With the arrivalofgarden centres, however, Sharpes refocused on the grain, seed and animal feed needs of farmers.Alan stepped aside from the business in the late ‘60s but still “turned up to open the mail”. Ian stepped in to take over the reins of running the
business.When Alastair and Nickymarried,Sharpes bought an 89 hectarefarm(since expanded to 330 hectares) in the grain growing districtofEast Taratahi-Carterton. Alastair and his wifeNickymoved onto the farmin1973. Thefirst grain silo wasbuilt thatsame year,the second waserected in 1974, and the mill followedin1975. Thefirst feed wasproduced from Cartertonand,bythe mid-1980s,the mill operations in LowerHutt were closed. Alastair boughtout hisbrother in 2001 andwentitalone fora while,and his son Samjoined Sharpes in theearly-2010s
KevinPearse, longest serving Sharpes’ employee
Thefarmprovides some of its owngrain forthe feed mill,but most is sourcedfromother local farms and stored in silos.Alastair points out thatchallenges with grain supply can be createdby the ups and downs of the dairy industry-ifdairyconsumes alot of grain, forexample, therecan be ashortagetomeet other demands.
“One of the advantages for Sharpes is thatour business can importgrain, under strict conditions,whereas farmers aren’t able to do that. Customers can dependonSharpes fortheir supply of stockfeed.”
At onetime,Sharpes was in competition with seven other feed mills in the region. Eventually,the others each foundtheir businesses to be unprofitable and closed down, leaving Sharpes to specialise in its high nutrition product. Today, the companyisone of akind
Andthree generations of the Orsbornfamily have owned and nurtured this business to serve farms thathavealso handed down ownership to their third or even fourth generations
“We’ve growntogether,”Alastair says.“Andwewouldn’t be here todaywithout loyalcustomers.”
Not only areSharpes’customers loyal. Many of the staffhave been with the company fordecades.
Kevin Pearse has been therefor 35 years,for example.Hedrives Sharpes’trucks andisa man of manytalents.Ian Shields,with 22 years at Sharpes,runs the mill.Bevin Percylooks after dispatch and gets involved in the operation of the mill; he has been with the companyfor 15 years.Sally Smithand Lisa Masters areincharge of the office,managing customer calls and orders.Sally has been with Sharpes for10years and Lisa forseven. Sally’s husband,Neil, managesthe Orsborn’sfarm.
CELEBRATING 125YEARS
THREE GENERATIONS
SamOrsbornsayshe wasbornand bred in the house thathenow lives in with wife Sara and their children William, Lucy,and Olivia. The house is only 50 metres from the feed mill,sohis involvementinthe farm and the feed mill started at ayoung age “Therewas no expectation that Samwould jointhe Sharpes’ business,”Alastair says.“But he became involved through his interest in financial andIT systems,and things developed from there.”
After15years as apartner in (whatisnow)Baker Ag,Sam wasready to join Sharpes,
bringing with him his handson consultancyworkwith high performancefarmers, his interest in automation and technology to driveefficiencies, and hisunderstanding of financial systems
“Sam built asystemfor managing accounts, inventoryand production that revolutionisedour business,” Alastair says.“It dovetailed with Xero accounting softwareand gave us aseamless waytohave all the data integrated,right throughtoinvoicing.”
Samand Sara (nee Coop)met inthe early2000s and married in2008. Broughtupinthe Mahia Peninsula in Hawke’s Bayonher family sheepand beef property Okepuha Station, Sara had already obtained an agricultural business degree as well as apostgraduate qualification in marketing.She
had been amanagementcadet forRichmond Meat Company straightout of university, and held executiveroles marketing and selling meataround the globe.Hitching her wagon to Sam’sled her to set up her own marketing consultancytobegin with, picking up someofthe marketing forSharpes.That part-time role soon grew to become full-time
Samcredits Sharpes’success to his father’scustomer focus, adaptabilityand business acumen as well as,more recently,tohis wife’smarketing skills.Sharpes Stock Feeds has growninthe last fewyears, moving from alocal Wairarapa focus to nowservicing farming communities across the lower and easterndistricts of the North Island
TheSharpes’ethos is about doing whatitdoes well,tonever
of Orsbornfamily
over commit and under deliver, and to continually find ways to improveefficiencyand keep costs down.
