CAVALIER GROUP: Farming for the Future

Cavalier Group (Cavalier) operates a fully integrated red meat value chain with a national footprint, specialising in the procurement, feed lotting, slaughter, packing, processing and finally distribution of beef, lamb and pork products. Its overarching mission is to create the shortest and most cost-effective route for the freshest red meat products directly from farm to fork, centred around its core values of quality, efficiency, teamwork and integrity.

“Here, we believe in quality, and in the integrity of our products, striving to bring nothing but the very best to your plate,” Cavalier Group stresses. “We always serve only the best quality that we can source from the farms right until it’s on your table. Producing impeccable quality meat for all of our meat lovers in South Africa is something that we pride ourselves deeply on.

“As life-long students of learning, a core pillar of efficiency drives us to strive to do more with less, while making every effort to ensure that all of our meat is of a quality that is unmatchable; this is our first and foremost principle, with no compromise.” 

VERTICAL CHAIN

Today, the Cavalier Group delivers superior product and service via eight integrated companies, details CEO LJ Viviers. “It all starts with Cavalier Livestock,” he begins, “where our team of industry experts works hand in hand with the best farmers in South Africa and feedlots that adhere to the most stringent animal welfare protocols and modern rearing programmes, to raise healthy and happy animals.

“We have livestock agents across the country, that procure both the beef and lamb processed through our supply chain with not only quality, but also sustainability, at the fore,” he furthers, “and our countrywide trading house deals in all different categories of production animals such as goats and sheep, as well,” he says, adding that Cavalier has, too, its own lamb feedlot, which ensures year-round supply without any compromise to quality.

“Cavalier Feeders has its own in-house feed factory and is purpose-built to add final growth to lamb before entering the meat production chain,” Viviers explains, “which is situated on Boekenhout Farm just outside of Pretoria and houses 20,000 head of sheep. Our dedicated in-house team, working with industry experts, assures the very best possible feed and care for each lamb, guaranteeing their wellbeing and health.

“Under constant supervision, the growth of our lambs is continuously monitored to achieve a tender, great-tasting product with the minimum possible impact on our planet.”

The next stage of the all-encompassing value chain is the Cavalier Abattoirs, Viviers goes on, possessing slaughter capacity of 300 cattle and some 2,700 sheep per day. “The slaughter systems that we have implemented at our three abattoirs – two sheep and one cattle, housed on the same premises as our packaging factories and feedlot – are state-of-the-art, and we place top priority on the lasting product integrity and unparalleled shelf-life of carcasses and primal cuts.

“Our commitment to the welfare of animals continues here; we employ only the best and most humane and stress-free practices in the processing of each animal.

“The process then moves into its final steps of retail packing. We operate three retail packing facilities in Cullinan, where we produce retail packed lamb, beef, pork and biltong for one of South Africa’s leading retailers. This represents around 50% of our business. We also retail pack salami in Germiston and produce beef patties for Burger King and Spur in a dedicated factory in Cape Town. Like our partners, Cavalier is synonymous with quality, echoed through our promise to customers in every pack produced with unparalleled care and consideration.

“Innovative packaging and processing equipment, combined with our team of expert butchers, has long seen Cavalier an industry leader in retail-packed protein and globally competitive beef and lamb primal cuts.”

LJ Viviers, CEO

COMBATTING CHALLENGE

“Having the whole chain within our stable is a key differentiator,” Viviers opines of a vertically-integrated value chain which is economically sustainable, environmentally-conscious and people-orientated. “Also setting us apart is that we go into the premium markets in South Africa,” Viviers underlines. “We offer farmers a unique channel for their product, from both a beef and a lamb perspective.”

Cavalier Group also owns and runs an arm of around 35 butcheries situated within our retail partner. “Even though this represents a small portion of the business,” Viviers says, “it gives us a unique opportunity to access that elusive final link of the vertical chain and gives us direct interaction with, and feedback from, consumers,” he relates. “It allows us to see when things are successful, and then operationalise them on a much larger scale.”

Load shedding has been a preoccupation for businesses and industries across South Africa, but as Viviers points out, has been arguably most keenly felt by organisations where keeping products cool and fresh 24/7 is primordial, and entails very high energy consumption. “To combat the impact of this,” Viviers counters, “we have invested in the region of R50 million in alternative energy, in particular solar panels and battery systems. Harnessing the African sun, huge parts of our factories are now powered by solar, and as a company we are stepping up to mitigate, and counteract, whatever carbon footprint and environmental impact may arise from our operations.

“In spite of the prevailing challenges, we have managed to sustain our growth throughout, and are currently busy with three key expansions,” Viviers reveals. “One is at our biltong factory in Cullinan, as well as a substantial expansion of our Germiston salami plant, while we are building a whole new factory in the Western Cape for pork and pork-related products.”

“We have been fortunate to have seen growth and opportunities come our way in the face of the many challenges our industry, and our competitors, have faced.” The current expansions are set to give Cavalier Group a pipeline of growth spanning the next couple of years, Viviers explains, “and then it is all about optimising and growing, seizing more and more opportunities, which we come across even in tough times, to grow further within the country.

“Cavalier Group has known right from the beginning that, in order to achieve in our bid to bring the best meat via the shortest, most efficient end-to-end red meat value chain in South Africa, the grass-roots development of procurement and production disciplines would be required,” Viviers sums up, “based on proven international best practice but tailored to the unique Southern African industry and all of the opportunities, and challenges, which it presents.

“From land to table, Cavalier Group has established itself as a market leader in all sectors of the meat value stream through our peerless subsidiaries, each specialising in its own value-adding process to seamlessly deliver the best quality meat in the country.”