Kenchic Limited remains one of the top chicken and chicken products manufacturers in East and Central Africa.
The company initially majored in the production of day-old chicks, broilers, and layers but has since expanded to include processed poultry products.
Jim Tozer, Kenchic managing director and head of operations, is one of the individuals whose contribution has steered the company’s growth.
Born in South East UK, Jim grew up in a family that relied on farming as the economic mainstay. His parents, who owned a dairy farm, introduced him to farming at a young age, even though he was not interested in becoming a farmer in the future.
“My father was a busy man. He would leave early in the morning and return late in the evening. However, he was a strict disciplinarian and a stickler for hard work,” he revealed in an interview.
Jim’s dream was to work in the agricultural sector, but not necessarily as a farmer. After high school, he joined Harper Adams University, where he pursued degrees in Agricultural Science and Business, Business Administration and Management, and General Agriculture.
Jim Taylor: Meet Lenana School alumnus who built smokie, sausages empire through Farmer’s Choice
While in campus, he developed an interest in Africa and even planned a tour with his friends to visit Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and South Africa, unaware that one of the countries would become his home.
“I had an over-ending attraction to Africa. I remember having a massive Atlas of the World over my bed, and there was Africa right over my head,” he recalled.
After the tour, Jim returned to the UK and got a job at Dalgety Agriculture Company in 1999 as the key accounts manager and national input finance manager. He was then promoted to general manager at the company in 2002.
He later quit his job to work for Kenchic as head of operations in 2005, climbing the ranks to become the company’s managing director in 2020.
Even though he considers quitting a high-paying job in the UK and coming to Kenya to work at Kenchic as one of the riskiest decisions he has ever made, Jim believes that people shouldn’t rely on past successes, as they could be the failures of the future.
“Don’t think you should keep repeating and doing the same thing that worked in the past, expecting the same results in life or business because they were perfectly relevant then, but they might not be relevant now. The world changes,” he says.
