Astral Foods
Executive Committee
Gary Arnold
Gary Arnold
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. Gary was appointed as Chief Executive officer on 1 February 2025.
Dries Ferreira
Dries Ferreira
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.
Michael Schmitz
Michael Schmitz
Michael joined Meadow Feeds in 1987. In 2017 he was promoted to his current position as Managing Director of the Feed Division.
Obed Lukhele
Obed Lukhele
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
Nikki Moodley
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
Evert Potgieter
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
Gideon Jordaan
Gideon Jordaan
Gideon joined Astral in August 2019. He is responsible for Human Resources, transformation and sustainability.
Louis Vermaas
Louis Vermaas
Louis started his career with Earlybird in 1994. He left Astral 2004 and in 2012 he rejoined Astral.
Kenny Schoeman
Kenny Schoeman
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. Kenny was appointed as Managing Director of Agriculture on 1 July 2024, and was appointed as Poultry Processing Executive with effect from 1 February 2025.