As aniche firmwithlow margins, multiple generations of the Orsbornfamily have understood the importanceofguarding the Sharpes’marketsharewithout
attempting to stretch the firm toothin. Theaim has always been to provide better value for asolid base of clients rather than high-profile marketing.
“Our innovativesystems and plant, ourqualityproduct, and our service,”Sam says,“areall focused around our clients.”
Alastair,Sara, and Sam Orsbornwith Patchthe Dog and some of Sharpes’ bags of feed
Stockfeed from Sharpes
In the late 19TH and early 20TH centuries,Sharpes primarily focused on produceand on handmixed feed forboth the early horse-drawn transportindustry and poultry. By 1947, the business had graduatedtousing a one-ton mixer.
From 1975, poultryand pigs formed the basis of its business,but the call forpig feed declined dramatically over the next decade.Asfarming moved, so toodid Sharpes Stock Feeds,rising and falling on the prosperityofthe land Alastair also tried various alternativecrops until the late 1980s including canary seeds, millet,and sunflowerseeds -all
of them “useful extras”atthat pointintime
Today, the firmproduces about23,000 tonnes of feed each year:65% of which is for poultry, 20% forcalves,and the remaining 15% fordairy, rabbit, giraffe,pheasant, quail,fish, horse,deer,pig,pet miceand rats,and others
“Our business is mostly built on feed designed to producethe humble egg -rightfrom1899,”
Alastair says.And the family has used everybit of kiwi ingenuity in the process.Herecalls,for example,thathis father Alan wasone of the first in the region to handle bulk wheat.
“Itcame straightoffthe boats or rail wagons onto ourtruck Dadhad to put atrolley jack under the axle to tip the grain off the truck.”
AllSharpes’stockfeed is made usingrecipesdesigned by NutritechInternational to cater
to each animal’s nutritional requirements.Nutritech’s recipes arecomposed of a mix of grains includinglocally sourcedwheat, barley,and maize, together withvitamins, minerals and -insomeofthe recipes -delicious things like molasses.It’sall about using the best rawmaterials.
“Everything in our feed is highquality, natural,and fresh,”Sara says.“Andwedonot use palm kernel. It is notdesigned to be eatenbyanimals.”
About half of Sharpes’products arebagged to be sold through merchantstofarmersand lifestylers,with the other half sold directly to large commercial poultryand pig farms
Accuraterecording is a crucial partofthe business giventhe large number of different ingredients involved in producing feed formany
differentanimals,sothe entireoperation is controlled by touch screen computer monitors.And the bags are housed in soaring galvanised steel warehouses,imported from China.
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Businesses with lowmargins such as Sharpes StockFeeds can only survive and thriveinthe food industrywhen all the pieces of the puzzle fit,including having agreat productthatmeets the demandsofclients,rigorous financial management, loyalcustomers,and acomprehensiveunderstanding of the specialised niche in which they operate.
But there’salsosomething else -innovation and adaptation in response to changing environments,tobeableto drivecosts down.
Alastair and Samtalk about the ‘bottlenecks’you see in any business and howefficiencies can be gained by addressing them. “You can never get rid of the bottlenecks entirely,” Samsays, “but youcan shift them around and keep making incremental improvements.”
Sacks &silos
An early example of finding efficiencies relatestowhen Alan had to laboriously sew hessiansacks by hand for Sharpes’stockfeed.Inthe late 1950s,heinvestedinasewing machine -much moreefficient.
Another example of being efficientcame in 1973 when Alastair situatedthe Sharpes’ feed mill andgrain silos right in the middle of grain country,
including its ownhomegrown grain, therebyreducing freight costs.In2024, abig project is underwaytoreplacethose original silos with new,fully automatedsilos thatoffer improvedair flow, monitoring forbugs,and improved quality of grain. Thenew silos come with an additional intake system, therebyremoving the previous bottleneck caused by grain cominginand going out using the same elevator
Samsays, “we’re constantly reinvesting inside the business to innovateand improve efficiency.”Another example of good business practice is Sharpes’purchase of its ownfreighttrucks and trailer units to supplementits use of other freightcompanies. As a business strategy,this is known as ‘vertical integration’whereby abusiness takes ownership of multiple stages of its supply chain.
