CluckCore Integrated Poultry Group — Operational Model
The abattoir workflow, the supply structure and the feed procurement and margin-over-feed management underpinning CluckCore.
Section 10 · Business Plan
Operational Model
The abattoir workflow, the supply structure and the feed procurement and margin-over-feed management underpinning CluckCore.
Abattoir workflow
- Live bird intake and lairage with welfare and biosecurity
controls. - Stunning and slaughter under HACCP and Meat Safety Act
protocols. - Cleaning, evisceration and inspection (FSA-registered).
- Chilling to break the temperature danger zone rapidly.
- Portioning, packaging and labelling with batch
traceability. - Cold storage and refrigerated dispatch within the 24–48h
freshness window.
Supply structure
| Source | Role | Risk managed |
|---|---|---|
| Own / anchor farms | Baseline supply security | Guarantees minimum abattoir utilisation |
| Contract farmers (40 → 1,200) | Volume scaling; developmental impact | Diversifies supply; funded via farmer-support advances |
| External slaughter clients | Contract-processing revenue | Monetises spare abattoir capacity at high margin |
Capacity utilisation is the operational value driver in an abattoir:
fixed processing cost is spread across throughput, so the ramp from
65% to 85% utilisation is what converts the fixed-cost
plant into margin. Contract slaughter for third-party farmers is the
tool that fills spare capacity during the own-supply ramp, turning what
would be idle plant into fee income. Under-utilisation is the single
biggest operational threat to unit economics.
Feed procurement & margin-over-feed management
Because feed is the dominant cost, procurement is the most important
operational discipline in the business. CluckCore’s approach treats feed
and live-bird buying as a treasury function, not a purchasing one.
- Forward buying & contracts: staggered
forward purchases of maize and soya to smooth price volatility, aligned
to expected throughput. - Contract-farming hedges: contract-grower
agreements that share feed-cost risk and secure bird supply at
pre-agreed terms. - Margin-over-feed tracking: daily monitoring of
the spread between realised chicken price and feed cost per kg, the true
profitability signal, with pricing adjusted dynamically. - Feed-conversion efficiency: targeting an FCR at
or below the industry ≈1.45 through grower selection, feed quality and
bird management, since even small FCR gains compound across millions of
birds. - Yield discipline: maximising saleable grams per
bird (deboning yield, offal recovery) to extract full value from each
unit of feed already paid for.
The plan’s early-year margins benefit from a soft feed cycle (maize
and soya down 24–30% in H1 2025), but a disciplined operator plans for
the reversal. The covenant package (Section 22) accordingly includes a
margin-over-feed floor as an early-warning trigger, a
squeeze in this spread is the leading indicator of trouble long before
it reaches the income statement.
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 CluckCore Integrated Poultry Group (Pty) Ltd.