Argyle’s export plant to boost production

APM was born from Argyle Pastoral principal Lachlan Graham's frustration with being a price taker. In 2006 he launched the company which now sells directly to households, food service, boutique supermarkets, all of Australia's largest independent retailers, branded products in Coles and has begun infiltrating the Asian market.

"We started because we were frustrated with lack of control with price, the lack of control with where our products were going and lack of control with any future directional financial planning with budget and farm management," Mr Graham said.

His wife Andrina joined the team in 2007 where her marketing and public relations background has seen the brand grow from days flipping sausages at farmers market to promoting the brand in Hong Kong, China.

The family's history in beef production dates back nearly 80 years and is one of the oldest Angus genetic lines in the country.

Fourth generation farmer Lachlan now manages the APM beef breeding herd that consists of 1250 Angus cows.

The family's long history in beef production has helped the business pitch their hormone and chemical-free meat on sustainability, traceability and carcase quality that allows them to truly offer the paddock-to-plate experience.

In 2008, APM's dedication to carcase quality within their herd's gene pool won them the Certified Australian Angus Beef Marbling (Tenderness) Award, against more than 50,000 Angus cattle.

However, depressed prices and inflated production costs motivated Lachlan and Andrina to ensure their grassroots company succeeded.

"We wanted to be in control of the product," Mr Graham said.

"We started branding our product and getting them processed at the local butcher shop and then delivering them through online orders.

"It was hard work – supplying butchers directly was difficult to manage."

Eventually APM leased the mothballed Harden abattoir site and invested in updated processing machinery that shifted the focus from supplying butchers to retail – selling mainly to online consumers and restaurants from 2009, with a focus on growing the direct to retail market.

"We took a punt and invested a lot of money into the plant/innovative packaging and leased local abattoir that had been closed for eight years," he said.

It was the trigger point for growth that saw the processing operations employment go from six people to 35 in two years.

APM now supplies more than 200 independent, boutique supermarkets across the country including Coles, Superbarn, Harris Farm Markets, Thomas Dux Grocer, Supa IGA, Foodworks and organic health stores.

Last December they launched their products in Hong Kong and anticipate exports to Asian markets within six months. They've opened an office in HK and will target shipping orders for high end retail/food service and wholesale directly.

Next week, APM will commission a new export plant at Bomaderry, NSW, to fill orders to China that is expected to process 280 bodies of beef a day, and 3000 lambs a week.

Beef will be sourced from the Grahams' farms in nearby Shoalhaven and Harden, while they have been building direct contracts with some Southern Highlands and South West Slopes producers.

The new processing plant will be industry leading in innovation and robotics with leading equipment that promotes traceability, control, consistency and yield management, Mr Graham said.

"We will only process prime animals and high-value animals to add value as much as we can," he said.

Prior to the latest export expansion, APM's domestic supply was from their own livestock, including lambs from their 6500 Dorset/Texel/Suffolk/Merino crossbred ewe flock.

The property supplies the majority of the fodder needed across 800 hectares of cereal, oilseed and legume crops, and averages about 200 tonnes of hay annually.

Mr Graham attributes APM's growth and success to on-the-ground customer feedback when they performed in-store demonstrations to promote their meats.

"We've learned from hard work and grown with our feet on the ground and tongs in our hand," he said.

"We've learnt from the consumers... every weekend we weren't working on the farm we were cooking sausages and steaks trying to get people to try our product and grow our business."

He said consumer feedback was also critical to their Asian launch where they have had to reduce their portion size and "give them a product they want".

"We realised three years ago that if we didn't have a China strategy, we didn't have a business strategy at all," he said.