Astral Foods
Executive Committee
Christiaan Ernst Schutte (63)
Christiaan Ernst Schutte (63)
Chris started his career in the Poultry Industry after a five-year contract with the South African Air Force. He joined Golden Lay Farms, a division of Tiger Oats in 1984 as an Assistant Farm Manager. Chris progressed through the ranks of Golden Lay a table egg producer, to emerge as the Sales Director before joining Astral Foods in 2002. At the time he was appointed as Retail Sales Manager for Meadow Feeds, then being promoted to National Sales Manager for the Feed Division. In 2004 Chris was appointed as Managing Director for Astral’s Feed Division, and later appointed to the Astral’s Board in 2006. In 2009 Chris was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Astral.
Dries Ferreira (45)
Dries Ferreira (45)
Dries graduated from the University of Port Elizabeth (now NMU) and later qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) in 2004 after completing his articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. He was appointed CFO and Executive Director of Dawn Limited in 2007. Subsequently, Dries established a business providing niche turnaround, corporate finance advisory and various other C-suite solutions to clients in South Africa and Europe. This included serving as the CFO of Newpark REIT Limited as well as European CFO of a multinational ICT turnaround group. Dries has extensive experience serving as Executive Director in the listed company space. He was appointed as CFO Designate of Astral on 10 January 2022.
Gary Arnold (51)
Gary Arnold (51)
Gary started his career in 1997 as Animal Nutritionist for Meadow Feeds Delmas and Meadow Feeds Welkom. In 1998 he was appointed as the Technical Manager for Meadow Feeds Delmas and in 2001 he was appointed as the Technical Manager for Meadow Feeds northern region. In 2004 he was appointed as the Managing Director of Provimi SSA (previously Nutec Southern Africa) and in 2006 he was appointed to the position of COO for Meadow Feeds in the Western Cape. Gary was appointed as Director: Business Development of Astral Operations Ltd on 1 November 2010 and in October 2016 he was appointed to the position of Managing Director of Astral’s Agriculture Division. Effective 1 October 2021, Gary was appointed as Group COO of Astral. This position is to optimise expansion opportunities and continuous improvement initiatives, whilst effectively allocating capital and human resources across all Astral divisions.
Frans van Heerden (43)
Frans van Heerden (43)
Frans started his career with the Group 15 years ago when he joined Astral’s Internal Audit Department. He was subsequently appointed to different Financial Manager positions within the Group, and on 1 June 2017 promoted to COO of the Poultry Commercial Division: Central Region. On 1 November 2020, he was appointed as the Managing Director of the Group’s Poultry Commercial Division and effective 1 October 2021 to the Board as an Executive Director.
Michael Schmitz (62)
Michael Schmitz (62)
Michael joined Meadow Feeds in 1987. In 2017 he was promoted to his current position as Managing Director of the Feed Division.
Obed Lukhele (48)
Obed Lukhele (48)
Obed joined Astral in May 2007 and has occupied different positions of veterinary support and strategy. In 2022 he was appointed as Managing Director: Poultry Agriculture until 31 August 2023. Effective 1 September 2023, Obed has taken on the role of Technical Executive: Agriculture, heading up a centre of excellence encompassing poultry nutrition, poultry veterinary sciences, biosecurity and laboratory services.
Nikki Moodley (53)
Nikki Moodley (53)
Nikki joined Astral in January 2016. She is responsible for improving operations and supply chain management. She also has experience in food safety and quality, environmental, health and safety and risk management.
Evert Potgieter (53)
Evert Potgieter (53)
Evert joined Astral in 2006 as Internal Audit Manager. Evert’s current responsibilities include the Internal Audit Department, risk management, insurance, continuous improvement programme and IT for the Group
Gerhard Pretorius (47)
Gerhard Pretorius (47)
Gerhard joined Meadow Feeds in 1999. In 2015 he became the Nutritional Manager Poultry in the Agricultural Division
Anil Rambally (51)
Anil Rambally (51)
Anil joined Astral in 1999 and was promoted in 2009 to Executive Manager: Preferential Purchasing for Astral. He is currently responsible for environmental initiatives as well as the vetting of suppliers.
Colin Smith (62)
Colin Smith (62)
Colin joined Astral in 2011 as COO of Festive. He is currently the head of the Marketing Division of Astral.
Gideon Jordaan (49)
Gideon Jordaan (49)
Gideon joined Astral in August 2019. He is responsible for Human Resources, transformation and sustainability.
Louis Vermaas (51)
Louis Vermaas (51)
Louis started his career with Earlybird in 1994. He left Astral 2004 and in 2012 he rejoined Astral.
Gerrit Visser (65)
Gerrit Visser (65)
Gerrit joined County Fair in 1989 as an Industrial Engineering Technician and became COO of County Fair in 2008. He has been in the role of Processing Executive since 2017.
Hugo Buys (64)
Hugo Buys (64)
Hugo joined Astral in 2004 as Procurement Manager. He was promoted to Group Procurement Manager in April 2022.
Kenny Schoeman (42)
Kenny Schoeman (42)
Kenny’s qualifications are CA(SA), ACMA, GCMA and LLB. He started his career with Astral in 2010 as Financial Manager: Feed Division, Mozambique until 2011. He left Astral for six months and rejoined the Group in August 2011 as Financial Manager: Poultry Division, Mountain Valley and transferred to Festive in 2013. In 2015 he was appointed COO of Festive and in 2017 Operations Manager: Poultry Division, Central Region. In 2018 Kenny was appointed as Financial Manager: Poultry Division, Central Region. In 2022 he was promoted to Business Development Manager of the Group.
