Woodward Foods' success is due to its supply chain

The company’s message to the world is “this comes from Australia, comes from people who care and have been doing it a long time and want you to share in what they’ve achieved – from our family to yours,” said chief executive Chris Hadzilias.

At Sydney’s Homebush Tennis Centre last Wednesday night the plaudits from the company’s customers came thick and fast.

Launching its new boxed meat brand was another milestone as the company ramps up its offerings to not only the domestic market, but internationally.

“We don’t select cattle by the number of days they’ve been on feed, but by condition,” says company founder, Robert Woodward.

“They’re picked like a piece of fruit, there’s a different time frame between when the lead and tail of a pen goes. There’s a difference in cattle’s doing ability and we’re not looking to just put fat on fat,” Mr Woodward said. 

He said the company’s approach to cattle handling, sans horses at the feedlot, meant they were calm around people and stress levels kept to a minimum.

“We work to eliminate stress situations, they’re inspected every morning on foot.”

The same system is employed on all of the company’s properties – overseen by pastoral and feedlot manager Craig Hartshorn – from southwestern Queensland to Victoria’s Murray Valley properties. In the south the company uses black Angus cattle and in Queensland red Angus, simply because they handle the heat better.

They use composite bulls, red Angus or black Angus based, but including American black Simmental, Limousin, Charolais and Simmental. Mr Hartshorn said the cattle’s Angus base provides softness and fattening quality while Euro bulls sorted out the fat. The cattle spend 10 months on breeding properties, all weaners are taken off at one time.

“That means we can maximise the number of cows and keep the quality and quantity where we want it.”