South Africa’s leading pork manufacturer Eskort has lamented the cost of the energy and water crises on its operations after spending nearly R20 million on diesel and water supply in the year to date, but said it had no choice but to adapt to survive the impact of load shedding.
This comes as 2023 signalled a severe escalation in the country’s power supply crisis as Eskom implemented more than 332 days of load shedding, the worst in any year.
The ongoing energy crisis has crippled economic activity and plunged businesses into dire straits as they incur additional costs to keep the lights on and their doors open.
Eskort yesterday unveiled its 10 000m² Gauteng production capacity in Heidelberg, which was expanded by 50% in a bid to increase production to meet retail needs.
Eskort CEO Arnold Prinsloo said yesterday that the 107-year-old pork producer had not been spared the impact of the power cuts, and had to invest heavily in keeping the plant operational.
“We battled a bit with load shedding. We were forced to install a few generators, so we installed four new generators. And these generators can generate 4 megawatts of electricity. That’s equal to 800 households of electricity that we’ve got here,” Prinsloo said.
“So, we spent a lot of money on electricity. So for the year to date, we’ve paid R9.5m for diesel to operate those generators.
“As you know, in this country the rules of the game have changed. If you don’t provide your own electricity, you don’t provide your own water, you’re going to have trouble. We spent R10m on this site to drill four boreholes and to put up a water purification plant. And that is money you lose on your bottom line. You get nothing for it when the government is supposed to supply you.”
Eskort said the opening of the factory extension in Heidelberg marked the next phase of growth for the company started in the small KwaZulu-Natal Midlands town of Estcourt in 1917.
Eskort’s farmers are shareholders in the company, its pork is antibiotic-free, and it has made a massive investment in biosecurity – backed by international and local certification – meaning its premium export-quality products enjoy the trust of consumers.
Prinsloo said the factory extension was a sign of Eskort’s resilience, adaptability and vision, and testament to the efficacy of the leadership lessons it has absorbed over more than a century.
He said they had a strategic session in 2021 where it was decided to double the size of business following the listeriosis outbreak, and they were on the way to get there by 2025.
“Our growth, or the accelerated growth, actually started in 2018 during listeria. We actually thought it’s the end of the world, which it was not. It created a lot of opportunities for us. As you know, our main opposition, Enterprise, had to close their two factories, and we gained some more market share,” he said.
“Then, when Covid-19 happened, we also thought it’s the end of the world, and it wasn’t for us. We sold more and more meat because people started making solid home-grown meals at home. They were braaing more, they had more time to prepare meals and our sales picked up. So we’re quite fortunate, most of our butchery guys or our Eskort store guys are young.”
Nkululeko Luthuli, the first franchisee-owned Eskort store in the country in Soweto, said he had been in the meat-processing business for almost 14 years before meeting with Eskort in 2018 around the listeriosis period.
“I was manufacturing products in Empangeni but we all had the same problem around listeriosis. So we worked together. Unfortunately, our factory had to close because the industry was shut down for a number of months,” Luthuli said.
“Arnold helped me rebuild my business, basically. At the time they were starting with the retail division, and he gave me an opportunity to set up a franchise. It started in 2018 with Eskort.”
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