Irvine's Group

IRVINE’S GROUP

Supplying Sub-Saharan Africa’s localised chicken industries

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Empowering Entrepreneurs Irvine’s Group continues to facilitate the growth of local chicken industries across several Sub-Saharan African countries thanks to its support of local growers through a one-stop shop supplier service

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Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Lewis Bush oultry – an economical, healthy protein source and second only to pork in terms of consumption around the

world.

A staple part of a huge variety of cuisine, from fast-food and roast dinners to curries and barbeques, chicken in particular is famed for its versatility and relative affordability versus other types of meat.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are enormous opportunities to improve nutrition levels in a big way by increasing per capita consumption, an observation made starkly clear when comparing available statistics from around the African continent.

Take Nigeria, for example.

It is the most populated country in Africa yet consumes less than two kilos of chicken per capita every year. Compare this to continental counterparts such as Mali (23.9 kilos) and South Africa (38.7 kilos), and the growth potential is obvious.

Nigeria is typical of many countries in the Sub-Saharan region, and for companies such as Irvine’s Group, there is tremendous scope to further support local chicken industries and

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Small scale farmer selling maize to Irvine’s in Zimbabwe

thus boost nutrition levels for millions of citizens.

“Chicken consumption in SubSaharan Africa is still low, and if you move the needle slightly in countries such as Tanzania, you can very quickly double the size of the industry,” explains Patrick Murphy, the company’s Chief Sales Officer.

“Even if you upped per capita consumption from 1.5 kilos to three kilos, it would make a massive

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difference for both consumers and everyone involved in the poultry industry. As people become wealthier, they generally consume more protein in their diets, and chicken is a fantastic source of protein.”

Murphy, who is formally educated in the agricultural sphere, was inspired to join Irvine’s for a variety of reasons, not least because it is a family-led, growing business making a real difference to people’s lives in multiple countries.

“Relationships are very important, and this is what we pride ourselves on,” Murphy adds.

Indeed, the business has been forming relationships all over SubSaharan Africa ever since it was founded in 1950 in Zimbabwe.

Irvine’s has expanded under three generations well outside of its original homeland, with significant physical presence in the likes of Mozambique, Botswana and Tanzania, with networks of breeders, partners and customers across much of the wider SSA region.

This combines to create a formidable portfolio which includes chicks, nutritional and health solutions, poultry equipment, processed meat, table eggs and parent stock.

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example of Irvine’s impact on local entrepreneurialism, referring to the small-scale sector as the company’s bread and butter.

“Being our oldest market, we have a lot of learnings from here that have helped us adapt, grow and improve as we move into other markets,” he continues.

“We have a client near to us in Zimbabwe who represents our perfect story that we want to get out there.

IRVINE’S GROUP IN AFRICA Serving clients of all sizes across Sub-Saharan Africa, Irvine’s Group operates through several specialised and dedicated divisions based in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa.

Irvine’s Zimbabwe: Original home of the company and still its largest base, the Zimbabwe business focuses on hatching day old chicks, layer egg production, feed processing and meat processing. The unit has grown from a single room in a home to producing around one million Cobb day-old chicks a week, processing 300,000 birds per week and producing four million table eggs per week.

Irvine’s Group comprises six separate divisions

Supporting small-scale

This extensive footprint is underpinned by a purpose, vision and set of values that revolves around trust, honesty and empowerment of local businesses on a regionwide scale.

“We want to do as much as we can to support local industries,” says Murphy. “It is not helpful to talk about Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, singular market without acknowledging that every country is different and has its own ways of doing business.

“For example, Botswana and Mozambique have very different DNAs in terms of how their poultry industries are developed and the social and political challenges they face.

“This is where we thrive. We have the ability to bring a solution to the small-scale farmer thanks to our knowledge of the markets, range of products and supply chain network through our Irvine’s Africa division.”

Murphy cites Zimbabwe as a prime

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Irvine’s Mozambique: The second country the group moved into,

Mozambique represents a prolific hatching operation. Irvine’s Mozambique has invested in a high-tech hatchery that currently produces 240,000 chickens per week and supplies over 1,500 tonnes of feed per month.

Irvine’s Botswana: Has grown into a large breeder farm and hatchery producing over 300,000 Cobb 500 chicks for local growers. A new feed production unit is currently being set up by Irvine’s Botswana.

Irvine’s Tanzania: The newest addition to Irvine’s Group portfolio,

comprising a breeder and hatchery operation producing 220,000 chicks per week and supplying feed to local growers.

Irvine’s Africa: The specialist procurement and distribution unit of

Irvine’s Group, helping clients large and small to manage their supply chain operations through custom-made solutions. Focused on the supply of the following range of products: livestock and poultry nutrition, animal health and hygiene, equipment, packaging and custom procurement. This business specialises in logistics and all Irvine’s products can be acquired and shipped through this business.

