KING OF THE ROOST
NUTRIMIX 'BOSS'
EXPLAINS HOW HE PLUCKED
CHICKEN MARKET
By Sherry Ann Singh
Business Guardian
February 24, 2000
Page 1
Going into soya oil production.
Fourteen-year-old Junior is observing tall cranes install a conveyor
atop his father's new 140-foot silos at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.
It
is a school day but he has taken the day off.
His
classmates at Barrackpore Senior Comprehensive are being schooled in algebra
and English, but Junior is more interested in the construction taking place.
Shaheed
Mohammed, his father, does not mind that his son has chosen to cut classes for
the day.
In
fact he welcomes it.
"The
key to success is to bring your children in the business early. A little bit of education and plenty
(common) sense is all you need."
Mohammed
knows a thing or two about success.
He
has single-handedly pulled himself out of poverty to rule his own
Southern-based poultry empire. Mohammed
is the "chief" at the Nutrimix Group of Companies, parent company of
the country's most powerful chicken producer, the Nutrimix poultry processing
plant at Union Road, Marabella.
The
plant's power is not so much in its size (its market share is now 40 percent,
about the same as the Supermix/Arawak Group) but its influence on the industry.
The
Nutrimix Group sells in the vicinity of 2000,000 heads of chicken a week in
both the live and processed markets.
Poultry
producers are still reeling from last year's price war instigated by Nutrimix,
which slashed its price right down to $1.69 a pound for the live birds. From $4.50 a pound in January, the price of
eh birds were reduced initially to $2.50 a pound and kept tumbling. Today live poultry costs $3.25 a pound. At the time, competing producers were forced
to bring down their prices "below production costs" and claimed they
were losing $3 million a week as a result.
In
the end the company walked away with a 50 percent increase in its market share.
"I
got what I wanted. We are fair. It is an open market," Mohammed said of
the price war.
Back
then he had even refused an invitation to attend a meeting called by the
Poultry Association to discuss what they viewed as a crisis in the industry.
"Their
meeting was pointless - they can't do anything without me," he had said
even as he boycotted the meeting.
He
runs his business with the same touch of arrogance.
Mohammed
insists that he be referred to as the Nutrimix "boss". He will accept no lesser designation. And he is unforgiving to anyone who dares
forget who he is or mistakes his role.
He
recalls how during a visit to one of his plants, a worker approached him with a
request for a broom to carry out a cleaning job.
"I
asked him if I was the only person he could get a broom from. What about his supervisor? His manager? Can you call Sabga (a reference to the ANSA McAL Group chairman)
and tell him you have run out of ink?" he asked.
"The
very next day I fired him (the worker)."
At
his son Shameer's office at the site of the Nutrimix Processing plant - a
plaque on the wall reads: "Leadership is action, not position."
Father
and son appear to share the same work philosophy.
"I'm
not a position man, I'm an action man.
I want to get things done. I
don't want to be called a CEO, that's not my name, that's a worker's title. I don't think it's absolutely necessary
because I don't need to convince anyone to get something. I can get it without that and can get it
very well faster too. I have no board
to report to and want none to report to me," Mohammed senior said.
Now
47, Mohammed has been in semi-retirement for the past two years, but though
relieved of most executive functions, is still the one giving orders.
He
goes into the offices of the Nutrimix plant just once a week and that he says
is just to "mingle with the staff".
He does not have an office of his own.
A
fraction of his days (no more than two hours) is spent communicating with his
key managers by phone and 'the other six hours I am liming." By far his favourite hang out spots are
Jenny's restaurants in San Fernando and on Cipriani Boulevard where he feels at
home with the owners, his long time friends, Jenny Basdeo and husband,
Sharma. Today is a "busy" day
for Mohammed. He has left his
Barrackpore home at the crack of dawn to journey down to the Point Lisas site
for the erection of the conveyors.
Because
of the delicate nature of the job, he wants to be there himself.
Mohammed
is watchful and often critical as the men manoeuvre the main conveyor belt atop
the silos. Intermittently, he breaks
the interview to point out some of the intricacies involved, drawing on the
knowledge he gained at his first job as a 14-year-old apprentice mechanic with
PTSC.
"If
they're not careful, the whole thing can crumble," he said with concern.
The
current project is very close to his heart.
In
fact, there are big plans for Nutrimix's seven acres of land at Point Lisas on
which its storage facilities are located.
Apart
from the three silos which are 90 percent complete, three more will be erected
by May to accommodate the needs of an additional plant, in another line of
business, which will be set up in the next two years.
Junior,
too, has a special interest in the new plant since it is he who will run it
when it opens.
"You
have to throw them in and they will learn by trial and error," Mohammed
remarked.
Shameer
was just 16 when he was appointed managing director of the Nutrimix poultry
processing plant.
Besides,
Junior is already being groomed for his position, and is a frequent visitor to
the various divisions of the company, to observe their daily operations.
"What
you learn practically no one can teach you in school. I'm a practical man and I tend to lean that side…Education is
what you buy; it is someone else's product; sense is what you create, what you
develop for yourself."
