Christo Faasen

Christo Faasen (55), originally hails from the small town of Aberdeen in the Karoo. He matriculated from the Hoër Volkskool Graaff-Reinet in 1982 and immediately left to complete his compulsory two-year conscription in the South African Defence Force.  Christo is extremely humble about his time spent in the SADF and in Angola but attributes this period of his life for many of his successes. Despite the hardship, it instilled an unsurpassed sense of perseverance and patience that has seen him through many personal and professional obstacles. After completing the required two years, Christo used the little money he saved up during his conscription and some money he inherited to help partially pay for university fees. He enrolled at the University of the Free State to study B.Sc Agriculture in 1984.

Though Christo always wanted to continue the family business as farmer, he was not in-line or financially able to take over from his father and instead started working after completing his degree. In 1988 Christo began working at NOLKO, today known as Agri Animal Feed in Bethlehem where he started out as a technical advisor on Animal Feed. He was soon promoted to senior technical advisor, then area manager, and in 1995 he took on the role as marketing manager until 1997.

Christo came to know Nick Serfontein and Sernick when he served them as clients of NOLKO. This ultimately led to a close working friendship and his appointment in 1997 as Manager of the new animal feed factory on Liebenbergstroom in Edenville. During his first month on the farm the factory produced ± 350-tons of feed, today the factory produces that same amount within less than a day. Part of Christo’s success is his authentic and amiable demeanor that’s allowed him to build longstanding relationships with all his clients over the years. With the feed factory under his management Christo was able to procure new contracts and clients that allowed the factory to become the success it is today. Over a period of twenty years the factory has been upgraded and improved to keep up with the demand and today it produces ± 10 000-tons and has hundreds of clients across South Africa. Christo was appointed as Managing Director of Sernick Veevoere in 2005 where he’s still involved in all activities of the factory at the Sernick premises in Edenville.

Christo enjoys being on the farm where his office is based – here he’s able to live out his dream of farming in his own way and able to work with animals on a daily basis. He believes that he and Nick Serfontein shares the same type of management style and vision for the company and ascribes this as the reason for still being with the company after more than 20 years of service.

Christo believes that the Sernick Group is a company built on integrity and that it’s this aspect that has been one of the major contributing factors to its successes. Another of course being the fact that they themselves are farmers too. As farmers they can earnestly relate to the many struggles their clients face on a daily basis and this has allowed him along with his team to build stable and established relationships with all their clients. In the next few years he hopes to maximise the value chain model to its full extent and also enrich the lives of his personnel so that they can be empowered to improve their lives on a personal level as well.