Processors sink teeth into Angus brands

Consumers want Angus on their plates and ask for it by name, such is the modern-day marketing power of the breed.

Talk to the industry leaders at the forefront of that brand juggernaut and it’s clear it is founded on the ability of Angus cattle producers in Australia to provide consistent volume at the high level of quality required.

Don Mackay, Managing Director of NSW-based operation Rangers Valley which developed the awarding-winning Angus brands Black Onyx and Black Market, said the key to successful beef brands was delivering something unique, consistently.

“We are supplying white tablecloth restaurants and for the people who are their customers, price is not the main consideration but rather the fact it is high quality every time,” he said.

“A brand must deliver something and it has to be lived up to every single time.

“Customers are too smart for just giving something a fancy name.”

Why Angus at Rangers Valley?

“Number one, there is volume available,” Mr Mackay said.

“And number two - Angus provides the best genetics for doing this - high levels of marbling fed for a long time.

“The breed has done a terrific amount of work on developing traits around growth and marbling.”

Angus Australia’s Diana Wood said recent Angus brand launches had come from both large processors and small producer-owned businesses and the majority of Angus brands in Australia were having a lot of success.

“You only need to look at the results being achieved in competitions like the Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards or the World Steak Awards, where Angus brands are regular winners,” she said.

“Angus has a reputation for producing high quality beef and that is driving consumer demand.

“The international success of Angus brands has had a huge impact on the cattle industry. It’s flowing back to the commercial and seedstock industries as buyers are being asked to source more and more Angus cattle.

“This level of demand is driven by the fact Angus breeders are able to provide not only the numbers required by the processors but the quality.”

Kate Brabin, Chief Executive of Certified Angus Group, which owns the two most prominent Angus brands in the country CAAB (Certified Australian Angus Beef) and Angus Pure, said the eating quality of Angus had gone hand-in-hand with Australia’s ever-growing reputation for producing clean, green beef to drive demand for branded product.

CAG is an independently-managed company wholly owned by members of Angus Australia and CAAB, established in 1996, is Australia’s most awarded brand of beef.

In the first half of 2015, an exclusive supply deal was struck between CAG and the largest entirely Australian-owned meat processing company Thomas Foods International.

Since then, sales of CAAB and Angus Pure product had increased, with particularly strong growth in global markets like Korea and Saudi Arabia, Ms Brabin said.

“We’ve also seen new international markets, such as China, open,” she said.

“We’ve been able to tap into the fantastic job Meat and Livestock Australia is doing in those markets of promoting Australian beef with its True Aussie branding.

“That’s a big part of the conversation we are having there and Angus fits perfectly with the concept.”

Domestic sales had also increased under the TFI arrangement, she said.

THE myriad of small operators with Angus brands, along with the larger, more established ones, are going from strength to strength, with many reporting demand is outstripping supply.

For progressive Northern NSW operation Rangers Valley, the move to a more global and domestic outlook was the catalyst for the development of a suite of brands.

Rangers Valley has been in the beef brand game for more than 20 years and Japan was once its only market.

Seven years ago, 75 per cent of its product was still sold into Japan, the majority pure black Angus under the Naruo label and a small amount of Wagyu.

Today, they have four Angus brands, sell into 25 countries and have doubled their feedlot capacity.

Black Onyx, underpinned by a marble score of three, guaranteed Black Angus parentage and on feed for a minimum 270 days, and Black Market, with a marble score of five, has provided the company the opportunity to be more specific in its targeting, according to Managing Director Don Mackay.

“We are only company producing long-fed pure black angus cattle and that, gives us the opportunity for higher returns - it’s a new category for high-end restaurants and retail, a product similar in marble score to that which is typical of Wagyu,” he said.

Black Market and Onyx collect a gold and silver medal at the World Steak Challenge in London in October.

With around 30,000 head of Angus produced per annum, 2500 go into Black Market, about 7500 to Naruo and Highland (mostly loin cuts), sold into Japan only, and 20,000 to Black Onyx.

Black Onyx cattle have an average carcass weight of 460 kilograms and Mr Mackay said Rangers Valley ‘can’t get enough’ to meet the strong demand for high-end product.

However, Rangers Valley is extremely strategic in how its Angus cattle are selected and provides extensive feedback to suppliers.

DNA samples of every animal is taken so the company can provide information to seedstock producers on what genetic lines provide the marbling and growth it needs and to prove traceability.

Angus suppliers come from the Queensland border through to King Island and all points in between.

Seven years ago, the Glen Innes feedlot was only half full.

The facility expanded in 2007 from 25,000 to 32,000 head and increased again by 2000 head last year. It is

licenced to 50,000 and has environmental approval to 40,000 and Rangers Valley is also feeding additional cattle at a feedlot in Southern Queensland.

Continued growth is on the agenda.

“Demand is there for our product - if we don’t supply our customers someone else will,” Mr Mackay said.

“Rangers Valley has always been recognised as a brand of quality, we just became more refined and targeted.”