Woody's: The Final Chapter?
by Eben van Tonder
December 2023
Introduction
In 2008 I created the Woody’s brand. Oscar joined me a year later to form the company that would trade the products, Woody’s Consumer Brands. Willem and James Kleynveld also came on board as heads of the admin and finance department and sales respectively. Several companies owned shares in Woodys over the years, but in the late 2010s, the current shareholders joined. It was then, in 2018 that I left the company.
The Beginning of the End
“It was in the end, not as easy as they thought it would be!” was the comment I made to Oscar when I saw him this year. The company amassed massive losses. In the final analysis, it seems that the plan was to get rid of the management team who built the company, which they achieved and in doing so shot the company’s profitability in the head.
I Got to Know Myself
Oscar and I agree that Woody’s was a university education in itself. I am a processing man. I started Woody’s in 2008 because I love chemistry. I never liked the spice companies because they control the meat technology. They distribute the same technology sets to everybody, which eliminates the chance for technology to ever be a real differentiator. It now becomes a bun fight to see who can manage their businesses the best given the margins that the spice companies allow the meat processors. This is not a bad system and I am not saying that spice companies are bad for the industry, but I don’t like the control they have over the technology! My belief has been from the start that technology offers the greatest possibility for real differentiation and as such, the same technology should not be available to everybody. I decided to aggressively study the different technology sets to hopefully one day break free from the hold of these companies. It was why I got involved in the meat industry and I have dedicated my life to this pursuit now for 17 years.
I was looking for a holistic, comprehensive unified theory of meat processing. The areas of focus were 1) emulsified, 2) injected heat treated, 3) fresh ground and 4) fresh injected/ marinated meat. On the one hand, I looked for high-quality new product ideas and on the other hand for vastly reduced costs, which is only possible by re-thinking the entire factory. After leaving Woodys in 2018, I teamed up with a kindred spirit, Richard Bosman. We shared our vision related to emulsions in a 2018 article, Nose-to-Tail and Root-to-Tip: Re-Thinking Emulsions. Over the following years, the chaotic maze of thoughts unified into a single, clearly defined strategy. We outsourced key research areas to uniquely gifted collaborators from around the world. We had spectacular results.
The End of a Phase in My Life
I realised that I had achieved what I was looking for and dedicated my life to since I left Woodys. This December, for the first time in 20 years, I spent weeks with my family without reading a single research paper. Normally, such a statement will be negative, but in this case, it marks our arrival at a clear and unmistakable conclusion to the quest. I mention none of my collaborators as it represents so much IP and the individuals are all known entities in their various fields that I would love to but can’t mention any. My world continues to be meat processing and how do you integrate the entire factory in one comprehensive management program as Franz Loibl taught me years ago when he applied it to bacon production. I have spent my life designing a complete meat plant that uses the same principles but incorporates emulsion and course sausages.
The Beginning of Another Legend
As much as I am a processing man, I realise that Oscar is par excellence a stratagist and a fresh meat man. This month also marks the end of Woody’s as a brand and the company is being taken over by Meat Only. I could not have been happier. Meat Only is the brainchild of Oskar Kleinfeld. How we started the Woodys is one of the treads in my book about the history of bacon curing, Bacon & the Art of Living.
I was in SA in December to be with Minette to see the kids and run crucial trials with Richard Bosman and our company Oake Woods & Co (Pty) Ltd. I visited Oscar at the new Meat Only premises in Airport Industria in Cape Town. I have no words to express how impressed I was with the operation. It expresses creativity that I have never seen in any other meat operation on earth.
A week later Oscar and I met for coffee. Here he shared his philosophy of business with me. In particular, his approach to the fresh meat business. Far more impressive than the building, his operation, and offices (and it is extremely impressive), is the clear thinking and philosophy underlying his business. As I will share none of the results of Richard and my work (in collaboration with others), I will also give no detail of the discussion with Oscar, but I can say the following: Clear, very specific thinking about fresh meat underlies the success of Meat Only.
I have for years become aware that Oscar and my most basic philosophy of business are different. My work has always been slanted towards our technology where Oscar’s drive was to make the best with proven technology. As a team, of course, this is what made us great!
Especially in the early years, Oscar needs a medal for putting up with me at a time when very little of my thinking was anything except misguided. For many years I knew too little to offer a real proven verifiable solution as a clear superior alternative to the technology owned by the traditional spice companies. In hindsight, Oscar’s approach was right. He continued to support me and allowed me to travel the globe and learn for the benefit of all of us.
Despite differences in focus, what brought us together was that at heart we are both entrepreneurs! The new owners of Woody’s did not understand any of these and had no inkling of the difference between an entrepreneur and a professional manager who at best can maintain the status quo.
Woody’s needed an entrepreneur! A few years ago, I applied for a GM position at Woody’s. I would have loved to see what the results would have been if I had been given such an opportunity with what I learned during the years. In my opinion, they shot the last opportunity in the head to turn the company around when they did not give me the position, but on the other hand, I am glad I did not get the position which allowed me to make my most important breakthroughs with Richard in the last two years.
Finally, the best decision for Woody’s arrived when the company was sold to Meat Only. One hundred per cent, for sure, Oscar taking over the business represents the most positive step in the last 5 years, and I am 100% certain of their success. The Woody’s brand will not survive, but neither should it. It does not make business sense. It was the school Oscar and I attended which now is leading us to bigger and better things and in Oscar’s case, the “better” is spectacular!
Besides being a great leader, he is an excellent leader and builder of a power team! This is evident with men like Philip, Willem and Adriaan around him. Last night I was thinking about how thankful I am for Meat Only which became a home for these men again and people like Stanford and Rebecca, to mention just two.
I have huge respect for Oscar and Meat Only is a fitting result of Oscar’s skill as a businessman entrepreneur. I wish them the very best as they assimilate the Woody’s operation into Meat Only. Woody’s is as much the brainchild of Oscar as it is mine! At least one of the parents ends up with the teenager! I add him to my series of Legendary Food Mavericks.
