CAIRO: In his usual, dynamic fashion, Wadi Group CEO Tony Freiji outlined his firm's expansion plans, just as the company hit its 25th anniversary, at a press conference Wednesday. The Lebanese family-owned agri-business company recently launched restructuring plans, which began in July 2010, for its 12 subsidiaries that operate in the poultry, agri-food and industry sectors. “We see the potential of certain fields that need to be restructured for growth. …If everything is centralized, you are limiting your potential for these businesses to grow on their own,” Freiji highlighted. The news comes as little surprise in light of the steady 25 percent growth rate that the firm has posted annually since 1996. Under the restructuring plan, the Wadi Group will begin to move its poultry production sites down to the deep southern regions in Egypt. As Freiji told Daily News Egypt in an interview following the event, “We intend to move our farms to the south to get away from adjacent farms, because the housing community is moving closer to our production sites; also, the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road has become congested with farms and trucks moving” products back and forth. He continued by saying that although the situation is manageable, the decision to change sites was a “proactive” decision to avoid future hurdles. Concerning feed, Freiji intends on growing the firm's reach “horizontally” by establishing two feed mills in Sadat City, adding that building would commence at the beginning of 2011. As a second pillar of the restructuring process, in the field of agriculture, the firm is examining planting 2,000 acres of industrial tomatoes in southern Egypt. In Sudan, Wadi is in the process of both planting 50,000 acres of grain and peanuts, as well as preparing to double the breeder farms, which will produce 42 million broiler chicks per year. Through these efforts, “we will have a dominant market share, which will be consolidated further,” he stated. A new feed mill is also being constructed in Sudan to produce 150,000 tons of poultry feed per animal. On the industry front, a crushing plant — a solvent extraction plant to be precise, which is used to extract cooking oil from oil seeds, such as sunflower will be built. The plant will produce 46,000 tons of cooking oil and 240,000 of soybean meal used in animal feed. As far as glass production is concerned, the new furnace already is up and running as of this year, and is ramping up production, with 108,000 of packed container glass per animal — 70 percent of which will be exported. Finally, Wadi Phosphates, a cluster of eight plants, will produce phosphate derivates for agriculture, animal feed and industry. “This is going to keep me busy for a long time,” Freiji chuckled. Asked whether his responsibilities would change as CEO due to the significant restructuring, Freiji quickly modified his tone, becoming more serious, affirming that they would, indeed. “We have been preparing for these changes for some time by empowering our staff to take over,” he pointed out. “Unless you can empower your staff to, literally, take over your job, you cannot grow the company.” Freiji and the rest of Wadi's senior staff have been fostering this culture within the firm, he said. Already, Wadi has selected specific staff members to lead the newly created divisions within the firm, such as poultry or agriculture. A few key posts will be filled, such as the head of the industrial division, in the coming months. The firm's personnel will grow from 3,800 to 5,000 employees by 2013. Now that the day-to-day managerial aspects of the business have been handed down, Freiji foresees having a freer hand to channel his energy and focus on strategy and expansion plans. He commented that these two areas are “key to his heart” and “keep him going.”