“Freightisahuge cost,”Sam says.“Anything we can do to help bring thatcost down is good newsfor customers.”
Futureproofedplant
When Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow’s disease) became apparent overseas,New Zealand’s regulatory environmentwas amended to prohibit the feeding of ruminantproteins to ruminant animals.In2006, Alastair spearheaded amajor upgradeand future-proofing of his plantand machinery.Ahuge investmentofcapital wasmade in 2006 to purchase equipment capable of allowing twototally separate production lines to run under the same roof
Products thatincluded meat and bone meal and blood meal (ruminantprotein) could continue to be produced formonogastricanimalslike poultryand pigs,while the second production line focused on feeds using only vegetable proteins
“Itmeans we can producecalf and stock feeds,aswell as pig and poultryfeeds, all underthe sameroof,”saysSam.Alastair
recalls fighting “tooth andnail” to avoid having to build an entirely separatemill; afight thatpaid off
State-of-theartbagging
One of Sharpes’competitive advantages is its versatilityin being able to swap between bigger and smaller runs of feed, depending on clientrequests
Alastair says Sharpes can provide 10 kilos or 10 tonnes, depending on the customer’s needs
Sometime in 2017, acustomer askedifSharpes could produce 4,000 tonnes of 10 kilo bags of stockfeed,onthe regular,and Alastair remembered Concetti. More than 30 years before, Alastair had attended atrade showinHolland and viewed apacking plantmade by
FARLEFT:Touch screen innovation installedat Sharpesin2006. Pictured here being used by IanShields.LEFT: The second production line, introducedin2006
the Italian family-owned manufacturing company
Concetti.Hewas impressed and intrigued by it,but never thoughtSharpes would be big enough to ever warrant purchasing such abeauty.
Thestate-of-the-artpacking plant, sincepurchased and installed,both reduces labour and ensuresthe accuracyand qualityofthe Sharpes products, everytime.Itisprogrammed to pick up abag (paper or plastic, and of varying sizes) and then fill them with apre-weighed amountofproductbefore sealing the bag using aheat
CELEBRATING 125YEARS
Fiftybags of up to 20kg in weightare then placed neatly on apalletwhich is shrinkwrapped to make it fully waterproof.Sam said the new technology allowedthem to produce“twicethe throughput with half thelabour”.
Therehavebeen other efficiencies andenvironmental savings,too,with the new shrink wrap system reducing the amountofplastic used by about 50%. Being fully automated andenclosed in a cage,the new planthas also improved health and safety.
In the wordsofTrevorMitford, Area Manager of Concetti for Australia and NewZealand:
“The original meeting with Concetti took placeyears ago in Europe,highlighting the foresight of the Orsborns, owners of Sharpes StockFeeds They recognised that Italian packaging and palletising technology wasthe ideal solution for the evolution of the business
“Relying on advanced international technology wasa challenge butthe Orsborn family embraced it with determination. They overcame extraordinary
Alastair Orsborn with some of Sharpes’ early dockets
obstacles including the installation during the pandemic when closed borders made it impossible for our technicians to travel.Itisthanks to the vision of the companyand its courage to tackle new challenges, that Sharpes StockFeeds now celebrates 125 years of success and resilience.”
With Sara’s prompting,Sharpes also movedtobiodegradable bags forits 10kg lifestyle range of feeds.These bags aremade from paper with cotton thread.Infact, all Sharpes’ 10kg and 20kg bags arenow fully recyclable
Financial & IT systems
Alastair reckons thathe budgeted by the seatofhis pants in the days beforeSam broughtfinancial and technical know-howintothe business
“Thereissomuch data in the business thatweneed to make use of in our decision-making, particularly data relating to inventoryand finances.As aresult of Sam’sconstant developmentofsystems,we can extractthe most useful data when we need it,wecan
sealantor sewing machine
Alastair and Sam Orsbornbythe bagging plant
MeetinginNew Zealand with Concetti reps priortoSharpes contractingthem
Sharpes’bookwork from the 1970s
make decisions moreeasily, and no one drowns in data or paper.”
