Four batches. Then the machine has paid for itself.
Yes, that includes the food safety paperwork. We put it in place with you before batch one.
Here is what a KK25 gives you. Hang 25 kg of beef, shut the door, and four days later there is about 12.5 kg sitting there ready to slice. Call it $500 in your pocket a load, once the meat is paid for. The machine is $1,995. Four loads and you have it back.
Free call, nothing to buy at the end of it. Four questions, then I ring you within 24 hours.
KK25 · 25 kg a load · $1,995
- Wet meat per batch25 kg
- Finished per batch12.5 kg
- Cycles per month7.5
- Finished per month93.75 kg
- Gross profit / month$3,750
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You have got the recipe right.
You have made it enough times now to know it holds up. Friends keep asking for more, and somewhere along the way one of them offered to actually pay you for a proper order.
Nobody comes back for a second bag out of kindness.
What stops you is the box. It dries a few kilos at a time, so the big order gets turned down, or it gets split over three weeks until the person gets tired of waiting and buys somewhere else.
Every one of those noes comes down to the size of your box.
The week you actually want.
You load it on Monday morning. In goes 25 kg of beef, which is about what a decent order looks like.
You shut the door and get on with your week.
On Friday you open it, slice it, bag it and hand it over. Then you say yes to the next order without having to work out first whether you can make it in time.
Same recipe. A lot more of it.
Beef loses about half its weight when it dries.
So 25 kg of raw beef comes out as roughly 12.5 kg of biltong. Sold as biltong, that 12.5 kg is worth about $500 to you once the meat is paid for.
The machine does that every four days. Keep it full and you are looking at about 94 kg of biltong a month, or somewhere near $3,750.
These are estimates. Profit is worked out at $40 a kilogram of finished biltong, after the meat is paid for and before power, spice, packaging and your own time.
Batches. That is the whole hurdle.
The machine costs $1,995. One batch makes you about $500. Four batches makes about $2,000.
So after the fourth load, the machine has paid for itself. Everything it makes after that is yours.
One honest note. Four batches takes as long as it takes you to sell 50 kg of biltong. The machine will make that in about two weeks. Selling it is the part that is down to you, and it is the part we work through together on the call.
| Machine | Price | Profit per batch | Batches to pay for it |
|---|---|---|---|
| KK25 | $1,995 | $500 | 4 |
| KK40 | $3,495 | $800 | 5 |
| KK116 | $6,995 | $2,400 | 3 |
| KK120 | $6,995 | $2,400 | 3 |
Paying for it
Payment plans are available on commercial machines. I go through the options with you on the call, including the deposit and what it works out at against the machine you actually want. We do not publish the terms.
Three steps. You do not do any of them on your own.
You answer four questions. I ring you within 24 hours and we work out your numbers.
Your machine arrives and we come to you. Six hours later your first batch is hanging.
You are making biltong you can sell, with the paperwork and the pricing already sorted.
That is it.
Four days of slow air. That is the whole secret.
On the Highveld it is about 22 degrees with a light breeze, and the meat hangs for four days. Every South African judges biltong against that.
Push it too fast and the outside goes hard while the middle stays wet. Slow is what gives you the dark edge and the soft red middle you grew up with.
The KK25 holds those conditions steady for four days without you checking on it once.
I built the first one because I could not buy one.
I grew up in Adelaide in the Eastern Cape. Biltong was just there. It hung in the kitchen and it went in the car on every long drive.
Then I moved to New Zealand and could not find any worth eating. Not close. So I built a cabinet that would hold Highveld conditions here. That turned into this.
I take these calls myself. The people behind me run these machines every day, so when you ring with a problem you are talking to someone who has had it.
The box is the easy bit.
People come unstuck on the food safety paperwork. On getting a second and a third product out of the machine. On what to charge, and on that first batch where nobody is watching over your shoulder. So that is the part we do with you, and it comes with every commercial machine.
Worried about MPI and the food safety paperwork?
You get our full food safety programme, the record templates and the cleaning and tracing procedures. Then I work through putting them in place with you, so it is right from your very first batch instead of being patched up later. Registration stays in your name, but you are not building it from nothing.
Worth $XXX · included
Worried you only really have one recipe?
We give you commercial spice blends across ten flavours, and then we help you build one that is yours alone. A flavour people can only get from you is worth a lot more than one they can get anywhere.
Worth $XXX · included
Worried you will not know how to use it?
We come to you. Under six hours later your first batch is hanging. We prepare the meat, mix the spices, get the marinade right, load it, set it up and train anyone else who will use it. You cover the travel. The rest is included.
Worth $XXX · included
Worried the numbers will not actually work?
Before your machine even ships, we work out your volumes, your yields, your profit on your own meat cost, and what you should charge. If it does not work, I tell you.
