AgriFeed Holdings — Operations & Manufacturing Plan
The milling and manufacturing process, the plant and capacity plan, the technology and equipment, throughput and yield, and the operational performance metrics.
Section 7 · Business Plan
Operations & Manufacturing Plan
The milling and manufacturing process, the plant and capacity plan, the technology and equipment, throughput and yield, and the operational performance metrics.
7.1 Site Selection
The Phase 1 site is a 12-hectare brownfield parcel in eMalahleni
(Witbank), Mpumalanga, selected following a multi-criteria assessment of
nine candidate locations across Mpumalanga, Free State, and
KwaZulu-Natal. Selection criteria included: (i) proximity to maize and
oilseed sources (within 250 km of the eastern Highveld grain belt); (ii)
road logistics access (N4 to Komatipoort, N12 to Johannesburg); (iii)
availability of three-phase electrical supply and adequate water; (iv)
proximity to the eastern Highveld broiler and dairy cluster; (v)
emission and zoning compliance; and (vi) commercial proximity to anchor
customers.
7.2 Mill Design & Capacity
The Phase 1 mill will have an installed nameplate capacity of 30 tons
per hour of pelleted feed, equivalent to approximately 220,000 tons per
annum at 85% mill utilisation across two shifts. Year 5 commercial
throughput is modelled at 300,000 tons per annum (full plant utilisation
including selective third-shift operations on peak SKUs). The mill is
being engineered to accommodate Phase 2 capacity addition of an
additional 25 ton-per-hour line in Year 4, lifting installed capacity to
55 t/h and group throughput to 480,000+ t/yr by Year 7.
| Process Step | Equipment | Capacity | Vendor (Indicative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intake & cleaning | Drum cleaner; magnetic separator; aspirator | 60 t/h | Bühler / Dinnissen |
| Storage | 8 raw material silos (×500 t each = 4,000 t) | — | Top Silo / Sukup |
| Dosing & batching | Multi-component dosing scales; batch mixer | 30 t/h | Bühler |
| Grinding | Twin hammer mill | 30 t/h | Andritz / Bühler |
| Pelleting & cooling | Two pellet press lines + counter-flow cooler | 30 t/h | Andritz |
| Crumbling & screening | Roll crumbler + sifter | 15 t/h | Andritz |
| Bagging & dispatch | Auto-bagger + palletiser; bulk loadout | 30 t/h | Premier Tech / OEM |
| Quality lab | ISO/IEC 17025-aligned wet & NIR lab | — | Foss / PerkinElmer |
| Control system | PLC + MES with batch traceability | — | Siemens / Rockwell |
7.3 Capex Breakdown
| Capex Category | Phase 1 (R m) | Phase 2 (R m) | Total (R m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land & site works | 55 | 20 | 75 |
| Civil and structural works | 70 | 35 | 105 |
| Process equipment (mill, pelleting) | 165 | 85 | 250 |
| Storage silos & intake | 60 | 25 | 85 |
| Bagging, palletising, dispatch | 40 | 15 | 55 |
| Distribution fleet | 50 | 30 | 80 |
| ERP, MES, lab equipment & IT | 25 | 10 | 35 |
| Pre-operating, design, contingency | 40 | 20 | 60 |
| Working capital provision | 45 | 20 | 65 |
| TOTAL | 550 | 260 | 810 |
7.4 Operating Model
The mill will operate on a 6-day, two-shift baseline, with a third
shift introduced in Year 3 for high-demand SKUs. Direct headcount (mill
operations, lab, dispatch, maintenance) of 87 in Year 1 ramps to 142 by
Year 5; total Group permanent headcount (including sales, technical
advisory, finance, and management) of 132 in Year 1 ramps to 230 by Year
5.
| Operating Metric | Industry Benchmark | AgriFeed Y3 Target | AgriFeed Y5 Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill OEE % | 70–75% | 82% | 84% |
| Energy consumption (kWh/t feed) | 55–60 | 50 | 48 |
| Direct labour cost per ton (R/t) | 180–220 | 165 | 155 |
| Quality reject rate (%) | 0.8–1.4% | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| Bagging error rate (%) | 1.2–1.6% | 0.8% | 0.5% |
| Dispatch on-time-in-full (%) | 92–95% | 97% | 98.5% |
| Customer NPS | 20–35 | 55+ | 65+ |
7.5 Maintenance & Reliability
The maintenance philosophy is preventive-and-predictive: scheduled
overhauls, vibration and thermal monitoring on all critical drives, oil
analysis on gearboxes, and a full annual outage in week 52. The plant is
designed for unplanned downtime below 3.5% per annum (≈300 hours), well
within industry benchmark of 5–6%. Spare-parts strategy is risk-graded:
critical-spares on-site for any item with lead time over 14 days,
consigned spares with vendors for medium-criticality, and a strategic
agreement with the equipment OEM for emergency parts airfreight.
Confidential — this business plan is provided to prospective investors and lenders for evaluation purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of AgriFeed Holdings (Pty) Ltd.