Another example of Sharpes’ nimblenessasasmall business wasdemonstrated when,the dayafter the Covid lockdown, Sara launched aSharpes Shopify account. “Itwas an immediate success,”Alastair says.“We nowdispatchShopify parcelorders New Zealandwide,every day. Twohighly popular Shopify orders are duck feed and ratand micenuts.”
In the spirit of customer support, efficiencyand
technologicaladvances,Sam andSaraalso launched a mobile Sharpes’App,making it easier forfarmers to order their feed
“Farmers can order at nightor from themiddleoftheir calf pen,”Sara said.“It’s all about makingiteasierfor them, savingthem from having to make aphone call when they’reworking or outsideof business hours.”
TheApp alertsfarmers when anorder hasbeen dispatched, andallows farmers to easily see their purchase history forease ofordering.
Theidea came from previously developing amobile Appfor another business thatSam and Sara founded tenyears ago, called MyTrucking.Read on to learnabout My Trucking
MyTrucking: builton innovation
MyTrucking celebrated itsten year milestone in April2024.
To begin with, MyTrucking wasaconcept developed by Samwith afriend who was
looking to buy asmall trucking company. TheMyTrucking App wasbased on similar principles to the systems Samoriginally developed forSharpes.Then he madeitreally secureand put it in the cloud.
“Wejust knew therewas a differentway to do things in the rural transportindustry,” Samsays. “Thereare lots of systems outthere,”Sam says, “but therewasn’t anything affordable and accessible forsmaller rural trucking companies.MyTrucking is designed foranyone with between twoand 100 trucks.”
Today, MyTrucking comprises ateam of 25 staff working from an office on the Orsborn farm, together with one staff member up North, and two situatedinAustralia. Theteam workswith 800 transport businesses across,mainly, New Zealand,Australia, and the UK.
MyTrucking is another example of the Orsborndrive to increase the efficiencyofbusinesses in the food and fibre industry, one innovation and technological improvementatatime
CELEBRATING 125YEARS
ITTAKES AVILLAGE
Ken& Steph
Ken and Steph Norman from Rexdale Farming have fed their bull calves with feed from Sharpes sincethe beginning of theirjourney rearing calves, 21 years ago.
Steph grew up in Wairarapa andher parentsfarmed.She met Ken (who’d grown up on afarminSouth Africa) on the global shearing circuit.Buying afarmin2008 close to Steph’s family,inthe Tararua district, wasinevitable
“We’ve sincebought neighbouring properties and nowlease an additional 160 hectaresaswell,”Ken says
Rexdale Farming nowcovers about 780 hectares in the Mangamairedistrict, just 10 minutes south of Pahiatua. Thefarmruns about 7,200 stock units,30% of whichare bullsthatSteph and Ken rear from calves
“Sharpes Stock Feedsoffers abrilliant product,”Ken says “Wecan purchase it in 20kg bags,which suits the size of our operation, and we can pre-order on the App. No fuss Everyone at Sharpes is so easy to deal with -they’refriendly and accommodating,and they quickly sortout anyproblems.”
Steph says thatwhatreally sealed the deal forRexdale Farming’s decision to only
use Sharpes Stock Feeds was “when we were approached by alarge feed companythat asked us to participate in a feed flavour trial.Therewas toffeeand caramel and all sorts of differenttastes.Wehad to weigh out howmuch the calves ateofwhich flavour,and keep a track of calf growth.”
Steph and Ken decided to introduceSharpes feed into the trial too, as asortofcontrol
“The calves cleaned up the Sharpes meal and barely touched the other feed when they had achoice,”Steph recalls.“Theother company asked us to take the Sharpes feed out of the trial,because it wasmucking up the results.”
Ken says thatonceSharpes’ feed wasremoved, “ittook a couple of weeks forthe calves to get back to eating the volume they’d been eating of
Sharpes’feed.”Andvolume is critical forthe weightgain of calves.Healso comments on the responsiveness of Sharpes Stock Feeds.
