Lichtenburg Nut Company Business Plan — Strategic Plan

Strategic objectives across the projection and the sequencing of capacity, contract hectares and channel mix.

Section 17 of 37

Strategic Plan

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Table 39. Where to play and where not to play

Dimension	Where to play	Where not to play	Reasoning
Product	Peanut butter and groundnut paste; roasted peanut snacks	Tree nut butters, spreads other than groundnut, confectionery	The differentiator is groundnut supply chain control and does not transfer to almonds or cashews, which are imported
Channel	Retail private label, industrial and institutional supply, regional own brand	The national mainstream branded shelf	Competing head-on with a hundred-year-old brand backed by a R300m plant would require marketing spend the business cannot fund
Geography	North West, Free State, Northern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo; SADC bulk as an option	Coastal provinces for own brand in the first five years	Distribution cost from Lichtenburg to Cape Town and Durban erodes the margin on packed product
Customer	Buyers who bear recall risk and can act on assurance	Price-only buyers running reverse auctions	The company’s cost position does not permit it to win purely on price
Position	Verified provenance at value pricing	Ultra-premium natural, or deep-discount commodity	The white space identified in Section 9.3

Table 40. Capabilities required to deliver the strategy

Capability	Why it matters	How it is built	By when
Grower contracting and agronomic support	Underpins both cost position and traceability	Supply chain manager plus one field officer; contracts concluded in the September to November window	Month 6, before the first contracting season
Mycotoxin management	The commercial premise	Quality manager, in-house laboratory, colour sorter, documented control plan	Month 11, before first production
Retailer account management	Private label carries the ramp	Commercial manager with existing relationships; anchor contract signed pre-close	Month minus 4
Plant reliability	Fixed cost absorption depends on running the asset	Maintenance artisans, planned maintenance system, spares holding at 3% of plant value	Month 14
Brand building on a small budget	Own brand carries margin and exit value	Regional focus, in-store and community activation rather than broadcast media	Month 24
Working capital discipline	The seasonal position is the largest single balance sheet risk	Finance director; monthly covenant and facility forecasting from month 1	Month 1

Table 41. Strategic priorities by horizon

Horizon	Priority	Success measure
Years 1 to 2 — establish	Commission the plant, achieve certification, prove the quality claim, retain the anchor contract, launch the own brand	Volume of 1,840 t and EBITDA break-even by FY2030; zero aflatoxin exceedances reaching the market
Years 3 to 5 — scale and diversify	Broaden the customer base below 30% single-customer concentration, add snack nuts, drive utilisation above 85%	3,000 t, EBITDA margin of 11.8%, DSCR above the 1.20x covenant in every year
Years 6 to 10 — earn the cost of capital	De-bottleneck to 4,800 t, deleverage, extend into SADC bulk export, begin dividends	ROIC above the 15.1% cost of capital by FY2037; net debt to EBITDA below 1.0x by FY2037