A FOCUS on custom processing, high-end products and exceptional customer service has seen the Warmoll family’s Jack’s Creek Angus branded beef program grow to become one of the leading family-owned, branded-beef products in the country.
David and Phillip Warmoll and their families have continued in the family tradition of undertaking innovative farming and business ventures.
The Jack’s Creek branded-beef products include short and mid grain-fed Angus programs and products.
The Angus are run alongside a substantial Wagyu beef business, which, when combined, is processing more than 900 head of cattle a week.
For more than 110 years the Warmoll family has been based in and around the Gunnedah region of NSW and now owns and leases properties totalling more than 12,000 hectares.
These properties are used for mixed farming enterprises and the backgrounding of Angus and Wagyu cattle for the branded-beef business.
The Jack’s Creek brand, named after the family’s prized Willow Tree property, “Big Jack’s Creek”, won the title of the world’s best steak in 2015 at the World Steak Challenge in London, where 70 entries from 10 countries represented more than 14 breeds of cattle.
The Jack’s Creek beef business, with its head office in Tamworth, is managed by Phillip Warmoll’s son, Patrick.
High quality Angus beef is in strong demand for casual and fine dining.
- Patrick Warmoll
The Jack’s Creek Angus branded beef program now processes 740 head of Angus cattle per week and has 14,000 Angus cattle on feed at any one time.
The family has worked closely since 2010 with the Elders-owned and operated Killara feedlot at Quirindi for the supply of our Angus program.
“All our cattle are processed at the Northern Co-operative Meat Company (NCMC) at Casino,” Patrick said, explaining the customised service and flexibility the processing outfit provided, which enabled them to meet their customers’ needs.
“This is the key to our business, it is now about us, as a meat business, working with our high-end customers around the world and supplying them with what they want.
“For example we compete really well in the European market through supplying our customers with smaller amounts of chilled, custom-packed, bone-in products.
“Some competing countries in that market, can’t or won’t supply this type of service.”
Jack’s Creek Angus products are exported to 20 countries with the top four destinations being, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Europe and China.
Australia accounted for 11 per cent of total trade in the past 12 months.
“We work with each market and customer very closely. We have longstanding, tight relationships with people and business all around the world, but we have had to consider their needs when doing business,” Mr Warmoll said.
“We have some customers in Japan and Saudi on 12-month pricing contracts, and this gives them confidence that we have the supply of cattle in place and that we also know the cattle market here in Australia to be able to do that.
“We aim to supply the high end of the best markets around the world, and some markets are limited on the amount of high quality beef they can handle, so that’s why we like to have a really good spread on customers globally, so the risk for us is reduced and the pressure for a customer to purchase the product is also reduced if they go into a slow period of trade.
“We work with our customers to keep the value of our products up and to not to oversupply a market, so a product ends up getting discounted,” Mr Warmoll said.
“Our local food service trade in Sydney has been very positive over the last 18 months also.
“High quality Angus beef is in strong demand for casual and fine dining.
“Our well-bred and produced grain-fed Angus brand is a proven product for leading chefs now in the market place, they buy it with confidence, as it performs and delivers an exceptional dining experience.”
He said in 2016, the higher cattle prices and the renewed lifts in the Australian dollar have been challenging.
“We feel we have reached a ceiling in meat prices on the global market, but we have continued to work with, invest in and support our customers here in Australia and overseas to add value and educate them on our products and usages of certain cuts to maximise eating quality and value,” he said.
“It’s all part of a trading cycle and an investment from us to continue to support our customers when the market gets tight.
“But we expect to see a slight easing of cattle and grain prices in the coming spring, and let’s hope the Australian dollar can settle as well to assist us with exports.” Mr Warmoll said.
It is interesting to note two of the leading NSW grain-fed Angus branded-beef programs, Jack’s Creek and Rangers Valley don’t have ownership in any processing facilities and both rely on a service kill, bone and pack for their products.
This maybe the success of these two brands, that they have stayed focused on producing the cattle and marketing the beef, without being distracted by the challenges of owning and running an export processing plant.
