Michael Hambly chats to Everest Diaries about their history, their endless pursuit of high-quality feed for their customers and their plans

Q: Could you please tell us more about the history of Kensington Produce?

A: Kensington produce will celebrate 65 years of trading next year. Rex Hambly initially started his career at the race track as an apprentice jockey at the age of fifteen. He eventually obtained his jockey license at 21 years old.

After riding his share of winners, weight became an issue and then transitioned at 25 years old to become a licenced racehorse trainer at Randwick. After five years as a trainer, he realised that the industry needed high-quality feed suppliers.

Eventually, Hambly established himself as the leading produce merchant. At that time, there were over 60 retail outlets in the local area. As their presence and standard of quality in the stock feed industry grew it meant acquiring a bigger warehouse. So my family decided to sell that place and moved into a purpose-built warehouse, which we currently operate out of now located at Banksmeadow in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

Our prime location places us 10 minutes from Randwick Racecourse and 15 minutes to the M5 to service the outer Sydney racecourses.

Q: What kind of feed do you supply?

A: We supply grain sourced from irrigated farms in the Riverina. The grain is brought back to our Banksmeadow warehouse and processed through our state of the art purpose-built in-house Mill.

Thus, we package the freshest quality into 25kg bags, bulk bags, or portable 1-tonne Silo's ready for delivery to our customers. We also supply other premium premix brands such as Mitavite, Hygain, Barastock, Caprice, Prydes, and Southern Cross Feeds and can even customise feed into small 500kg batches at customer request. Everest t Diaries | October 2019 25

Q: Kensington Produce supplies most of the top thoroughbred trainers in the state. What is the secret behind your success?

A: The secret of our success is the wealth of knowledge we have gained by operating for nearly 65 years as well as our willingness to go above and beyond for our customers.

Q: You recently travel the length and breadth of Australia. Please tell us why?

A: Each season brings with it new challenges with this current one being no different. We pride ourselves on sourcing the best produce hand-selected from regions that had the best growing conditions. I am confident that despite this season’s VERY tough conditions that Kensington Produce will be able to uphold its reputation and supply a highly satisfactory product. Over our 64 years of service, we have developed an extensive network of growers allowing us to deliver our high-quality products in an abundance.