IAN WHITE

 

 

·       UK Trained with over 40 years International experience in design, construction and operational implementation            for international supermarkets and integrated food businesses. 

 

·       Project experience in some 80 countries including 20 in Africa.

 

·       Former Director of Horticold – UK, South Africa and Spain.

 

·       Involvement in the design and implementation of over 2000 projects in the fresh produce industry worldwide.

 

·       Key member of the Tropical Africa Advisory group for the UK DTI for more than 10 years.

 

·       Elected Member of the Institute of Directors (UK) 1995.

 

·       Former Director of Fisher Foods.

 

·       Former Operations Director of Cape Concentrate, Africa’s largest tomato processor and one of the top fifteen                 users of tomatoes in the world.

 

·       More than 20 years of experience in food and flower value-added projects in Africa.

 

·       Post-harvest and Cold Chain consulting and assessments – including Post-harvest Technology to increase shelf             life. 

 

·       Design and construction of cold storage, pre-cooling ripening and pack house facilities for fresh produce and                  flowers.

 

·       Design and construction of high-care food factories to World standards: HACCP, ISO, and BRC inter alia.

 

·       Food project consulting. 

 

·       Project evaluation, finance, and implementation.

 

 

Ian has a thorough understanding of the working of fresh produce and Agri-Processing operations worldwide, and has created from start up two world scale processing operations from concept through debt and equity funding to construction and production.

 

He started out in the fresh produce industry in the UK in 1978. This coincided with the UK supermarkets adopting cold chain principles for all fresh produce. A background in refrigeration engineering enabled him to become one of the pioneers and key developers in the cold chain preservation and sustainability system used in the USA, UK, Europe, and increasingly worldwide. The successful implementation of his designs led to increasing opportunities around the world, providing assistance and knowledge to UK supermarkets in preserving quality and shelf life.

 

In 1988 a joint venture company was formed, specializing in providing technology for increasing fresh produce shelf life. Over ten years Horticold developed its own operations with Satellite operations in Spain, Kenya, India and South Africa,

 

By 1998, with over twenty years experience in the industry Ian wanted to become more involved with actual production rather than just supplying technology. In a time scale of less than two years, a business was established at Johannesburg International Airport to supply fresh fruit salads daily to UK supermarkets. During this time the project was taken from concept and equity was raised by bringing in a UK PLC as a partner; debt was secured, and the factory was set out and brought forward for production. The operation was eventually purchased by a South African PLC.

 

In 2008/2009 Ian was the key member of the technical design and adjudication committee for the new multimillion USD Dube Tradeport fresh produce complex at King Shaka Airport in Durban, KZN. This involved the technical design and preparation of tender documents for a number of fresh produce packing and process facilities plus a Tissue Culture complex; a specific technology. 

 

In 2010 in conjunction with partners, Ian secured funding (both debt and equity) to successfully integrate a tomato farming and tomato concentrate processing operation in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. 

 

For this operation, Ian had to design a complete Turn-key facility and supervise the installation of the processing plant from FENCO of Italy in Port Elizabeth and develop extensive farming operations involving both commercial and previously disadvantaged communities. This was the birth of Cape Concentrate.

 

During the course of the next four years, Ian was appointed as the operations director and shareholder of Cape Concentrate. The factory had a capacity of 1000 tonnes per day of fresh tomatoes, around 200,000 tonnes per year which made it the largest of its kind in Africa. 

 

During his tenure as operations director Ian supervised the development of Cape Concentrate’s farming operations up to the point of an agreement with national Government to farm over 1000 hectares of irrigated but previously underutilized land, creating around 700 new jobs in an area where none had existed for over 20 years.

 

IN SHORT

 

Ian possesses extensive knowledge of the food industry. Over half his lifetime was spent working with fresh food and adding value to the business. He has built a number of businesses over the years in the industry and as a result of this, has an in depth and practical understanding of the full cycle of the integration of the food processing industry, from farm to shelf. 

 

Contact: Ian@wellingtonandwhite.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

      STEVEN CHARLES WELLINGTON

 

 

Steven has over 35 years experience in the Food and Agribusiness Sectors and has worked in these sectors in South America (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela), North America, (USA), Europe (Holland, Belgium and Turkey), Asia , (China, Hong Kong and Singapore), Australia,  and Southern Africa, (South Africa, Ghana).

 

Of the 35 years in these sectors, 33 were spent with Cargill Inc.™, one of the world’ s largest Agribusiness, Food Processing and Agricultural Commodity Trading companies.

 

He has worked in senior international management positions in several Agribusiness and Food sectors, managing world scale, multimillion businesses that included areas of Business Development, viability studies, green-field start-ups, expansions, and implementation and overall management of the businesses.

 

These sectors have included:

 

·       Maize processing (Corn Wet Milling); (Brazil, USA, Europe, Turkey and China),

·       Soybean Processing (Brazil and Europe),

·       Beef Abattoirs (Brazil),

·       Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice, FCOJ  (Brazil, Europe and USA),

·       Flour (Brazil),

·       Malt (Argentina),

·       Potato processing (Argentina),

·       Cocoa (Brazil, Ghana),

·       Health and Nutrition Ingredients and Flavours (Southern Africa),

·       International Sugar Trading.

 

 

His first two years with the company (1981-82) were spent managing the Metals Division in Brazil – trading Steel, Copper, Iron Ore and Pig iron before moving definitively to the Agribusiness core.

 

In many of these businesses, responsibilities included management and implementation of Hedging programmes on several international Futures Markets, including CBOT, NYSE, LME and JBX.

 

In the course of managing these businesses, he developed an extensive network within most major international food companies as a customer and supplier base and most major international food equipment and machinery suppliers.

 

He has also held positions on the Board of several food sector associations, including The Brazilian Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice (FCOJ) Association, the Brazilian Meat Exporter’s Association and Vice President of The Brazilian Food Industry Association (ABIA).

 

Steve also held the position of Director and General Manager of a Joint Venture in China, GBT/ Cargill (Corn Wet Milling/High Fructose Corn Syrup) where he had extensive dealings on the HANGSENG (Hong Kong).

 

Over the last 5 years, Steve has worked on a senior international multi-business unit management team charged with several in-depth Business Opportunity and Business Development Studies for Sub-Saharan Africa in the Agribusiness sectors. He also established and managed Cargill FIS for Sub Saharan Africa, a multi-business unit commercial operation which is now rolled into a partnership with a major South African company.

 

Over the last two years he has held the position of Chairman of Cape Concentrate in South Africa, a fully integrated Tomato Farming and Processing (Tomato Concentrate) operation – the largest in Southern Africa. Appointed as Executive Chairman by the majority shareholder, his responsibilities included the restructuring of the company and the securing of Funding for the operation. These have been successfully concluded.

 

Steve is married (1978) to Jussara Campos Wellington, and has two children, Sam Charles, 34 an Aeronautical Engineer (USA) and Tammy Louise, 27, studying for her PhD in Criminal Psychology. He has dual Nationality (Brazil and UK). His native languages are English and Portuguese, and he is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French. Steve currently resides in Johannesburg, RSA.

 

Contact: steve@wellingtonandwhite.com