Poultry turns a golden goose for Rohini Minerals

• 16 Dec, 2018
• India

Hyderabad: This August when US investment banking firm Goldman Sachs acquired a 60 per cent stake in Hyderabad-headquartered Rohini Minerals, it was a sign that the poultry feed business was a promising segment.

The upward curve of Rohini’s business too was a proof. The company was started in 2004 as a backward integration with a capacity to make 500 tonne feed a month to mainly to cater to SR Hatcheries. But within a decade, Rohini saw the demand go up following which its capacity rose ten-fold to 50,000 tonne. It sees a demand for about 40,000 a month, the highest in South India.

“It is a proud thing that Goldman Sachs ventured into the animal nutrition segment by taking a 60 per cent stake in our firm,” says Dr G Ranjith Reddy, Managing Director of SR Hatcheries.

Ranjit, along with his friend Dr A Tirupathi Reddy, set up SR Hatcheries Private Limited. The duo, hailing from Warangal, has nurtured the group that boasts revenues of about Rs 1,500 crore and employs about 2,000 people across its breeding, hatching and feed units.

Over the years, SR dabbled with poultry feed, commercial layers, medicines and education.

SR sends eggs to hatching units in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jharkhand, Gujarat and West Bengal for producing chicks. Its broiler farms in Hyderabad have 15 lakh birds. SR also has breeding farms in Uganda and Kenya, where it has more than 10 lakh birds.

Ranjith describes Tirupathi as his partner, friend, brother and soulmate for 35 years now. From being classmates to earning a degree in veterinary sciences to working in Singh Poultry together to starting their own enterprise, they have stuck with each other through thick and thin from 1982.

“We invested Rs 25 lakh into the business then. Many advised against setting up own enterprise. But we went ahead with our idea, putting our flourishing careers at risk. If we were to fail, we would come back to jobs,” says Ranjith. Getting a Rs 16 lakh from the banks too was not easy then.

At that time, he says, the poultry sector was mostly unorganized. The price of chicks was as low as Rs 3. Price apart, there were other risks in the form of disease and high mortality. Logistics too was a problem, he says.

Tide turned for them with chick fetching more than four-fold. They sold them at Rs 13. The eight months waiting period from setting up the farm and getting the first batch of birds eased the difficulties in the sector. In a short time, the capacity increased from 8,000 birds to 25,000 birds. Now, the brood has five lakh birds to produce a clutch with 50 lakh chicks.

Difficult sector
There is a mismatch between supply and demand. Turnovers for the duo once fell to 10 per cent due to price erosion. Livestock is prone to disease and mortality is high. It is perishable and hence cannot be stored to sell when the prices rise. The sector has suffered instances of bird flu too. A bad monsoon meant the feed price going up.

This apart, they have to fight smear campaigns of alleged use of hormones and then there are animal rights activists too. Large numbers in poultry make it impossible to use hormones, he says.

“We are open for investigations any time. If the allegations prove true, we will shut the industry,” says Ranjith who is also president for Broiler Breeders’ Association.

“It has not been an easy journey but still exciting,” he says.

https://telanganatoday.com/poultry-turns-a-golden-goose-for-rohini-minerals