IBEX Group of Companies

A decision by IBEX Group to take control of its own destiny has seen this specialist manufacturer and technology provider grow turnover by 2500 percent in three years, almost all in exports.

IBEX was established in 1983 by CEO Jonathan Engle’s father Raph. The initial business developed from imports and distribution of agency lines and complementary consumables for abattoirs in the New Zealand meat industry.

“Four years ago we said this wasn’t what we wanted to do,” explains Jonathan Engle. “We wanted to control our own destiny and when we looked at the business we saw numerous opportunities.”

The focus changed to export and the Auckland company restructured into two entities – IBEX Technologies, providing freezing, chilling and sorting technologies for international food processing firms; and IBEX Industries, a manufacturer of innovative powered hand tool technologies for the global meat, fish and poultry processing industries.

“The basis of the idea was already there; what we needed to do was to develop teams and further develop our products and our channels to international markets.”

The change in focus has achieved phenomenal revenue growth, which Mr Engle says has been quite a ride.

The biggest increase has come from IBEX Technologies and the sale of its chilling, freezing and sorting systems to the food processing industry - each of these systems is worth between $1 million and $7 million.

“The technologies business has just taken off. We’ve got incredible traction in South America, one of our primary export markets, particularly Brazil, a country which is now the global power in agribusiness. In four years we’ve gone from not even being an idea in Brazil to now having a 50 percent market share in our area and dealing with all the major beef and poultry producers.”

Mr Engle says IBEX’s systems offer clients big benefits in three critical areas – labour, energy and visibility.

“We can save clients up to 40 percent of energy costs, 80 percent of labour costs, and provide full product visibility. That’s what makes us special.

“Labour is becoming a big issue globally. In the western world it’s around the cost of labour. In markets like South America it’s the cost of what labour does to your product in terms of damage. Energy is a worldwide issue at the moment, and visibility and product tracking is becoming critical in the food industry.”

Key to IBEX’s approach over the past four years has been its business model.

“We really focused on what it is that a New Zealand company can do extremely well and we’ve developed all the bits that are critical to us and identified where we can add value, which is through our intellectual property, design, implementation and project management areas.”

The elements that aren’t core to business are outsourced. For example, in the Technologies business, Mr Engle says logistically it makes no sense for IBEX to cut steel for a 300-400 tonne system the size of a building and ship it half way across the world. Therefore IBEX makes the most of location advantages, sourcing steel and other materials from the most cost effective source, converging all materials on site where the system is assembled under the guidance of the New Zealand project management team. The value of the system is the technology wrapped up in the steel.

As a result of this outsourcing staff numbers are still relatively small - about 40 representatives in offshore markets and a further 30 in the New Zealand head office, the knowledge hub where all innovation and value creation takes place.

IBEX now exports to 18 countries, with Australia and South America major markets. Customer solutions are customised to meet the specific needs of each country and individual plant, with local representatives, offices and strategic partnerships used to help address cultural and language differences.

Growing so quickly has been both incredibly exciting and challenging, says Mr Engle.

“There are numerous issues attached to such rapid growth - around trying to develop technology, develop an organisation, develop international markets and finance that growth. It’s like you’re on a very fast animal that’s almost out of control. When you are growing that fast anything that can go wrong will go wrong. My advice is don’t dwell on the mistakes, deal with them, don’t repeat them and move on.

“There’s plenty of good advice available for companies set on a fast-growth track – use it, especially from people who have been there and done that and have the scars to prove it.”

IBEX is also big on strategic planning.

“Understand what you offer that is different from your competitors. That’s why we’re focusing on energy, labour and product visibility tracking. These are all critical areas where we can add significant value to our customers.”

He says IBEX is determined to continue to grow heavily over the next five years.

“We are looking to be an export business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Our goal is to become the absolute global leader in our field. Bar none.”

Contact: Jonathan Engle, CEO, IBEX Group, phone 09 274 2370, email j.engle@ibex.net.nz, www.ibex.net.nz