The African Business Journal: SIS Group

SIS Group
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admin on 17 August, 2010 11:44:00
 
Middelburg, South Africa, has been home to the SIS Group farm for the past 88
years. Now being run by the third generation of the Hyman family, the farm is in
the eastern high felt area of Mpumalanga. SIS Farm is known for its high quality
corn and potatoes and world class beef products, and expanded into cherry and
apple orchards six years ago.
We spoke with Desmond Hyman, the current MD of the farming group and the bearer
of the family torch. Hyman says his farm has emerged from the recent downturn in
global economics unscathed, and that a good year in seed production has brought
SIS farming to a healthy profit. Although prices are down, according to Hyman,
“the last two years have been good as far as farming is concerned.”
“Potatoes have had a very good season as far as our seed production is
concerned,” continues Hyman. The farm has been busy filling their orders
from the many clients seeking seeds.  An investment in a new sorting plant and
washing facility at the farm has improved greatly the process and quality of
that business, says Hyman.
The SIS farm beef product is a vital part of the SIS group business. The farm
produces an exhaustive range of beef products to suit different market sectors.
Hyman says the farm exports an average of 27 million kilograms of beef locally.
The farm is progressing the local frozen meat industry and has expanded to
supply customer’s growing demand for frozen meat. “Our frozen meats
are based on frozen freshness and locked-in goodness,” says Hyman.
“We are slowly converting customers to frozen meats by showing our
products do not compromise taste or quality.”
Culture of commitment
Hyman says he grew up on the farm and loved to watch and help his father work.
The pull of the farm was always strong, and after gaining his education, Hyman
came right back to his home. “I grew up here. I went to a primary school
until Grade 7 and then I went to high school and university in Johannesburg.
Then I got married and came back to the farm and have been living here ever
since,” he says. But please do not think he had illusions about the amount
of hard work that is necessary to have a successful farm. “I was raised
here so it’s sentimental, but we’re industrious farmers.”
Along with his cousin, Hyman grew and expanded the farm to the capacity it is
today and have increased the operations significantly by bringing in new
equipment and technology. “Business grew in the last 20 years that
we’ve been here,” he says. “We built a state-of-the-art feed
factory to feed our cattle, plus we built our own grain silos and added
autopilot and GPS on our tractors. We’ve embraced a lot of technology in
the last few years to tread water and keep pace with everybody else. I think if
you don’t embrace the technology, you are just going to go backward and
not survive. Farming is becoming harder and harder.”
Team effort
When asked about the contribution employees make to the SIS farm, Hyman beams.
Clearly, his team is like family.
“With our permanent workers being our machine operators, some of them
being with us for longer than 20 years, the farming has been built around them.
Without them, this wouldn’t have been a success. We never could have done
this on our own. Our whole management structure, from bottom up, everybody has
been bought into the idea. People don’t only see this as a job, they see
it as home. We’ve got people who worked for my father in the 1960s and now
their kids are working for us.”
With three children of his own, the chances of the SIS farm staying in the
family are high. We hope to see SIS continue to produce SA finest produce and
beef for generations to come.
www.sisfarming.co.za