Levubu Root Business Plan — Management and Organisation
The management, agronomy and field establishment supporting a rotation-constrained ginger operation.
Management and Organisation
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- Overview & contents
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. Investment Thesis
- 3. Company and Business Overview
- 4. Problem, Customer Need and Value Proposition
- 5. Products and Services
- 6. Industry Analysis
- 7. Market Analysis and Sizing
- 8. Customer Analysis
- 9. Competitive Landscape
- 10. Business Model
- 11. Go-to-Market Strategy
- 12. Operating Model
- 13. Management and Organisation
- 14. Strategic Plan
- 15. SWOT Analysis
- 16. Risk Analysis
- 17. ESG and Sustainability
- 18. Implementation Roadmap
- 19. Financial Plan
- 20. Assumptions Framework
- 21. Funding Requirement and Structure
- 22. Break-Even and Debt Serviceability
- 23. Investment Case and Valuation
- 24. Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis
- 25. Key Performance Indicators and Management Dashboard
- 26. Conclusion
- A. Appendix A: Assumption Register
- B. Appendix B: Conditions Precedent to Drawdown
- C. Appendix C: Index of Exhibits and Tables
- D. Appendix D: Glossary
- 13.1 Organisational structure and headcount
- 13.2 Key appointments and why they are sequenced this way
- 13.3 Governance and management incentives
13.1 Organisational structure and headcount
|
Function |
FY2027 |
FY2028 |
FY2029 |
FY2030 |
FY2031 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Field operations, including seasonal |
34 |
58 |
86 |
118 |
152 |
|
Packhouse and cold chain |
9 |
17 |
27 |
38 |
48 |
|
Agronomy, plant health and seed block |
5 |
7 |
10 |
13 |
16 |
|
Commercial, logistics and administration |
4 |
5 |
7 |
9 |
11 |
|
Total full-time equivalents |
52 |
87 |
130 |
178 |
227 |
|
Planted hectares per field FTE |
0.82 |
0.79 |
0.77 |
0.75 |
0.74 |
Table 29. Headcount by function. Seasonal labour is converted to full-time equivalents; peak headcount during the July to September harvest is materially higher than the annual average.
13.2 Key appointments and why they are sequenced this way
Four appointments are required before the first lease is signed, not before the first planting. The distinction matters because two of them hold decision rights over land that cannot be reversed once committed.
|
Role |
Required competencies |
Why this appointment, at this point |
|---|---|---|
|
Managing director |
Subtropical irrigated horticulture at commercial scale, with commercial ginger or a comparable rhizome crop. Profit and loss responsibility for a business of at least R50m turnover. |
Before the first lease. Ginger punishes generalist management, and the sequencing decisions in the first two seasons determine the shape of the business for all five. |
|
Technical and plant health manager |
Plant pathology or agronomy with specific rhizome crop and soil-borne disease experience. Familiarity with indexing protocols and certification requirements. |
Before the first lease, with a veto over block selection. This is the appointment on which the entire disease provision depends, and it is the one most likely to be deferred for cost reasons and most damaging to defer. |
|
Packhouse manager |
Fresh produce post-harvest handling, curing, cold chain and retail programme quality systems. |
Before packhouse commissioning. Marketable share is decided here, not in the field, and an 88% assumption is not achieved by an untrained team in a first season. |
|
Commercial manager |
National retail account management in fresh produce, plus the credibility to sell planting material farm to farm. These are different skills and may require two people by FY2029. |
Month eight, to allow the nine to fifteen month retail lead time to run in parallel with construction. |
|
Financial manager |
Agricultural financial management with specific experience of seasonal facilities, borrowing base reporting and covenant compliance. |
Before first drawdown of the seasonal facility. The facility requires monthly borrowing base certificates and the covenant package requires disciplined reporting. |
Table 30. Key appointments, competencies and sequencing rationale.
13.3 Governance and management incentives
|
Element |
Design |
|---|---|
|
Board composition |
Five members: two investor non-executives, the managing director, one independent non-executive with subtropical horticulture experience, one founder representative. Quarterly meetings, monthly management reporting. |
|
Reserved matters |
In addition to the customary reserved matters, three crop-specific decisions require board approval: planting on land not cleared by the pathogen screening protocol; purchase of planting material from outside the company’s own seed block; and expansion of planted area beyond the seed block’s retained supply. |
|
Committees |
Audit and risk committee from FY2028. A technical committee chaired by the independent non-executive meets before each planting decision to review block screening results. |
|
Management incentive |
A 12% option pool vesting over four years. Vesting is weighted to disease loss performance and EBITDA rather than to revenue or planted area, deliberately, because area growth is the easiest metric to hit and the most damaging to chase. |
|
Reporting |
Monthly management accounts, monthly borrowing base certificate to the seasonal lender, quarterly covenant compliance certificate, and a block-level plant health report at each board meeting. |
Table 31. Governance and incentive design.