The African Business Journal: Evertrade Feeds Evertrade Feeds ================================================================================ admin on 15 March, 2010 01:31:00 Evertrade Feeds was originally created by an alliance of Evertrade International Ventures (Pty) Ltd., and a group that includes Durban and the Kewalram Chanrai Group—Singapore. This is a union that brings to the table decades of sound experience in the South African feeds business, and 150 years in agric processing, shipping and trading history. Evertrade’s Ash Shrivastava told TABJ that the company’s competitive advantages in the feed industry are many. “The buzz words we encourage here are ‘innovation’ and ‘efficiency’” Shrivastava says. The company has a fully-automated PLC plant, located in Ladysmith. The plant is sourced from the U.S., Europe and Asia, and brings the latest ultra-modern feed technology to the service of all of Evertrade’s clients. High standards lead to higher quality The company website says that the company’s business is “built on using the best quality ingredients”, and Shrivastava echoes this sentiment. He explains that every batch of finished product is inspected in order to maintain a high quality feed for distribution. “We supply the raw materials, so in that we accept guarantees for the quality, which is audited at the origin. If I’m buying a product made in Malaysia, I will actually go and have a look at it before we import it. This gives us an absolute edge—because we’re sure about the raw materials.” Guaranteeing quality is just one more advantage Evertrade has in its industry. Once again, from the website: “Evertrade Feeds’ business is maintaining the sanctity and integrity of high spec formulations that result in our clients enjoying far better results and great commercial success.” Evertrade also imports critical superior quality ingredients from other associate companies that can offer value benefits to the company’s clients. “We buy all of our ingredients locally first, at competitive prices” Shrivastava says, “and we go out of the country if we need to.” Technologically sound Evertrade is a company in a new league of players in the feed industry. Shrivastava says that when he first got to SA to take care of his previous company’s endeavours, there was not a lot of competition in the feed sector. Instead, a lot of players in the industry ran inefficiently. So when Evertrade built their plant in 2007, they went into the market knowing they wanted to be as technologically sound as possible. Now, with a new plant and the ability to implement the latest technologies and the right team to lead the charge, Evertrade is a market leader. “In this industry, traditionally, most companies started out with one mixer, then grew and expanded—but we started off with the most modern plant in the country. For us, it’s not a question of being part of a very large company, but rather using the right technology,” Shrivastava says. “We have a more active and very futuristic approach. Our design is based on that. We simply have a good name in quality—because of our internal process, and the qualified people who run the lab. We employ very qualified biotechnologists to run the lab.” Speaking of qualified people, Evertrade is proud of its lean organisational structure, and its small, professional and dedicated team ensures impeccable quality control, proper processing and excellent levels of customer service. A great team ensures results Shrivastava largely credits the team for Evertrade’s success. “The company is very good, because we’ve got a very young team. To us, what’s important is grey matter not necessarily grey hair. Our staff is young, but very qualified—we train and mold them, and have a good performance appraisal system” he explains. The company also does a lot of market benchmarking and are very proactive in their business approach. “We like to know our customers.” What’s in store for Evertrade? As a growing company in a growing economy, the company sees itself as a major player in the feed sector. Shrivastava says the demand for feed is expected to rise by almost a couple of million tonnes in the next two to three years. “In the next ten years, we will see a lot more international players in South Africa, but they will be modernizing and refurbishing where we will always keep up with technology. Gone will be the days of huge feed mills, instead there will be smaller ones that are modernized,” Shrivastava says. “We want to be the leader in innovation and efficiency, even if we’re not the biggest,” he continues. At the end of the day, Evertrade is focused on customer value-creation, and will surely be successful if they stick to their values and philosophy.