The overall purpose of this role is to optimize all animal feed formulations (poultry, ruminants, swine, rabbits, horse, monkey, and lab animals) as well as monitor Kenchic Formulations on a monthly basis and/or as often as need arises to deliver quality, good formula margins, and on-time resolution of nutrition-related complaints for Unga. This maintains Unga's reputation through good quality, translating to good performance of animals fed on our products, staying competitive to maintain market share throughout East Africa.
The role also involves innovative development of new products based on market gaps and conducting trials that analyze production costs against commodity prices. Additionally, the role includes technical capacity building for the sales team on swine and rabbits to help exploit the market and increase revenue for Unga, while leveraging emerging technologies.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Nakuru & Nairobi Plant Feed Formulations
Timely & quality optimization of all animal feed formulations (poultry, ruminants, swine, rabbits, horses, monkeys, lab animals, etc.).
Monitoring of Kenchic Formulations
Perform regular/standby least cost reformulations on a need basis.
Hold raw material planning meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month with procurement, plant managers, business development manager, and Farm Care business controller.
Gather raw material prices from procurement for market prices and system prices from plant controller.
Hold formulation meetings with Trouw every 3rd Wednesday of the month to discuss next month formulations, new technologies, and formulation insights. Compile formulation report with raw material prices, limitations, and sales forecast.
Share monthly formulations with plant managers for implementation.
Attend weekly planning meetings on Mondays to align nutrition-related needs.
Prepare raw material proximate averages for recently analyzed raw materials.
Mineral Plant Formulations
Review mineral and premixes formulations once a year due to consistent raw material quality.
Align in-house premixes and mineral formulations in Bestmix.
Fish Plant Formulations
Prepare monthly formulation data and send to Trouw by the 18th of every month indicating raw material limits, prices, and sales forecast.
Follow up with plant QAO for analysis of available raw materials and NIR updates in Nutriopt.
Send approved formulations to Plant Controller, Feeds Plant Manager, Production Team, and QAO for implementation.
Plan monthly fish reformulation meetings with Tunga GM, production lead, and QAO.
Production Planning
Prepare monthly raw material forecasts for Nairobi, Nakuru, and Tunga plants based on sales forecasts.
Assist procurement in purchasing raw materials by suggesting alternative suppliers and running parametrics on new/alternative raw material prices in formulation software.
Suggest alternative/unconventional raw materials (e.g., BSF, lupins, croton).
Swine & Rabbit Technical Advisory
Monitor sales of revamped ranges in the market alongside sales/marketing teams for volume growth.
Develop new products based on market gaps (e.g., Pig Grower in line with KEBS standards).
Upload pig information and performance calculators to the Fugo Smart app.
Support sales team with technical information and conduct performance trials for swine and rabbits.
Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Issue Resolution
Align and sign off on raw material and finished product specifications.
Ensure raw materials and finished products are properly coded in NIR.
Work with the QA department to resolve nutritional customer complaints.
Follow up with production to ensure correct formulations are implemented.
Qualifications & Requirements
Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Health and Production, Animal Science, Animal Nutrition, or equivalent.
Minimum of 4 years’ working experience.
Knowledge of feed formulation software.
Strong analytical skills and research ability for new product development.
Computer literacy with advanced spreadsheet knowledge.
