SA Best Peanut Butter Business Plan — Operations

Kernel intake and testing, roasting, grinding and filling, the one-shift and two-shift capacity, and the quality regime throughout.

Operations

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6.1 The process
6.2 Unit economics
6.3 Organisation

6.1 The process

Stage	What happens
Intake and sampling	Lot sampled to protocol, aflatoxin tested, moisture checked; failed lots rejected and returned
Conditioned storage	Temperature and moisture controlled silos; aflatoxin develops in poor storage
Cleaning and de-stoning	Foreign matter, stones and shell fragments removed
Roasting	Continuous roaster to a controlled colour and flavour profile
Blanching and skin removal	Skins removed; skin carries a disproportionate share of contamination
Optical sorting	Colour and defect sorting; discoloured and damaged kernels rejected
Grinding and homogenising	Two-stage grind to specification; stabiliser and salt added
Filling and packing	Jar, pail or bulk filling, capping, labelling and coding
Hold and release	Batch tested for aflatoxin and held until cleared for release

Two stages in that sequence exist principally for food safety rather than for product quality: intake sampling and optical sorting. Together they account for R8 300 000 of capital expenditure, or 17.5 per cent of the total. A cheaper plant is possible and would be a different, worse business.

6.2 Unit economics

Figure 10. Where a tonne of peanut butter goes.

Per tonne of finished product	Amount	Share of revenue
Revenue at the blended price	56 159	100.0%
Certified kernels	(26 247)	46.7%
Packaging	(6 485)	11.5%
Conversion	(5 380)	9.6%
Trade spend on own brand	(1 432)	2.5%
Outbound logistics and additives	(3 100)	5.5%
Contribution per tonne	13 515	24.1%

Kernels at R26 247 a tonne of finished product are 46.7 per cent of Year 1 revenue, falling to 45.4 per cent by Year 5 as the mix shifts toward own brand. That figure is built from a purchase price of R27 900 a tonne, a recipe ratio of 0.905 tonnes of kernel per tonne of product, and a 3.8 per cent intake rejection allowance — so the plant buys 0.9407 tonnes of kernels for every tonne it ships.

Figure 11. Kernel cost and contribution per tonne.

Conversion cost per tonne	Amount	Note
Direct production labour	1 640
Electricity — roasting, grinding, chilling	1 180	Roasting and grinding are energy intensive
Aflatoxin testing and laboratory	890	Sampling, assays and laboratory consumables
Blanching, sorting and cleaning consumables	620	Includes optical sorter running costs
Steam, water and effluent	410
Quality assurance and certification	340
Maintenance consumables and spares	300
Total conversion cost	5 380	9.2% of Year 1 revenue

Aflatoxin testing and laboratory cost is R890 a tonne — the third largest line in conversion cost, ahead of cleaning consumables, effluent and maintenance combined. That is the operating half of the control programme, and it is deliberately visible as a separate line rather than buried in quality assurance.

6.3 Organisation

Role	Number	Monthly cost each	Note
Managing director	1	R62 000
Quality and food safety manager	1	R48 000	Owns the aflatoxin programme; reports to the board, not to production
Production manager	1	R44 000
Procurement and supply chain	1	R30 000	Supplier qualification and kernel contracting
Shift supervisors	2	R28 000
Maintenance technicians	2	R27 000
Sales and key accounts	2	R34 000
Laboratory technicians	2	R24 000	Two shifts of testing capability
Finance and administration	2	R26 000
Warehouse and despatch	3	R15 500
Total central team	17	R508 500	Annual R6 230 142; direct production labour sits in conversion cost

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