Cobb Africa: Irvine’s is the oldest distributor of Cobb chickens in the

world, and through the Cobb Africa brand is the key supplier of parent stock for Sub-Saharan Africa (selling around 2,000,000 parent stock chickens a year). Parent stock are supplied from both within Africa and Europe, giving the business an important element of flexibility.

Producing safe feed with Sal CURB® and TOXFIN™ Safe feed is essential to be able to produce safe food for human consumption.

Contaminated feed and food may cause serious illnesses or even death of the animals or humans that consume it. Pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli, may be transferred to animals via feed and thus feed mill and feed hygiene is a critical step in securing the feed safety chain.

Although certain heating processes, such as pelleting and hygienisation, will kill bacteria, recontamination may occur during conveyance, transport and storage of feed.

Preventative steps and actions are thus needed to prevent feed recontamination and ensure feed safety.

Physical cleaning and treatment of production areas, storage areas and trucks (including feed compartments) plays a critical role in preventing recontamination of feed. This process involves the application of activated, dry antimicrobial products, such as Sal CURB® CD Dry using the Kemin Powder Duster system, to critical control points throughout the production lines to reduce the levels of bacteria present to acceptable levels. The use of a focused schedule and monitoring, tailored to each production systems unique product flow and risks, can ensure successful management of these risks.

To ensure sustained feed safety, from production until feeding, in-feed antimicrobial additives, such as Sal CURB® S Dry or Liquid, can be added during mixing to facilitate the management of these risks.

Kemin’s range of proven anti-microbial feed additives can be safely added to both raw materials and feed to provide effective microbial risk management, as well as ensuring nutrient and quality preservation.

Fungi and moulds are ubiquitous and therefore the formation of mycotoxins can occur in all agricultural commodities, under appropriate field or storage conditions, throughout the animal feed supply chain. Highly contaminated raw materials and feed can result in severe health and performance losses due to mycotoxicosis and even low-level mycotoxin ingestion over time can cause an array of metabolic disorders, resulting in reduced animal productivity and performance. Long periods of exposure to mycotoxins increase the risk of possible negative effects in animals, due to prolonged liver detoxification processes, microbial population changes and reduced immune function.

Mycotoxin binders can be used to reduce or neutralise the potential negative effects of mycotoxins in your animal herds or flocks, allowing their natural performance to be achieved. TOXFIN™ is a unique, nondigestible mycotoxin binder designed for broad spectrum mycotoxin binding, with targeted binding to ensure high binding and retention capacity throughout the digestive tract. It contains active adsorbents, which effectively bind the most significant mycotoxins in African climates, namely Aflatoxins and Ochratoxins. Our range of products, programmes and services, combined with years of experience offer tailored solutions to meet any of your feed safety needs.

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She is a single mother who started growing roughly a hundred chickens a week around five to 10 years ago.

“Now, with the input of Irvine’s, she is growing a thousand chickens a week and has educated her children to help her run the business. It is a story we are proud of and shows what we can do for local entrepreneurs – we are not just selling a product; we are selling a business opportunity.”

Indeed, this is one of many cases where the company has enabled smaller businesses in the industry to upscale and develop sustainably, and it is this smaller-scale subsector which Murphy believes will fuel much of the growth to come.

“The chicken sector in many of the countries we are in is much more informal than the likes of Europe and even our neighbour South Africa,” he says.

“Many people are still buying their chickens from live markets, and the

reason for this is that cold chains are not fully developed yet, while retail and QSR industries are still developing. Smallscale farmers feed into this informal market, and we want to join them on their growth journeys as the sector matures and their volumes increase.”

Irvine’s impact is already demonstrable and backed up by numbers.

For example, every year it trains approximately 8,200 small-scale farmers and serves more than 60,000 as customers. This translates into a network of breeder and small-scale growers generating some $355 million in revenue from around 65 million chickens.

More important is the fact that $141 million of this income is profit which goes back into local communities, testament to the efficient operating processes and business knowhow which Irvine’s has helped to impart on its customers.

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Addressing challenges

One of the greatest obstacles Irvine’s helps its clients address centres around logistics.

For Murphy, this represents one of the most significant challenges facing the poultry industry, especially with companies who require smaller volumes of chicks, nutritional and health products, packaging and other equipment.

All of these needs can be supplied by the group through the aforementioned Irvine’s Africa subsidiary.

A customised equipment and procurement operation, it operates a large warehouse in Johannesburg, from which it can distribute across the region in a timely manner thanks to the volumes it has in stock.

“Irvine’s Africa’s philosophy is a pretty simple one,” says Murphy. “It is a volumes-driven business, and ties in all of our buying power and passes the savings onto our clients.”