“Beforethe companyhad its owntrucks,I’d just let them know whatImightneed going forwardand when atruck was comingthrough, it would drop my order off -maybe oncea month. NowSharpes has its owntrucks,Iorder on the Appand,beforeyou know it,a truck arrives.”
Ken and Steph agreeabout the high qualityproductand greatservicefromSharpes Stock Feeds
Chris Martin
Chris Martin from Wairarapa Eggs wasbornand bred in Wairarapa.
Chris and his wifetook over his in-laws’Mastertonfarmabout 12 years ago.“My in-laws had farmed poultryfor 35 years,” Chris says,“turning their earlier caged farmintoafreerange venturein2000.”
When the Martins took over the farminabout 2012, ithad prettymuch beenfarmed out They made the decision to close the Mastertonfarmdown and purchase land in Chester Road,onwhich they built a bespoke free range egg farm.
“Wedesigned our new farm based on howthe birds would use the land.Wealso carefully placed structures like our feed silos so thattrucks had easy access.Sharpes Stock Feeds had ahand in helping us with thatdesignprocess,and has alwaysbeen our feed provider of choice.”
Previously,Chris’s in-laws had boughttheir poultryfeed from Sharpes so therelationship has strengthened over 40 or more years.Back in the daywhen therewas aquota system for eggs,therewas acost benefit to purchasing feed locally and
Sharpes wasthe only millin the region.
“Then therewas the mad cowscareand the Orsborn’s redeveloped the Sharpes’ feed system so the business could carry on providing high qualityfeed forpoultry
while being able to separately make feed forother animals That wasaunique move,and meantthatSharpes became a specialist poultry provider.The relationship between Sharpes Stock Feeds and Wairarapa Eggs wasconsolidated.”
Chris says thatfeed manufacturing has become big and thereisthe option to go elsewhere, but Wairarapa Eggs has no incentiveto look elsewhere.
“For astart,because the Orsborn’s have made so many efficiencies at the Sharpes’mill, they can competeonprice withthe big boys.”AndSharpes is head and shoulders above others in so manyother ways.
“The Orsbornfamily runs a small and agile business which allows a‘farmer next door’ approach thatthe biggerboys can’t copy.”Chris givesthe exampleofwhen Wairarapa Eggs had to emptyout afeed silo formaintenance. As soon as Chris wasready to fillitup again, Sharpes wasthere.
Then there’sSharpes’ capacitytomake feed to the specification of their customer “The abilitytoprovide bespoke products,with access to the best nutrients as well as to nutrientadvice, is brilliant.”
Chris also mentions the forward-thinking natureof each business move made by Sharpes.“When the Sharpes trucks were purchased,”he says by wayofexample,“they were fitted with truck washers to guardagainst the spread of disease between farms.When birdflucomes,truck washers will be a‘must have’. Sharpes is asafefeed provider.The same cannot be said of manyother stock feed providers.”
PHOTO/BYANURAGGUSAIN,PEXELS.COM
When asked if thereare other things he’d like to say, Chris talks about ordering stockfeed through the Sharpes’App -“it makes lifeeasy”- and theway the officestaff make customers feel valued.Hesaysthat Wairarapa Eggs is asmall farm thatorders 20 tonnes aweek but is treatedlike it orders 100 tonnes.
Through his role as the national free range reponthe EggProducers Board, Chris Martin is awarethatSharpes Stock Feeds is also willing toserviceproducers even smaller than Wairarapa Eggs “Thatisunusual and very commendable,”he says
Mick &Karen
Mick and KarenWilliams grow wheatand barley on Ahiaruhe Farm,some of which they sell to Sharpes.They also grow barley on the Orsborn’sown farmfor Sharpes
Supplying Sharpes withabout 500 tonnes of barley and 120
tonnes of wheateach year from the Ahiaruhe Farm,Mick Williams says he and his wife have beensupplying Sharpes forover20years.“Andmy father supplied them before that from the family farm.”
