By Deon Schlechter
WINDHOEK – Meatco, a 100 percent Namibian company, has acquired a 25 percent shareholding in Global Protein Solutions (GPS), a world-class protein marketing and trading company with an international footprint with its head office in London, United Kingdom.
More often than not foreign companies acquire shares in African companies and a lot of the economic benefits derived by those businesses are funnelled out of Africa. In Meatco’s case, with the shares they acquired, it is just the other way around – with economic benefits being funnelled from developed nations back into Namibia, says Mario Poolman, manager communications and marketing of Meatco. “Since signing the agreement in 2008, GPS has assisted Meatco in the development of new products, specifications and production efficiencies, EU ethical and CSR management, global industry dynamics, marketing, administration, as well as sales. They have helped the corporation move from a production-led, commodity-based marketing approach to a market-led, niche supplier of high value, differentiated products. This has seen returns from international markets increase substantially,” he said on announcing the 25 percent shareholding yesterday.
Poolman says the company possesses unique and specialised skills in terms of marketing a wide range of protein products on a global scale. Meatco entered into a service level agreement with GPS in 2008 to complement Meatco UK’s core team. GPS brought a group of expert global traders, specialising in supply chain infrastructure, market development knowledge and global sales and marketing experience to the group. The purchase of 25 percent of shares in GPS is part of Meatco’s overall strategy to further integrate into the entire value chain to increase cost efficiencies across the business and to enhance current access to skills sets in the corporation.
GPS operates on a global scale and this not only provides Meatco guaranteed access to these trading and marketing skills, but will also result in additional cash inflows into the corporation from activities outside our borders. “The purchase of shares in GPS is the beginning of a new era for Meatco,” says CEO, Adv. Vekuii Rukoro. “It makes it possible for us to access earnings from the trade of other sources of protein internationally, while giving us improved security over critical resources we need to ensure continuous growth for the future.”