SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S. — Wilbur-Ellis Company announced on Sept. 16 that it is expanding the operations and reach of its Feed Asia venture through a series of strategic restructuring and operational changes that have been implemented with the needs of customers and suppliers in mind.

Wilbur-Ellis established Feed Asia in June of 2010 to combine its feed division's sourcing and marketing expertise with the resources and broad footprint of its Connell Brothers Division in Asia-Pacific. Over the past year, the feed division has collaborated closely with Connell Brothers to introduce its value-added ingredients and service to customers and suppliers in Asia-Pacific. Connell Brothers, acquired by Wilbur-Ellis in 1931, has spent more than a 100 years understanding the intricacies of doing business across 17 counties in Asia-Pacific.

"This new structure enables us to deliver on our promise to customers and suppliers to provide new market knowledge, quality service and sustainable business growth," said Ron Salter, president of the feed division. "We look forward to building on the relationships we've established with our customers and suppliers, and to creating new ones."

Armed with a comprehensive understanding of the competitive landscape, Feed Asia said it is now positioned to extend its platform across Asia-Pacific with the help of a dedicated team that will provide first-hand knowledge and expertise to customers and suppliers.

The following infrastructure and personnel changes will take place within Feed Asia:

  • Brent Quintin, Feed Asia general manager, will relocate to Bangkok on Oct. 1. He brings more than 23 years of experience to his new role, which will be focused primarily on providing overall management and strategic direction to Feed Asia employees in Asia-Pacific.
  • A dedicated management committee of senior leaders across the company have been selected to guide the strategy, development and vision of Feed Asia.

Wilbur-Ellis has appointed several employees with extensive feed experience to the Feed Asia team to fulfill the following roles:

  • Market animal and pet food ingredients, livestock and forage products, utilizing best practices and insight from North America.
  • Add value for customers and suppliers by providing creative solutions to support customers' and suppliers' logistics, infrastructure and processing needs.
  • Secure agency agreements for specialty products.
  • Develop a thorough understanding of each of the following core markets: Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
  • Closely adhere to each country's export regulations and requirements.