GPS specialist Jason Togher shares his experience at Meatco

24 Mar 2017

Global Protein Solutions (GPS) Operations Specialist: Slaughtering and De-boning, Jason Togher, came to Namibia in May 2015 and was based at the Okahandja plant until end of January 2016. He then moved to the Windhoek plant from where he worked until his last day in Namibia, which was on 24 February 2017.

Jason Togher inspecting a carcass

According to Meatco’s Executive for Operations, Jannie Breytenbach, the rationale behind Jason working at Meatco was to bring someone with global experience to assist the company in meeting its operational principles, one of which is extracting maximum value from our product - cattle.

“Jason also mentored managers while empowering employees in his focus area, all the while forming part of Meatco’s continuous improvement plan,” Jannie said.

Upon Jason’s arrival at Meatco, everyone was welcoming and kept an open mind to his professional opinion since more often than not he would suggest things that were quite different from the norm at Meatco. This required patience from both him and his new colleagues to achieve the common goal of improving and creating a favourable working environment.

Also working at the Tannery and the Canning departments required him to oversee different business aspects that were part of his operational focus. An important initiative was the Weekly Operational Report, where senior managers across the board got a weekly overview and better understanding of how much money a particular business unit generate on a daily / weekly basis. This was something completely new to the managers, as opposed to obtaining statistics from the Monthly Report System and the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that was in place at the time.

“In spite of being quite a forceful person, pushing for change which can be a challenge when working with other people, I do not remember having a bad word with anyone over anything. Everyone was supportive of me and through this, results were achieved,” Jason says.

Jason will be back in Namibia in three months to conduct an audit of all the systems he implemented that are currently overseen by management as well as the progress thereof.

Jason in the abattoir 

He will continue his involvement at GPS whilst working in neighbouring South Africa.