Our Story

When opportunity knocked,

we answered

In 1999 a well-known retailer was looking for a second supplier in the Western Cape when one of their suppliers suddenly closed their doors. Without hesitation, Brent Jenkin said, “Let’s give it a go.” Brent and Sandy got to work building the first gravel hydroponic growing beds and a tiny 6 x 12m² packhouse. With Abe Goniwe their faithful assistant and Maggie the Labrador at their side they worked relentlessly through mud, rain, and wind, trundling all the materials around in a small red Jimmy Jeep.
Our first planting

When the day came to plant the first seedlings of lettuce into the gravel hydroponic beds, tablespoons were used to scratch open the holes in the gravel, and a stick marked with tape was used to determine the spacings between each hole.

From a few salad packs a day to truck loads of salad packs a week

Our humble beginnings were not without setbacks. After an initial rejection from the well-known retailer, having failed the first inspection of the packhouse, we dug even deeper to not only secure the packing rights but also have the well-known retailer say, “Send us all you can!” a month later.

Ten crates were packed that first day, the equivalent of 100 salad packs, by 15 staff members. Today, over 180 staff members work daily to produce the large volumes required to supply the Western Cape.
“Five of the staff members who made our first delivery possible are still with us today, two decades later. Most notably, Abe Goniwe, who was my father’s first assistant, is not only still an active member of our team he’s an integral part of the Madron family.”

Our first harvest

Our first signature hydroponic farming unit and the original packhouse were built by hand and the first day of packing, back in 1999, saw fifteen new staff members join the team to deliver on our packing promise.

That first harvest started early in the morning with the ‘precious cargo’, our hand-planted and hand-picked produce, being delivered to the packhouse in a tiny wooden trailer. Every inch of every leaf was washed by hand before being handed, through a hole in a wall, to the high care team who dried it in 5-liter plastic buckets. We remember painstakingly drilling dotted holes into those buckets like it was yesterday. Once dried, our packers manually placed the perfect leaves into bags through a funnel before sealing each one using a foot-operated heat sealer.

We’ve come a long way from using a serving spoon as a planting tool

We have a genuine love for the land that sustains us and our livelihoods and deeply respect the fact that what we harvest is as important as what sow.

Most simply put, Madron is where Agri-science and a heart for the agricultural community meet. It’s why we combine generations of farming experience with an ethics-driven commitment to ground-breaking, sustainable solutions. And why, driving industry innovation is as important as acting as a catalyst for community upliftment.

Our growth is a testament to our core values, which we have cultivated as meticulously as we cultivate our produce. Our core message of “a cut above” extends far beyond just delivering exceptional quality produce to our clients, it’s the ethos that underpins every aspect of our environment – from the professional culture we work within to the natural ecosystem we work with.