If you already sell maize meal, you have done the hard part. The shelf space, the trucks, the retailers who reorder: that is what most new millers spend their first two years trying to build. The question is whether the bag on your truck should be your own, from your own mill.
Value Max in Harare answered it in stages. It put its own brand on the shelf first, using other mills' spare capacity, and bought its own Roff SP-1 maize mills once the distribution was proven. This story follows Value Max Foods from that start, through a farmer-financing model that now grows a large share of its own maize, to the R-40G grit mill it added for Zimbabwe's breweries and snack manufacturers. Managing Director Adrian Carbutt and Operations Manager Nigel Bunting-Gray tell it in the video; the detail is below.
Client snapshot
- Company: Value Max Foods, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Products: roller meal under the Value Max brand, sold across Zimbabwe; maize grits for the country's breweries and snack manufacturers; the brand also packs rice, salt, popcorn and sugar beans
- Roff equipment: two SP-1 maize mills (June and December 2024), each specified with four MK6 roller mills for about 4 tons of maize an hour, and an R-40 grit mill (2025)
- Maize supply: finances commercial farmers who repay in grain; around 40% of annual usage grown in Zimbabwe, by Adrian's estimate
Brand first, mill second
Toll milling is the arrangement where a mill with spare capacity processes maize for another company, and the meal goes out in that company's bag. For the mill it fills idle hours. For the brand owner it is a way to be on the shelf, build distribution and learn the market without owning a machine.
"We actually started just tolling. So the Value Max brand was built on tolling maize at other mills into our packaging and our brand, and then distributing that." Adrian Carbutt
Once the distribution side was working, the decision to mill was a calculation rather than a leap. "Once we were comfortable with the distribution side, we did the numbers and said, okay, our next progression is becoming millers ourselves."
Why it matters: if you already distribute maize meal, you are selling someone else's margin. Milling your own bag puts that margin, the quality and the supply under your control, and it runs on the distribution you already have. If the capital for a mill is not there yet, tolling is the alternative to not starting at all: you still buy the maize and the bags, and the mill keeps the milling margin, but your brand is on the shelf and you learn what the market takes at lower risk. Value Max used it that way, then did the numbers and bought its own SP-1. Either way, Adrian's rule holds: do the numbers.
The first SP-1, and a second six months later
Value Max bought its first Roff SP-1 maize mill around June 2024, and not in the standard configuration. The SP-1 is Roff's mill for commercial start-ups, built around a single MK6 roller mill and taking in about 650 kg to 1 ton of maize an hour. Value Max's plants were specified with four MK6 roller mills each, for about 4 tons of maize an hour. A good milling period followed, and even at that size the mill was soon behind the orders.
"It quickly became clear that we had excess orders and excess demand to supply. We very swiftly, in December of 2024, ordered the second SP-1." Adrian Carbutt
Roller meal is Zimbabwe's everyday grade, and it stayed the focus. "Roller meal has been our primary focus. It carries our brand fantastically. It generates cash for our business, and it complements our value-addition side in terms of the agri-finance on the maize." The team is plain about what the mills gave them: "The SP-1s from Roff have given us clean product." Nigel Bunting-Gray
Bottom line: two mills bought for demand that already existed, six months apart, rather than one oversized plant bought on hope.
Field to floor: financing the maize
Maize is the biggest cost line in a mill, and securing it is where Value Max has done something unusual. The company finances commercial farmers, who repay their loans in maize at harvest. That grain goes into the milling cycle and out again as roller meal.
"We finance commercial farmers who then, in lieu of those loans and in terms of the repayments, bring us maize, which repays their loans. We then use that maize in our milling cycle and back out into the community. It's really a field-to-floor model. We grow probably 40% of our total annual usage in Zimbabwe." Adrian Carbutt
Why it matters: a mill that has part of its grain secured at harvest has reduced one of its largest variables. It does not remove maize-price risk, and it can tie up working capital for most of a season, but it gives the mill a supply it can plan around.
