Our Purpose
To nourish the nation with premium chicken products and supply high-quality animal feed, while operating sustainably and supporting our communities.
Our Vision
To be the leader in the Chicken and Animal Feed industry, renowned for customer and consumer centricity, innovation, and heritage brands.
Our Mission
To establish our Chicken and Animal Feed business by continuously reviewing and adapting to market dynamics, ensuring we deliver exceptional value through innovative products and strong brand heritage. We aim to achieve this by understanding and responding to category, brand, customer, and processing fundamentals with a future-oriented approach.
Our History
In 1960, Stanley Methven founded RAINBOW on his father’s farm. According to legend, while walking on the farm, he saw a rainbow at a waterfall and knew exactly what to call his small business. But he wasn’t picturing a pot of gold; he was picturing pots of hot Isishebo feeding families!
Stanley started selling RAINBOW’s chicken from a stall in central Durban, and demand quickly grew, leading to the establishment of the first processing plant in Hammarsdale in 1963.
RAINBOW’s goal has always been to feed families, care for communities, and nourish the nation. We are still keeping Stanley’s promise today, more than 60 years later as one of South Africa’s largest poultry producers.
Continued Innovation
Demand for Stanley’s chicken grew rapidly, and Rainbow expanded enormously, opening three processing plants within 16 years. A major highlight was winning the KFC tender in 1984.
Continued innovation saw a new R20M feed plant commissioned in 1992 and a R159M value-added plant in 2006. We were able to weather the challenges of the chicken dumping crisis, bird flu, listeriosis and covid 19 – and now we are ready for a new chapter.
Our obsession with the quality of our birds continues! Our aim is to maintain the highest level of food safety at every one of our farms and product sites, whilst treating our chickens with absolute care.
Today, Rainbow is a fully integrated broiler producer that breeds and rears livestock on Epol Feed. We process, distribute, and market fresh, frozen, value-added, and further-processed chicken of superior quality.
1960
Rainbow was founded by Stanley Methven
1963
First processing plant commissioned at Hammarsdale
1970
Second processing plant commissioned in Hammarsdale
1975
Vereeniging Milling Company (VMC) was renamed Epol (Pty) Ltd and was fully affiliated to Premier Milling Company
1976
Third Processing Plant was commissioned in Worcester
1984
Won the Tender with KFC
1985
Fourth processing plant commissioned in Rustenburg
1992
Expansion into sustainable quality chicken feed with R20M plant
1992
Rainbow Chicken Farms acquired a 50% share in Epol (Pty) Ltd with management control
1996
Epol became a wholly owned subsidiary of Rainbow Farms
2004
Epol became a division of Rainbow Farms (Pty) Ltd
2006
Ground-breaking growth with 66 new Rainbow products launched in 3 new markets
2010
Rainbow acquires Wolwehoek further processing plant
2013
Foodcorp, one of South Africa’s largest food producers, was acquired. The company name changed from Rainbow Chicken Limited to RCL FOODS limited
2018
Driehoek Feeds was acquired
2020
Transition of Rainbow to a standalone business announced
2022
Rainbow head office re-opens at Hammarsdale P2 plant, and the Rainbow Centurion head office opens
2024
Rainbow Chicken Limited unbundles from RCL Foods and lists on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Our Values
We bring our mission to life by weaving the following 5 values into everything we do at RAINBOW.
