The VKB Group is a modern, dynamic agricultural enterprise that has, since its establishment almost a century ago, constantly focused on progressively managing solutions for the changing and various needs of agricultural producers and related stakeholders.

Today the VKB Group can be esteemed to be a “house of brands” with a unique composition of brands of companies and products that makes the group one of the leaders in the agricultural environment. The group is also one of the prominent job suppliers in rural Eastern Free State and rural Limpopo that employs about 4 500 people.

Solution Provided

The VKB Group were in the process of creating a new division within their Group. The Industrial Division was formed in 2011 to house all non-agricultural businesses that were being started or acquired.

The first business that was part of the Industrial Division was Grain Field Chickens, a brand new chicken abattoir located in Reitz. The business started slaughtering 3000 chickens a day and four years later are in the region of 150 000 chickens a day.

The VKB Group then added Crown Bag (Paper Bag Manufacturing Business), Nu Pro Feeds (Feed Milling Business) and Free State Oil (Grain Milling Business) to the existing Dynamics NAV database.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV was selected for the industrial division due to the unlimited companies that can be accommodated in a single database and the for the flexibility the Dynamics NAV platform provides for the diverse set of companies within this division. The Dynamics NAV platform provides the foundation to support the Industrial Divisions growth as well as allow for the standardisation of their financial system.  The solution provides the ability to easily adapt to the varying businesses needs, financial consolidation, and provides the platform for future growth.

The VKB Group has grown significantly over the last five years and now has twenty-two companies all running through the one Dynamics NAV database. They’ve implemented LS Retail (embedded ISV Retail Solution) to extend the functionality into the Retail arm of the Industrial Division and are now leveraging the platform to extend into the Fuel Trade which is expected to grow significantly in the coming year.