Mick farms on theOrsborn’s farmundera crop sharing arrangement, supplying the Sharpes’mill with afurther 250 tonnes of barley annually “It’sagreat arrangementthat benefits both parties,and we split theprofits.”
He says thatSharpes is one of the fewfeedmills in which New Zealandgrain is primarily used,and other ingredients are all sourcedwithin New Zealand Mick alsolikes the facthecan deal with the owners of the mill,rather than thirdparties
“Being able to work directly with theowners helps develop trust,”he says.“Iappreciate and value ourrelationship.I’d also like to congratulate the Orsbornfamily on Sharpes’ 125TH anniversary.”
Nutritech International
Animal nutritionist,Alun Faulkner,has been on the journey with Sharpes forthe last decade, and says that Dr Julian Waters supported Sharpes forabout 15 years beforethat. Alun says “ the company’srelationship with Sharpes has always been unique”. That uniqueness,hesays, comes from Sharpes being a
family business thattreatsits staff and key stakeholders such as Nutritech as partof the family
“They aresucha nice bunch of people to work with and, across the generations, they’veremained determined to provide greatfeed that performswell forcustomers.”
Having dual feed lines in the Sharpes’plantis“atremendous success,”Alun says.“It has allowedSharpes to make the highest qualitypoultryand pig feed using both animal and
vegetable protein, and produce quiteseparateruminantfeed.”
Alun’s role is to advise on how to put together balanced feed using the best rawmaterials and ingredients thatanimals love to eat. “It’sall about nutrition. Sharpes’feed is developed to specs thatdrive performance.”Good nutritional advicehas been critical to Sharpes’success.
According to Alun, Alastair built Sharpes on ahandshake with one hand and awrench in the other
“Alastair’s hardwork, relationship skills,and strategic thinking have formed the basis of this unique business.Sam, with his digital and automation expertise,together with Sara and her marketing knowledge, arenow taking Sharpes to another level.”
Congratulations on your 125TH anniversarySharpes Stock Feeds.
Alun Faulkner(left)cementing Nutritech’srelationship with Sam and Alastair OrsbornfromSharpes StockFeeds
The nextgeneration: Lucy and Olivia (withPatch &Ollie) on theright. William with Saraand SamOrsborn on theleft
Balancingthe triedand true with innovative future-proofing
Sharpes Stock Feeds has stood the test of time for125 years and is still going strong At its core,Sharpes is an intergenerational, family-owned business thatresonateswith farmers across Wairarapa and the lower North Island
Alan Orsborn’slegacyofhard work and commitment from 1937 went on to be nurtured by sons Ian and Alastair together, and then Alastair on hisown Butitwasn’t long beforehis son and daughter-in-law, Sam and Sara,werecaptured by the unique role of the Sharpes business in both Wairarapa’s food industry and the region’s wider community.
A small,personalised business, Sharpes Stock Feeds wouldn’t be heretoday without aloyal farming base
“Farmers areakey partofthe Sharpes’story,”Alastair says,“and it’s importanttoacknowledge the people and businessesthat supportus.”
Alastair has createdhis own legacy -asolid business thathas nimbly negotiatedabalanceof the tried and true with respect to quality, consistencyand service, with innovativefutureproofing. This balance has allowedthe business to adapt and thrive, and he says thathe wouldn’t do anything differently if he had his time again.
“And of course,”Alastair says, “itwas all possible because Imarried the rightwoman.”
Samchuckles.“You’re not having thatone on your own. Imarried the rightwoman too. We’veboth been very lucky.”
Samsaysthathis father’s relationships with stores and merchants -now tended by Sara -isanother reason for Sharpes’success.And the qualityofthe company’s service, with Sally and Lisa as the faceofSharpes,is confirmed by its customers
Alastair is proud thatwhen customers call Sharpes theyget to talk to Sally or Lisa, not an unknown person in acall centre. Alastair says“I feel luckyto be sitting here, knowing thatSam and Sara arenot just looking afterthe business, they’re taking it to the next level Everything they do is positive -they’reinnovatively thinking about whatstepchange they could make next to improve service, the qualityofour product, and our productivity. It’s all about the customer.”
