Sunshine Seedling Services produces some of the highest quality timber and vegetable seedlings in South Africa. This expert organisation is an example of how a modern agricultural business should be managed, utilising a mixture of innovation, experience and quality. Managing director, Ken Leisegang tells us more…
In South Africa, the forestry and agriculture sectors are hugely important but sometimes undervalued by the general public and the commercial sectors. As the economy continues to develop and moves more towards the provision of secondary and tertiary services, people get caught up in the race towards new technology or unnecessary expertise and forget that agriculture and forestry accounts for more than 3% of GDP and around 10 million direct and indirect jobs – in fact, the government plans to create five million new jobs in the sector by 2020.
One company that understands the importance of the agriculture industry, a company that has had its roots firmly planted in the sector for the last 33 years, is Pietermaritzburg basedSunshine Seedling Services (SSS).
The company is a mixture of nursery expertise, scientific innovation and a focus on quality and founder Ken Leisegang explains that while the business has come a long way since its establishment, SSS is a true industry leader with further ambition for the future.
“We have a winning formula with a winning team. SSS is more professional, customer orientated and quality focused than our competitors. We also have a long and trustworthy history in the industry.
“Annually, we have an ISO 9001 certification audit which is done by the SABS to ensure our quality is maintained. In addition, the seedlings growers’ association certification is done by an independent auditor annually,” he says.
A GROWING BUSINESS
Starting life as a small crop of vegetables in KwaZulu-Natal, the business has seen exponential growth in the past three decades and now boasts two thriving branches, some of the country’s highest quality timber and vegetable seedlings, and large production figures of over 35 million vegetable seedlings annually, 12 million timber seedlings and eight million clones.
“SSS was started in 1982 by myself as a small forestry nursery which expanded into vegetables and then clonal forestry 20 years ago,” explains Leisegang. “I formed the company as I saw the opportunity with the containerised seedling industry starting in SA in the late 1970’s. SSS has not changed much over the years except that it has expanded and become more professional with increased competitiveness.
“We pride ourselves on good quality seedlings. We do this by ensuring our seedlings are well hardened before dispatching. For seedlings that are going to be planted in harsh conditions, we plant in a model 98 tray which ensures the plate is much bigger and is able to withstand the harsh conditions.
“Our growing medium has been developed over the last 30 years and we feel we now have a very good recipe. The four products we use for our growing medium are coya, peat, composted pine bark and vermiculite. To this we add a slow release fertiliser. On the clonal side, we have a slightly different product in that we want good water drainage. For this we use perlite and coya.”
In recent times, the business has seen significant opportunities in two major areas: clonal Eucalyptus and SADC expansion.
“The major successes in the last year have been the expansion into the clonal Eucalyptus market where SSS are now the largest private nursery supplying clonal Eucalyptus material,” says Leisegang.
Sunshine has a selection of GXN, GXU and GXC clones that have been extensively tested across a number of sites.
“Conditions in this market are good due to the increase in demand for Eucalypt clones due to increased pest and disease pressures.”
“SSS is franchising its nursery ideas into the SADC countries at present,” he adds.
THE NURTURING PEOPLE
Of course, the success that the company has witnessed over the years has not been down to just one man. Leisegang has invested heavily in employees and now is proud to say that SSS has more than 130 years of practical and academic experience from qualified agriculturalists and a well-established management team.
“SSS has many employees who have worked here for over 30 years,” he says.
“The great ideas in our company come from networking, experience and good teamwork in management.
“We have an all-inclusive policy where ideas are welcome from all staff members who share in profits that SSS makes.”
And it’s not just employees who receive special attention from SSS – all stakeholders, including the local community, customers, suppliers and government, are important to operations and are therefore important to SSS.
“We rely on our customer base and input suppliers who we have established good relationships with over our many years in business. We believe in supporting local community projects to help further education and skills development. We are SGASA and SABS certified and are the agents for nursery technology specialists, Urbinati, in South Africa,” explains Leisegang.
STUNTED ECONOMY
Despite the successes that SSS has realised through its strong history, there are always challenges that are out of the company’s control. One such problem is the current commercial slump that is consuming the South African economy.
Growth is slowing, unemployment is high, the Rand is having an extremely tough time in the currency markets and energy and fuel continue to cause problems across the nine provinces.
Fortunately, Leisegang says that his industries have so far not seen the effects of slow growth in the economy compared with others. “We are not as concerned as if we were not in forestry and agriculture which have not experienced the downturn in the economy as much as other industries.
“The weakening of the Rand has only affected us in that input costs have increased substantially which will have to be passed on to the end user.”
Away from the traditional economic problems SSS is faced with another challenge and that comes from high input costs and some large scale customers taking their clonal requirements in-house.
“Our industry is highly capital intensive and has become very competitive. The large forestry companies have erected large clonal nurseries to supply their own requirements into the future,” explains Leisegang.
However, the managing director remains positive and the company’s focus on quality is something that will continue to really set it apart, not just in the seedling industry but in the agricultural industry more widely.
“Quality is not questionable when it comes to Sunshine Seedlings,” says Leisegang. “We pride ourselves on our reputation for maintaining consistently high quality seedlings.
“Sunshine Seedlings is the leader in the containerised seedling industry and we are well placed to meet the highest expectations,” he concludes.