Mohammed
has lived by those statements, having received little formal education himself.
His
father, the sole breadwinner, could barely feed his 10 children, let alone send
them to secondary school on a cane farmer's salary.
Ironically,
the very source of Mohammed's fortune - chickens - was shunned in his home.
The
family never ate poultry. Some members
still do not eat chicken at all, while Mohammed himself favours fish.
In
fact, the chicken producer first tasted the bird in the late sixties, about the
same time he got into the business.
It
was from a relative that Mohammed was inspired to go into poultry production.
He
observed that the relative, himself a poultry producer, was not managing his
business properly and had to slaughter his older chickens prematurely in order
to buy feed for the younger ones.
The
industrious young Mohammed felt he could do a better job and used his PTSC
savings to purchase 100 chickens, which he sold from his home in Barrackpore
where he still lives today.
The
relative's business eventually went bust, but Mohammed's began to bloom.
The
Nutrimix Group into which his business grew, now comprises about 10 divisions
including Nutrina Farms, Nutrimix Grain Terminal, United Hatcheries, a Protein
Recovery Plant, Nutrimix Poultry Processing Plant, Nutrimix feed mill, Nutrimix
Transport and Nutrimix Construction.
The
company employs close to 600 and has about $300 million in plant and equipment,
which, Mohammed says, is "more than all my competitors put together."
Understanding
the importance of sanitation in a business such as his, Mohammed uses strict
sanitation procedures throughout his operations.
At
the poultry processing plant, waste is trapped at every stage of the operation.
Next-door
is the protein recovery plant, which uses a steaming process to cook the
chicken blood, guts and other mater into a coffee-like powder, which is reused
in feed manufacturing.
Even
the factory water is collected and treated before it is released back into the
natural waterway.
Mohammed
said when it becomes more cost effective to do so, Nutrimix, whose water
consumption is 10,000 tonnes a week, may further treat the water and recycle it
in its operations instead of purchasing from WASA.
During
the tour of the plants and within the office, the employees are respectful yet
comfortable with "Mr. Shaheed".
His
slight frame casually dressed in grey and blue long-sleeved plaid shirt and
dark blue trousers his presence is anything but intimidating.
However,
the flash of a heavy gold band circling a finger and matching $100,000
Presidential Rolex watch lend a mark of distinction.
Mohammed
has paid his dues and is now savoring the rewards.
He
travels often. There are plans to fully
surrender the reins of power to elder son Shameer in two years. Then he can devote even more time to his
wife of 14 years, Joy, and two-year-old son, Joshua.
"Having
worked to build the business, the business must work to build me," he
states. For now, he's looking forward
to what his last couple of years in the business will bring.
"The
poultry industry is warming up. There's
another exciting year coming up," he promised, though withholding details.
Poultry
giant, Nutrimix Group of Companies, has unveiled plans to enter into cooking
oil production.
By
2002, the company is expected to be fully engaged in vegetable oil production,
churning out some 40 tonnes of oil a day.
Nutrimix
boss, Shaheed Mohammed, said in a Business Guardian interview on Monday that in
about 18 months, his company will being producing soya oil for domestic
consumption and export at a soon to be established plant at Pt Lisas.
He
said this venture would enable consumers to purchase vegetable oil at half the
price they how purchase it at from sole supplier, National Flour Mills (NFM).
The
$200 million plant will be built on 7 acres of land at Pt Lisas, currently the
site of Nutrimix's 14,000 tonne corn and soya bean warehouse.
Six
additional silos are being built to boost the existing storage facilities, which
will become inadequate when the new plant is set up.
Each
silo will be 140 feet high with a storage capacity of 3,000 tonnes. They will form "the largest private
grain terminal in the region" according to Mohammed.
Work
on the project began in July last year and three of those silos are already
close to completion. At the moment
conveyor belts are being placed atop them to enable the tanks to be filled.
The
other three will be built by May. Soon
after, construction of the plant will begin.
It is expected to employ about 100.
The
plant and silos together represent a $300 million investment, which Mohammed
said is being financed by a combination of about 20 local and foreign
institutions. These include banks,
shareholders and "other companies."
When
pressed Mohammed said the identity of those financiers was
"confidential."
His
decision to enter into vegetable oil production, he said, was based upon the
monopoly advantage that NFM has in that market.
"There
is no justification for NFM selling oil at $11 a litre," he said.
He
said the oil is overpriced simply because NFM finds itself without competition.
He
explained further that it did not make sense to import the product because of
the 55 percent duty, which it attracts.
The
plant's capacity will be just enough to cover the country's daily cooking oil
consumption.
The
soya plant will also complement the company's feed milling operations since its
soya meal by-product will be used to make chicken feed.
Nutrimix
will continue to source all of its raw material externally.
The
company imports corn from the United States Farmers Co-operative and buys soya
meal from Maple Leaf Foods, Canada's largest food company.
Nutrimix
has employed aggressive sales techniques to gain a stronghold in the poultry
industry.
The
company now has a 40 percent market share.
At its Marabella plant it processes a bird every second and the group
sells over 200,000 heads of chicken a week.