By MUGAMBI MUTEGI, pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- New facility to be put up at Tigoni to process 30,000 chickens a day, complementing its other Tigoni based processing facility.
Poultry company Kenchic is planning to build a
Sh350 million chicken processing plant in Thika to feed increased demand
for the local and export market.
The plant will have a capacity to slaughter 30,000
chickens per day, complementing its other Tigoni (Limuru) based
processing facility.
The Thika plant will be built on a 24-acre piece
of land in Ngoliba (adjacent to Thika-Garissa road) and which is
currently being used to grow coffee and pineapples.
It proposes to build the factory within two years of receiving necessary regulatory approvals.
“The processing plant will require construction
and operation of a purpose-designed slaughter house, and associated
infrastructure,” says Kenchic in one of its regulatory filings.
The poultry firm’s clients include international
franchises like Steers, Galitos, and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), who
order whole chicken, thighs, drumsticks and wings.
Kenchic, which produces about 600,000 layer and
broiler chicks per week, also supplies chicken to in-flight caterer NAS
Servair, leading hotels and fast food restaurants including over 30
Kenchic inns across the country.
The company also exports its products to Uganda and Tanzania among other countries.
Kenchic’s Kenyan business is made up of a
processing plant in Tigoni, a broiler farm and hatchery in Athi River
and another hatchery in Mombasa.
It also has six breeder farms in Kajiado and
Naivasha and distribution centres in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu,
Meru and Nyeri. It is from the breeder farms that Kenchic sells chicken —
such as the popular Kenbro breed — to farmers.
These farms also serve its Tigoni slaughterhouse and will be the source of live chicken for the upcoming Thika facility.
“Once the site is in operation, chicken will be
bought from farmers and others sourced from existing Kenchic farms and
transported to Thika via road, “the firm notes in the filing.
“After that, the chicken will be processed and later distributed to hotels and Kenchic outlets.”
Kenchic says 200 people will work at the Thika
factory, most of whom will have been redeployed from the Tigoni
slaughterhouse while others will be recruited from the Thika area.
Since 2010, the poultry company has injected a total of Sh1.5 billion into its breeding and hatchery facilities.
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