Worth $XXX · included
Worried you will pick the wrong size?
You get 10% off any machine you buy later, with no expiry. Keep the first one running as a second line, or sell it on. Used commercial gear holds its value.
Worth $XXX · included
Worried about it breaking down?
A machine that stops is production that stops. We are on the phone and on email for repairs, parts, settings and anything going wrong. The people answering have run these machines commercially.
Worth $XXX · included
Why it all comes in the price
I could sell you a machine and leave you to it. Plenty of people do.
A machine only makes money while it is producing, and what stops people producing is never the machine. It is the paperwork, the pricing, the second product, and that first batch with nobody standing next to you.
So the help is built into the product instead of sold beside it. That is part of why these cost what they cost, and it is why I would rather you rang me than clicked buy.
Warren
Kalahari Khabu
- Food safety programme, templates and procedures$XXX
- Product development, commercial blends and a flavour of your own$XXX
- Your first batch on site, one working day$XXX
- Your production numbers and pricing, before you commit$XXX
- 10% off any machine you buy later, no expiryNo expiry
- Phone and email support from people who have run theseIncluded
- The KK25 itself$1,995
You pay $1,995 for the machine. The rest comes with it.
The questions people ask me before they buy.
I am not really a business yet. Is this too early for me?
No. Deciding what you make and how much is step one, and that is exactly what the call is for. Plenty of people take this call before they have sold anything.
How much work is it, day to day?
You prepare the meat and hang it. Four days later you come back, slice it and pack it. In between it runs on its own.
What if I buy the wrong size?
You get 10% off any machine you buy later, with no expiry. You can keep the first one going as a second line, or sell it on. You are not stuck with the decision you made at the start.
What about MPI? Is that going to be a nightmare?
It is a set of steps in a particular order. Once you know the order it is just paperwork. We give you the programme and the templates and put them in place with you before your first batch. Registration stays yours as the operator.
Why not just buy a cheaper home cabinet?
A home cabinet is built to make a few kilos for your own kitchen. This one takes 25 kg at a time and holds the drying conditions steady for four days with nobody watching it. If you are selling, the difference is whether you can fill an order or not.
What if the numbers do not work for me?
Then I will say so on the call. I would rather lose the sale than sell you a machine you cannot keep full.
Do not book the call if this is what you are expecting.
- “You will do the whole thing for me, from A to Z.”
We do the paperwork and your first batch with you. You still make the biltong and you still find the buyers. - “I can be selling by next week.”
Premises, registration and records take longer than that. We move fast, but nobody moves that fast. - “A bigger machine will fix a recipe I am not happy with yet.”
It will not. Get the recipe right on a home cabinet first, then come back and we will talk about volume. - “The cheapest box online will do the same job.”
There are boxes online for a couple of hundred dollars and they will dry meat. Filling a wholesale order every week is a different job.
None of that sound like you? Then the twenty minutes will be worth it.
Start small without staying small.
Some of our customers make a few kilos a week for a local following. Others supply supermarkets. Both started in the same place, with a recipe worth selling and a machine that could not keep up.
When you outgrow the KK25 you get 10% off the next one, with no expiry. Keep the first one running as a second line and the two together give you roughly 760 kg a month. Or sell it on and put the money towards the bigger one.
The full range runs from this machine up to units producing several tonnes a month.
What each one makes, and what it earns, is in the profitability case study. It is not published anywhere. I send it to you personally after we have had a call, because it carries the real numbers from businesses that are running right now.
What you get, and what it costs you.
The call
Free, about twenty minutes, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it. I do not chase people. If the numbers do not work for you, I will say so.
The Success Programme
Sent to you the moment you send the form, so you can read exactly what comes with a machine before we even speak. Worth $X,XXX, included with every commercial machine.
Your own numbers
Worked out live on the call using what you plan to make and what you could charge for it. Not an example, and not a spreadsheet you have to fill in yourself.
What you cover
Our team's time and the work on the day are included. You cover getting us to you: flights, accommodation where it is needed, and reasonable expenses. Nothing beyond that.
The profitability case study
Sent after our call. It is confidential, it is not on the website, and it shows what every commercial machine produces in a month along with the profit at each size.
And once you own one: warranty and returns cover to be confirmed
Ready to see what it would make for you?
Four questions, then I ring you within 24 hours. Nothing to buy, and you keep the case study either way.
Every figure on this page is an estimate. Profit is calculated at $40 a kilogram of finished product, after the cost of the meat and before electricity, packaging, spice and labour, and assumes the product is sold at that margin. Nothing here is a guarantee of profit, return, compliance, export approval or audit outcome. Kalahari Khabu Limited, New Zealand.