Thomas Foods International (TFI) is Australia’s largest 100% family-owned red meat processor, headquartered in South Australia. The company is led by Darren Thomas, Managing Director and son of co-founder, Chris Thomas.
TFI is a fully vertically-integrated business, with the full supply chain in-house and employing over 3,000 people globally. Today, TFI own farms across Southern Australia for both livestock and cropping, have an extensive livestock procurement team across Australia, own a cattle feedlot near Tintinara, have five processing plants, with offices and/or further processing facilities in 9 countries. With an extensive distribution network, TFI supplies Australian beef, lamb, mutton and goat to over 85 countries.
History
The company was founded as T and R Pastoral (T&R) by Chris Thomas and Bob Rowe in 1988. The company originally traded livestock and grew to include feedlots and outsourced meat processing. T&R bought the Murray Bridge meat processing facility in 1999 before then acquiring the Lobethal meat processing facility in 2004. In 2006, T&R also bought an abattoir in Western Australia and a defunct one in Port Pirie at which time it was the sixth-largest meat processor in Australia.
The Thomas family took outright ownership of T&R in 2008. In 2009, TFI merged with established US importer Foodcomm.[1] In 2010, T&R bought Country Fresh, acquiring meat processing facilities in Tamworth, NSW and Wallangarra, QLD. Wallangarra was closed in 2016, however, Tamworth remains a key facility to TFI operations.