Thaba Goats Business Plan

Investor-ready meat goat business plan: R250,000 founder capital, 50 to 300 breeding does in five funded stages, Year 5 cash revenue R1.49m.

Business Plan & Staged Funding Roadmap · South Africa

Goat Farming Business Plan — South Africa

Thaba Goats · The Herd Is The Growth Engine, Not The Capital.

Extensive meat goat production for the South African informal market — 50 breeding does
in Year 1 growing to 300 by Year 5 across five separately funded stages. R2.45 million of capital deployed over
the horizon, of which only R250,000 is founder capital, alongside R1.37 million of targeted grants and
R2.47 million of staged loans.

R250 000Founder capital

300 doesBy Year 5

R1.49mYear 5 cash revenue

R1.40mYear 5 net asset value

Read the executive summary →

A goat enterprise grows by not selling. Every doeling retained instead of sold adds
to next season’s breeding capacity, which is how Thaba Goats reaches 300 breeding does from a starting 50 on
only R250,000 of founder capital. It also creates the number a funder has to read carefully: reported Year 5 EBITDA
of R669,000 includes R305,000 of herd growth, so only R364,000 is cash, and cash EBITDA is negative until Year 5.
The plan reports both figures side by side rather than leading with the flattering one. The other two things that
decide the outcome are kid mortality, which the industry names as its single biggest constraint, and the informal
market, which pays more for the same animal than the abattoir does.

The plan at a glance

Six measures that determine whether this staged roadmap and its funding stand up.

R250 000Founder capital requiredThe actual owner contribution. R1.37m of grants and R2.47m of staged loans are raised against delivered stages.

50 → 300Breeding does, Year 1 to Year 5Five separately funded stages, each gated on the previous one delivering its reproduction and mortality targets.

129Break-even herdThe doe herd that covers the fixed cost base. The enterprise crosses it during Year 4.

R5 532Gross margin per doe at Year 5Rising as kids weaned per doe improves from 1.38 to 1.94 while fixed costs barely move.

R364kOf R669k Year 5 EBITDA is cashThe rest is herd growth — real value, but not money available to service debt.

R1.40mYear 5 net asset valueOf which R902,000 is the breeding herd itself. The animals are the balance sheet.

Read this number carefully

The gap between reported EBITDA and cash EBITDA — which in a livestock business is the difference between value created and money available.

R669kYear 5 EBITDA, as reportedIncludes R305,000 of herd growth — the value of doelings retained rather than sold. Real, but not spendable.

of which

R364kIs actually cashCash EBITDA is negative until Year 5. This is the number that services debt, and the plan reports it separately rather than burying it.

Five years of trading

Cash revenue and EBITDA on the base case. Kid mortality and the blended goat price are the two assumptions that matter most, and both are stressed in Section 18.

Cash revenue build, Year 1 to Year 5

Cash revenue is goats actually sold. Sales rise from 39 head to 426 as the doe herd grows from 50 to 300, at a blended price climbing from R2,398 to R3,292.

Year 1

R108k

Year 2

R151k

Year 3

R336k

Year 4

R670k

Year 5

R1,490k

EBITDA, Year 4 onward — and how much of it is cash

Years 1 to 3 run EBITDA deficits of R148k, R111k and R61k. More importantly, cash EBITDA stays negative until Year 5: much of the reported EBITDA is herd growth, not money in the bank.

Year 4

R87k · R-115k cash

Year 5

R669k · R364k cash

Why this plan works

The herd is the growth engine, not the capital310 doelings are retained rather than sold across five years. That retention is what compounds the herd from 50 does to 300, and it is why reported EBITDA runs well ahead of cash.

The informal market pays better than the abattoirLive sales into cultural and ceremonial demand out-price the formal channel for the same animal. The route to market is built around that fact rather than around slaughter throughput.

Kid mortality is the named constraintThe industry identifies it as the single biggest determinant of profitability. Kids weaned per doe rising from 1.38 to 1.94 is the assumption a funder should test hardest.

Staged funding against gatesFive stages, each raised separately and each conditional on the previous one hitting its reproduction and mortality targets. R250,000 of founder capital, not R2.45 million.

Fixed costs barely move as the herd scalesGross margin per doe climbs to R5,532 while the fixed cost base grows slowly. That divergence is the whole operating leverage story.

Financial snapshot

Four charts from the plan. The full set of twenty-four appears throughout the sections below.

Figure 2. EBITDA and cash EBITDA — the gap is herd growth.

Figure 10. Kid survival and doe mortality against the stage gates.

Figure 14. Gross margin per doe scales; fixed cost barely moves.

Figure 20. The herd crosses its own break-even during Year 4.

Twenty-four sections and six appendices. Every page carries full navigation, a section outline and links to the sections either side of it.

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Important NoticeBasis of preparation, data sources, forward-looking statement caveats and confidentiality terms. Please read first.

Appendices

Confidential. This document has been prepared in support of a funding proposal by
Thaba Goats and may not be reproduced or distributed without written consent. Projections are forward-looking
statements based on the assumptions registered in Appendix C and are not guarantees of future performance.