Headquartered in Tamil Nadu's capital Coimbatore, Suguna is one of the fastest growing companies in India's broiler sector. The vertically integrated Group has operations in eight States, covering GP and PS breeding, broiler farming, feedmills, processing and the export of hatching eggs and processed chicken. The company attributes its success to a focus on efficiency - and its readiness to adopt new technologies.
Mr. Bouke Hamminga, Pas Reform's Business Development Manager, explains: "Pas Reform has worked in partnership with Suguna Group to build new hatcheries for several years now. During this time, we jointly identified the need for a continuous professional training programme - and this postgraduate-level course was developed specifically for Suguna by the Pas Reform Academy."
Many of Suguna's hatchery managers, project engineers, maintenance managers and broiler contract growing managers travelled from all over India, to be joined by the Group's joint managing director Mr. Sundararajan, who also took part in the course.
"Our strategic partnership with Pas Reform was forged primarily to support Suguna's projected growth in the years to come, with the realization of multiple hatchery complexes", explains Mr. Sundararajan. "However to fully leverage both current and emerging technologies, we also believe that building the competences and confidence of our staff is of paramount importance. Pas Reform Academy has served us well in developing this first course as a valuable and highly proactive first step towards achieving that goal."
From its worldwide headquarters in Holland, Pas Reform Academy seconded two specialists, senior hatchery specialist Mr. Martin 'Tiny' Barten and senior poultry specialist Mr. Danny Garvey, each of whom have more than thirty years' experience in the sector with Nutreco and Cargill respectively, to train Suguna staff.
The week-long course covered all aspects of modern day incubation, from setting, egg handling and hatching to the production of high quality day olds, shifting to a focus on management strategies for optimal first week broiler results. Each day was divided into classroom sessions of several hours, followed by practical, hands-on training at Suguna's Nasik hatchery complex. Mr. Sundararajan continues: "The course provided a very strong mixture of classroom sessions and practical training, geared specifically to our circumstances - and all the more valuable for being delivered in our own operational complexes."
Mr. Sundararajan congratulated Pas Reform on being the first hatchery manufacturing group to have included the first seven days in the broiler house within its planning of the incubation process.
In 2007, Pas Reform Academy will deliver a new series of incubation management courses each quarter from its headquarters in Zeddam, The Netherlands. Anyone interested in taking part should contact Pas Reform on Tel: +31 314 659 111 for details.