First there was the fire caused by the businesses heating equipment in 2019 that devastated the Roux siblings’ peanut processing factory in Centurion. “We basically had to start all over again,” says Amelia du Preez. Mustering their almost two decades of experience of building up the factory, she and her brother Wouter and sister Sandri pulled through, until Covid-19 hit. All three siblings became severely ill, and only Amelia survived.
The fact that Kalinda Trading not only survived as a business but is about to overtake its pre-pandemic turnover scarcely two years after the tragedy, is a monumental testimony to the quality of the systems that the Roux family built into their business. For several gruelling months through the pandemic the factory staff ran the business on their own while their three top managers were locked in a life-and-death battle with Covid-19.
“We have a wonderful team,” says Amelia, who found the basic business still intact when she was finally able to return to work. But financially it was deep in crisis, and Amelia’s experience with trying to get it back on track is illustrative of the business support landscape in South Africa.
“Our bank – we’ve been with them for years – actually had a problem with the fact that we were three owner-managers and now there is only one,” says Amelia, who soon realised that the banking system was simply not set up to be supportive.
In contrast, Business Partners Limited, which had financed Kalinda Trading’s purchase of the building that it operates from, activated its Technical Assistance Programme. This gave Kalinda Trading an interest-free loan which enabled it to bring in a team of consultants to help Amelia with a plan of action.
At the heart of the Kalinda Trading factory, with its team of 44 workers, is a state-of-the-art nut roasting machine that can process 18 tons per shift. From there the nuts go to a set of blanching machines before being first electronically and then manually sorted. They are then channelled to one of five sections of the factory to be turned into either roasted peanuts, sprinkle nuts, peanut meal, flavoured peanuts or peanut butter.
Load shedding is a major obstacle for Amelia’s efforts to bring the factory back to full capacity. The factory is too energy-intensive to generate enough electricity to free it from Eskom, so Amelia’s strategy is to plan around the load-shedding schedule and to ramp up productivity to the maximum while there is power. An important part of her efforts to eliminate bottlenecks as much as possible, was Amelia’s decision to upgrade the electronic sorting system with a state-of-the-art six-channel electronic “eye”.
The seeking out of the latest technology has been part of Kalinda Trading’s DNA since its start as a tiny shop in Springs where Amelia repackaged and sold peanuts for sale to the surrounding communities, especially in the informal market. The shop grew out of the export business of Amelia’s father Johan, who shipped thousands of tons of peanuts overseas. Amelia’s brother Wouter and sister Sandri had joined their parents in the commodity-trading business, while Amelia herself was given the task of testing the local market with her tiny trading post.
For two years Amelia and her three staff members offloaded trucks, repackaged, and sold on to informal traders. Growth and profits were modest at first but took off when the family moved the shop to Sunderland in Centurion in 2006 and evolved it into a processing factory supplying to the catering and fast-moving consumer goods market, including many of South Africa’s top brands.
Amelia worked as factory manager while her brother and father, who retired in 2016, managed the factory’s growing number of contracts. An important breakthrough was winning a tender from the Department of Correctional Services for the supply of peanut butter. Kalinda Trading is still listed as a preferred supplier today.
Amelia says her brother Wouter was instrumental in keeping the factory’s processes up to date with the latest technology. He often travelled overseas to investigate the feasibility of acquiring the newest machinery.
Another prime factor in Kalinda Trading’s success is its compliance with and accreditation to the most stringent food-safety standards from very early on. The discipline engendered by these systems no doubt played a key part in Kalinda Trading’s survival.
Amelia is determined to continue Kalinda Trading’s growth on the path set by her family. For now, most of the growth will remain as contract processor to many consumer brands. Amelia says she loved the process of partnering with other businesses and helping them grow. But there is tantalising potential in Kalinda Trading’s own brand of peanut butter Monkey Nut, which at present sells mostly in informal markets, but might soon find its way onto South Africa’s supermarket shelves.
About the Author: BPL Admin