The division draws on a multimodal

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Supply and servicing of feeding, drinking and climate control equipment for all poultry production operations.

Poultry & livestock farming equipment suppliers.

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Automatic Feeders Nipple and Bell Drinkers Layer Cages Breeder Nests Skov Systems and Spares Wetwalls and Cooling Bulk Feed Silos Cross Augers and Feed Weighers

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network of road, sea and air transport, able to move any of the products made by the Irvine’s Group family of businesses and partners. Crucially, the service is flexible and customisable, meaning smaller farmers can order precisely what they need at a cost that will suit their budgets.

Knowledge is another challenge identified by Murphy, not least when it comes to recruiting for Irvine’s itself.

He says: “If you look at markets like the US or South Africa, these are huge chicken markets with technical expertise readily available. Our markets are developing and finding people with poultry skills can be difficult.

“We try and overcome this by employing people with a strong willingness to learn and combine this with technical training from both within the group and our partners such as Cobb, who send over experts to help us.

“We’re also not afraid to bring in other external expertise. For example, we drafted in an expert from Brazil to get

our project in Tanzania off the ground, and very much want to transfer his knowledge to local people in the poultry business. Brazil has some very practical and extremely bright people when it comes to animal husbandry.”

With expertise such a valued commodity in the Sub-Saharan African poultry and agribusiness field, it is vital for companies such as Irvine’s Group to continue imparting their knowledge onto local entrepreneurs.

This can be achieved in many ways.

For instance, Irvine’s in-house consultant nutritionists help to develop an uncompromising approach to quality and an intimate understanding of market trends, while its team of husbandry experts offer a hands-on approach to engaging with customers and teaching the secrets of successful poultry rearing.

All of this is backed up by activities at in-house and collaborating laboratories, work which ensures standards remain as high as possible across the board.

“We must also ensure our own processes meet global standards,” adds Murphy. “The chicken industry is a very technical one. For example, breeder operations are meticulously designed and our hatcheries are fully environmentally-controlled and able to produce quality chicks in a costeffective way.

“Global best practice is something we pride ourselves on, no matter what market we are entering.”

IRVINE’S BY NUMBERS Having started out as a humble family business in 1950, Irvine’s Group has grown enormously to become a key supplier to the industry across the region, all the while staying true to its family roots.

Here are some key numbers accumulated from all of its divisions:

1,750,000 – average number of day-old chicks produced per week

4,000,000 – average number of table eggs produced per week

16,400 tonnes – amount of

finished feed produced per month

250,000 – amount of chickens processed per week for consumption

2,200 – total number of

employees across Irvine’s Group

>$32 million – capital

expenditure over the past three years

$26 million – amount spent

on maize per year (118,000 tonnes)

$28.025 million – amount spent on soya per year (62,800 tonnes)

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New horizons

This ongoing investment into its own capabilities will prove vital as Irvine’s moves into its next phase of development.

In Botswana, an exciting chapter is emerging in the form of a new feed mill.

A facility which will add to the breeder and hatchery capacity already present here, it will contribute to the company’s nutritional portfolio which includes proteins, soya-based commodities, feed additives and infeed medication.

Murphy adds: “This typically makes up around 60 to 70 percent of a grower’s cost base, so ensuring a quality, affordable supply is crucial to their success. We can provide that relationship.”

This expansion aside, the immediate priority for Murphy moving forwards is to consolidate Irvine’s Group’s market position across the territories it serves.

“Having recently moved into

Tanzania it is important we bed down in this market and strengthen our presence,” he says. “We are still a family-owned and family-run business, and I think it’s one of our strengths as it gives us the agility to act quickly on new opportunities when they arise.

“The company is becoming a lot bigger and this inevitably means we need more corporate structure, but the family DNA is still strong. Craig Irvine represents the third generation of the enterprise and I continue to work very closely with him.”

The balance between growth and agility, coupled with ongoing nuances and challenges faced in individual market countries, presents an interesting dynamic for Murphy and the Irvine’s team.

Indeed, for the Chief Sales Officer, the ever-changing nature of the industry is why he remains as motivated to succeed at the company today as he did when joining more

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than 10 years ago.

He concludes: “First and foremost I’m an Afro-optimist.

“It is a fantastic place to be. Yes, Africa has its ups and downs, but you cannot ignore the potential of the people here and the tremendous resources the continent has to thrive.

It is not going to be plain sailing, but this is why I love the job.

“We have got to become more self-sufficient from a food production perspective, and the poultry industry is going to be fundamentally important to this shift. We are on an upward curve.”

Irvine’s Group Tel: +2711 465 9497 info@irvines.co.za www.irvineschicken.com

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1st Floor Block B, Corner Main, 2 Payne Road Bryanston, South Africa 2191 Tel: +2711 465 9497 info@irvines.co.za www.irvineschicken.com

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