Wanna make a really spacey trade?
How about one for the birds? (I thought this one was a joke at first, but it's fer real.)
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Quill Industries was conceived in 1992 to vertically integrate the United States ostrich industry by patterning itself on the business model utilized in the billion-dollar poultry industry. Currently, Quill is the largest ostrich operation in the United States. The ostrich industry has been a major cash crop in South Africa for over 100 years. Ostrich meat is considered a delicacy in Europe and Japan.
Ostrich boots are among the most expensive in the market because of the durability and unique appearance of the leather. Ostrich feathers, besides being highly sought in the fashion industry,
are utilized by the semiconductor manufacturers because of their ability to remove minute particles of dust from electrical components.
Worldwide demand for ostrich products has never been higher, and yet
production has remained sporadic and unreliable. When the industry
first took hold in the United States, speculation drove the price of a
breeder pair over $100,000. Only after the speculative phase ended did it become economically viable to raise ostriches like poultry or any other feed animal and develop a market for the finished end-product.
Quill Industries is revolutionizing the industry by vertically
integrating each segment of the ostrich market. Quill contracts with
individual farmers to breed the birds and ship the eggs to the company's designated hatching facility. Quill hatches the eggs and sends the chicks to an adjoining grow-out facility for approximately 12 months until they are old enough to be rendered. Finally, Quill enters into marketing and distribution agreements with strategic partners to maximize profits on finished end-products.
Several factors have sparked renewed interest for ostriches in the
United States Agricultural market: (1) Producers are unable to meet
the growing world-market demand for ostrich products (leather in the
U.S. and meat in Europe). (2) The U.S. consumer is increasingly
becoming more health conscious regarding meat products. Ostrich, a red meat, is similar in appearance and taste to beef, yet considerably lower in fat, calories and cholesterol while maintaining high protein
content. (3) The ostrich industry presents tremendous opportunity for the small independent farmer. The birds are relatively inexpensive to raise, require little land and feed, and significantly outproduce other livestock in feed-to-mass ratio.
In order to gain just 1% market share of U.S. meat consumption, the
ostrich industry would have to slaughter 80,000 ostriches per week.
Since there are only an estimated 250,000 ostriches presently in the
United States, only Quill Industries is strategically positioned to meet this level of production.
Recently, Diversity, an investment newsletter released the following
profile of Quill Industries:
WHAT'S HOT
This remarkable enterprise is one of the largest ostrich products in the U.S.A. today, with over 40 contract growers in 13 states now raising its birds. Quill is the premier U.S. company in its sector. Its corporate mission is to capture a major share of the emerging consumer market for products derived from the ostrich.
Ostrich are indigenous to Africa, where they've been raised commercially for more than 100 years. A fully grown bird is seven to eight feet tall and weighs 250 - 350 pounds. They are friendly to the environment, requiring less acreage than other livestock and relatively modest amounts of food and water. Ostrich were first raised for their feathers, but are now valued more for their heart-healthy red meat and the distinctive leather from their hides.
Until a couple of years ago, the U.S. ostrich industry consisted of
small, speculative growers who bought and sold the big birds primarily
for their investment value. Breeding pairs sold for as much as
$150,000! That speculative bubble burst a few years ago, and the
producers who survived the ensuing shake-out are now devoting their
energies to developing a consistent and adequate supply of quality meat and leather products for restaurants, grocery chains, processors and manufacturers.
Following a business plan perfected by major players in the $1 billion + poultry industry, Quill is poised for incredible growth over the next few years. Two major factors provide the fuel for that growth. The first is the ever-increasing demand for healthy meat products and the second is the willingness of American farmers to raise what was
previously thought of as an exotic bird. Ostrich meat is similar in
taste and texture to our traditional red meat products, but it also
happens to be drug free and very low in fat and cholesterol. Another
big plus is the ostrich feed-to-mass conversion ratio of 2 to 1 -
compared to 5 to 1 for cattle - making the big birds attractive to small family farmers who are increasingly raising ostrich to supplement their traditional farm income.
Quill is headed by Peter W. Edwards, who established a predecessor
ostrich business in 1992 and patiently guided it through some difficult years of falling bird prices. That business is now the thriving operation owned by Quill. The company's 1,100 breeder hens are just now reaching their prime egg laying years. Growth in production from these birds in 1998 and beyond will be exponential. Annual output from an ostrich hen is usually 30 - 50 eggs, with some laying as many as 100 eggs per year.
In the spring of 1997, Quill opened its first central hatching
facility. Located in the mid-west farming community of Polo, Missouri, it will be able to efficiently hatch the thousands of eggs it receives from Quill's growers. The company expects to hatch 20,000 eggs in 1998; 60,000 in 1999; 118,000 in 2000; and 240,000 in 2001! More hatching facilities will be added yearly to handle the tremendous growth in egg production.
Perhaps the key reason Quill is succeeding where others have failed is
that it provides superior technical assistance to its growers at every
stage of bird development, using proven techniques practiced by players in the South African ostrich industry. When the company was ready to acquire its very first eggs, one of the founding principals spent six months in Africa where he inspected over 100 farms. While there he selected and purchased eggs from the top 17 USDA approved growers and then sent them to a federally approved incubation and quarantine facility in New York. The birds hatched from those eggs were joined by young chicks purchased from carefully selected domestic growers, creating one of the most diverse gene pools in the industry. Quill's unique organizational structure allows it to continually diversify that gene pool, with the end result being a strong, healthy breeder flock for many years to come.
We all know that a company's success is predicated on skillful
management. The day-to-day managers of Quill are dedicated,
hard-working, intelligent people who've been with the company since its
inception, guiding it through some really tough times. Today their
vision for Quill's future is already becoming reality. We expect to see
this outstanding company leading its industry by the year 2000!
For more information on Quill please contact Pete Edwards or Lloyd
Williams at (817) 649-7722 or toll free (US only) at 888-875-BIRD or fax
your request to (817) 649-0707. |