A gap in the market: grits
With the roller meal business established, the next question was where to go. Zimbabwe's breweries and snack manufacturers need maize grits, and Value Max saw a gap.
"We identified a gap in the market for maize grits, which specifically goes into our breweries and into our snack manufacturers here within Zim. We came up with a plan which encompasses the R-40, looked at the outputs it was giving us, and we pulled the trigger on bringing in this grits line." Adrian Carbutt
The Roff R-40G grit mill is a turnkey plant that takes in about 3 tons of maize an hour and produces brewers or snack grits as well as maize meal, with the germ and bran as saleable by-products. For a business that already had a meal brand, that spread of products was the point.
"The advantage really is that you're getting three different products out of the R-40, which is your grits, your maize germ and maize bran, as well as your super refined meal. So there's a lot more to sell off the machine than there is with the SP-1." Nigel Bunting-Gray
Super refined meal is the refined, degerminated grade, a step up from roller meal, so the grit mill also gave Value Max a second grade of maize meal.
Running the SP-1s first made the bigger plant easier to take on. "Coming with the SP-1 background and monitoring what's happening there, it's made it a lot easier for us to transition into the running of the R-40." Nigel Bunting-Gray
Tip: the operating habits built on a small Roff mill (conditioning, sampling, keeping an eye on extraction) carry straight over to the larger plants, because the milling principles are the same.
Why Roff again
Value Max had earned the right to shop around for the grit mill. The reasons it did not are the ones that matter after the sale.
"We've always viewed them as the Toyota of the milling industry." Adrian Carbutt
"It became very clear that a South African brand close to home, that had reliability and good backup service, was going to be the fit for us. Roff was kind of a first stop and last stop for me." Adrian Carbutt
"We find the spares are readily available, which is critical for our day-to-day run." Adrian Carbutt
The team also says the Roff mills can be run harder than the imported makes they see in Zimbabwe, and sums the R-40G up simply: "It's been a fantastic unit." Adrian Carbutt
Value Max today
Value Max now runs three Roff plants in Harare: two SP-1 maize mills at about 4 tons of maize an hour each and an R-40 grit mill at about 3. Roller meal under its own brand goes to retail across Zimbabwe; grits go to the country's breweries and snack manufacturers. The company finances the commercial farmers who grow a large share of its maize, and the same brand sells rice, salt, popcorn and sugar beans. It is a food company that owns its milling, which is what the tolling years were building towards.
The order matters. Value Max did not build a mill and then look for customers; it had the customers and added the mill. A distributor with a maize meal line and a delivery network is in the same position, with the biggest variable, demand, already answered.
What Value Max changed
- Built the brand and the distribution on toll milling before buying a mill
- Bought the first SP-1 in June 2024 and a second in December 2024, when orders outran the first
- Financed commercial farmers, repaid in maize, to secure part of its own grain supply
- Added an R-40 grit mill to supply breweries and snack manufacturers, with super refined meal and by-products off the same plant
Lessons for millers
- If you already have the market, milling is the next step. Distribution is the part most millers struggle to build; Value Max had it before it bought an SP-1. Tolling is the alternative when the capital is not there yet: it builds the brand and tests the market at lower risk until it is.
- Do the numbers at every step. Value Max's phrase is "we did the numbers", not "we took a chance".
- Buy for the demand you have, then add. Value Max bought a second SP-1 six months after the first rather than guessing at a bigger plant on day one. The SP-1 has a quick turnaround, depending on availability of stock.
- Secure your maize. Whatever the mechanism, grain supply is the biggest variable in the business.
- Look for the product your market lacks. Grits opened a second customer base from the same maize.
- Choose the supplier for the years after the sale. Spares and backup are what keep a mill running.
Already selling maize meal, under other brands or your own? Tell us your volumes, your market and your maize, and a Roff consultant will recommend the mill that fits. Speak to a consultant · R-40 grit mill · SP-1 maize mill
Related reading: Kamunu Milling: from one SP-1 to an R-70 in Namibia · Types and grades of maize meal in Africa
Every mill and every market is different. What Value Max has built reflects its own maize, management, market and operating conditions.
