Warehouses at Rainbow Chicken, Simply Chicken, Rainbow FlavourBurst, Rainbow Ready2Go, Farmer Brown and Epol
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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.

RAINBOW Chicken Strips

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.

Delicious RAINBOW Chicken meal
Rainbow Simply Chicken Crumbed fried chicken drumsticks

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

Rainbow Simply Chicken burgers
Locations of RAINBOW across South Africa
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Our Values

We bring our mission to life by weaving the following 5 values into everything we do at RAINBOW.

Rainbow Chicken Values
Rainbow Chicken Values

Leadership

martinus stander
"How you do anything, is how you do everything"
Marthinus Stander
Chief Executive Officer
Kerry Van der Merwe
"A winner is a dreamer who never gives up" Nelson Mandela
Kerry Van der Merwe
Chief Financial Officer
Wouter De Wet
"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
Wouter De Wet
Chief Operations Officer
Barney Khumalo
"It always seems impossible until it’s done" - Nelson Mandela
Barney Khumalo
Chief People Officer
Steve Hughes
"#oneteamonedream"
Steve Hughes
Added Value Business Unit Director
Tarryn Fowler
"None of us is as smart as all of us" - Ken Blanchard
Tarryn Fowler
Head of Marketing
Claire Mundell
"Make everyday count!"
Claire Mundell
Head of Technical
Remmert van Rijswijk
"Keep it Simple!!"
Remmert van Rijswijk
Regional Director: Inland
Mooketsi Ncube
"You should never be too busy to listen because it’s the ultimate form of respect anyone can give to another human being"
Mooketsi Ncube
Regional Director: KZN
Anton Geustyn
"It always seems impossible until it’s done"
Anton Geustyn
Regional Director: Cape
Mbusi Dlamini
"Striving for Excellence."
Mbusi Dlamini
Breed and Agriculture Director
Anina Hunter
"Be passionate in everything you do, look for improvement opportunities and implement with commitment and enthusiasm."
Anina Hunter
Feed Director
Gavin Rich
"Faith. Family. Business. In that order. Success without Integrity is meaningless."
Gavin Rich
Head of Treasury and Procurement
Keegan Reddy
“Do what’s difficult now so you can enjoy what’s world-class later” Robin Sharma
Keegan Reddy
Sales Director