THE Uitenhage-based Sovereign Foods, South Africa’s third largest poultry producer and one of Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s largest food manufacturing firms and employers, has received the highest honour of South Africanness on the 70th year of its existence.
“We are pleased to announce that our company was rigorously assessed by and admitted to the Proudly South African league which celebrates organisations with the highest standards and compliance in relation to local content, fair labour practices, sound environmental standards, and product quality,” announced Gerald Walter, Sovereign Foods Director of Marketing and Sales.
Sovereign Foods began in 1948 as a family business in Rocklands near Uitenhage and today holds fully integrated agro-processing operations in Uitenhage and Hartebeespoort serving major consumer, retail and catering markets in South Africa.
The company supplies raw and manufactured value-added poultry products and meal solutions for South African households through the retail and quick service restaurant (QSR) channels.
Proudly South African was formed to address South African government’s socio- economic developmental goals of rural development, land reform, education, health, and job creation through the advent of a “buy local” initiative that bolsters local procurement, local economy investment and unlocking of economic multiplier effect.
“The Proudly South African admission, in the seventh decade of the company’s existence, is not only special for all Sovereign staff, but also for our strategic partners and clients as well as suppliers.
“It is only through harmonization of this tripartite comprising employees, clients, and our service providers and vendors which has delivered excellent results to date that we can really celebrate what the Proudly South African initiative sets out to do in terms of engendering socio-economic change, progress, poverty alleviation, South African economic growth and retaining employment opportunities on home ground,” said Walter.
Commenting on Proudly South African, Chris Coombes Sovereign Foods’ CEO said:
“As much as we plan to invest in communities with innovative CSI programmes and in the development of staff, we also plan to invest in world-class farming and processing assets. And, by embracing innovation and disruption across the social, business and environmental dimensions of our business, we plan to make haste on our goal of being the number one poultry producer in South Africa based on production volumes.”
– REPORTER
