Aside from fulfilling a daily breakfast combo for many, Farmers' Choice offers employment to a million vendors through the provision of quality affordable meat products, the most popular; smokies, sausages and brawns.

The food processor, headquartered in Kahawa West, produces over 10 million sausages a week and employs over 1,600 people according to a report by the Nation.

Jim Taylor serves as the company's managing director. He joined Farmers' Choice in his 20s in 1978 - then, it was known as East Africa Meat Products. 

The company rebranded to Farmers' Choice in 1980. Jim was appointed CEO in 1983. In 1989, Lonrho Group acquired the food processor before selling it to the current owners of Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) in 2000.

Jim first returned to Kenya in 1973 and was employed by a company called Phillips, Harrison and Crossfield which was an importer and distributor of multiple consumer products. 

He worked as the company's sales director and operated out of a small office along Kaunda Street.

In 1975, Jim was approached by Tabby Block of the Block Family which owned East Africa Meat Products through Kulia Investments. He was offered the sales manager job and he took it.

He instantly regretted taking the job after he was assigned an old car as his official vehicle. It was, however, too late, he had to stick with the new job.

The company noticed that only 20 per cent of animal meat went to hotels and therefore, sought to adopt to avoid wastage. So they sent Jim to the UK to benchmark meat processing.

He visited Bowyers of American meat plant and sausage processors, Highgrade Meats. He returned in 1979 and Farmers' Choice ventured into making the product.

The first few trials were disastrous. At one time, Jim and Hezron Ndung'u a marketer he had poached from his previous employer, were making sausages for a client at a Tom Mboya Street hotel when they exploded and spread meat on everyone's chicken.

It took them time to get everything right. Today the company uses imported collagen casings from Scotland.

"Initially we used hog casings which are serviced from a pig's stomach, that are used elsewhere in the world. In the early 1980s, we switched to collagen casings," Jim told the Nation during a 2021 interview.

K&A was the first company to accept sausage products from Farmers' Choice, marking the start of the company's journey to regional status.

Farmers' Choice boasts over 40 sausage products and smokies as Jim notes, are the best of them all.

"When the smokies leave here, it is Ksh13 per piece. When it gets to the vendor, it's Ksh30 per piece. Think of the money people are making. I have seen bankers resign to take up this," Jim says.

He notes that the company has about 50,000 vendors countrywide, translating to about 600000 families supported directly by their products.

From a small butchery, Farmers'Choice has grown into a huge company. Its headquarters sits on 10 acres of land, which also houses the company slaughterhouse. It owns another property across the street which is used as parking for the over 150 company vehicles.

It also owns a 33-acre pig farm not too far from the headquarters and another 238-acre property in Uplands. it acquired the property from Uplands Bacon Factory in 2000.

The company owns another 30-acre farm in Uasin Gishu used for breeding pigs. 70 per cent of the pigs slaughtered by Farmers Choice are bought from external farmers who work in collaboration with the company.

The company sells its products to Uganda, Tanzania, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Jim began exporting to the Middle Eastern nation after he met the ruler of Dubai from the Maktoum dynasty 30 years ago.

"I had to have a face-to-face meeting with him and he explained to me, " Jim don't think I have gone mad by abusing my religion (importing pork into a Muslim country)," he said.

Farmers Choice has grown over the years and currently producers over 500 tonnes of sausages a week.