Astral Foods

Astral Foods was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 9 April 2001 and is the leading poultry producer in Southern Africa, driven by a focused strategy “to be the best cost-integrated poultry producer in selected African countries”.

Astral's key activities comprise manufacturing of animal feeds, broiler genetics, production and sale of day-old chicks and hatching eggs, breeder and broiler production, abattoir and further processing operations, and sales and distribution of a variety of much-loved chicken brands.

Today the company is firmly entrenched in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s top 100 listed companies with over 4 000 shareholders. Astral has also been recognised through the 2016 Business Report’s Most Empowered Survey as being the 75th most empowered company on the JSE and a leader among food producers.

Astral’s brands are widely available across retail and wholesale outlets countrywide, in both formal and informal markets. Astral additionally packs selective Dealer Own Brands for a number of key customers.

Goldi
This processing facility is located in Standerton (Mpumalanga). It has its own breeding and hatching operation and processing capacity of approximately 1.8 million broilers per week and uses a large number of contract growers to rear birds for slaughter.

Various well-known brands such as Festive, Goldi and SupaStar are marketed and distributed into the wholesale and retail sectors. Products are supplied to the QSR industry, most notably, Spur, Hungry Lion, KFC, Nando’s and the Famous Brands Group (Wimpy,Steers). Meadow Feeds’ operations, situated in Delmas and Standerton, supply feed to this integrated broiler operation. Goldi, as the largest employer in Standerton, has close links with the community it serves and is proud to put great South African chicken on the plates of customers every day.

County Fair
This processing facility, located in Agter-Paarl (Western Cape), is a fully integrated broiler producer with a processing capacity of approximately 1.7 million broilers per week, including broilers supplied by Tydstroom on a contract grower agreement.

The abattoir supplies birds to a fresh and frozen further processing facility in Epping Industria. A wide range of products are marketed under the County Fair brand. The day-old chicks hatched and placed on the County Fair’s grow-out farms are supplied by its in-house breeding operations. Meadow Feeds, situated in Paarl, supplies all the poultry feed requirements.

County Fair is the leading supplier of fresh chicken in addition to producing other top-quality formats such as frozen and value-added products to the local Western Cape market, as well as to regions nationally, giving it an expansive distribution footprint.

Festive

This processing facility is located in Olifantsfontein (Gauteng). It has its own breeding and hatching operation and processing capacity of approximately 2.3 million broilers per week making use of a large number of contract growers to rear birds for slaughter.

Various well-known brands such as Festive, Goldi and SupaStar are marketed and distributed to the wholesale and retail sectors. Products are supplied to the QSR industry, most notably, Spur, Hungry Lion, KFC, Nando’s and the Famous Brands Group (Wimpy,Steers).

Meadow Feeds’ operations, situated in Randfontein and Delmas, supply feed to this integrated broiler operation.

Mountain Valley
This processing facility, situated in Camperdown (KwaZulu-Natal), provides Astral with a strategic fresh processing presence in KwaZulu-Natal, processing 0.2 million broilers per week.

Meadow Feeds, situated in Pietermaritzburg, supplies feed to Mountain Valley. Mountain Valley has an important role to play within the local community, contributing to job creation and employment in KwaZulu-Natal, and is proud to deliver first-choice quality products to the local consumers in the region.

Earlybird

The Earlybird story began in 1968 as a small farming operation in Standerton, driven by a vision to provide South African families with high-quality, affordable poultry while uplifting surrounding communities. This humble beginning laid the foundation for Astral Foods, one of southern Africa’s leading integrated poultry producers, featuring brands like Goldi Chicken and County Fair.

Now, building on this rich heritage, Earlybird is stepping out as a premium standalone brand within the Astral Foods stable, offering superior quality lifestyle food products. Their new range includes Superior Southern Style Crumbed Chicken in thighs or strips, pre-cooked and perfect for oven baking or air frying, designed for modern consumers who value both convenience and quality in their meals.