Our founding members

Dirk Kaiser
Director, Head of Operations

Ralf Kretzschmar
Director, Head of Plant Infrastructure

Ernst van Biljon
Head of Finance

Heiko Beckers
Head of Sales
Quality control from harvest to shipping
We ensure premium quality in every bag of charcoal we ship. Because we produce the product and pack it, therefor maintaining quality at every step. This also means there’s less distance for the charcoal to be transported, resulting in less breakage and less dust. The result is a truly premium product, competitively priced and shipped to anywhere in the world.
Heiko Beckers at Farm Hamburg, Namibia
The five founders of Namibian Retort Charcoal are all farmers in Northern Namibia. Despite carefully managing their livestock, they have each been impacted by invader bush growth on their land. This motivated them to found NRC in 2016 with the purpose of sustainably utilising this abundant, renewable resource for charcoal production while at the same time helping themselves and other farmers to reverse the negative effects of over-bushing.
Sustainabilty. Natural Reserve. Premium charcoal.
Before, farmers would take a bulldozer to remove encroachment bush and burn it in a heap. Today, it’s profitably harvested and safely turned into high quality charcoal using steel retorts to minimise emissions.
The result is slow-burning charcoal for the perfect barbecue (braai) and great, clean-burning charcoal for restaurants.

Have your bags branded
Start selling premium charcoal. Simply send us your branding, and we’ll print it on our high-quality packaging.

We pack it for you
We’ll fill each bag with our premium charcoal. All you have to do now is choose which grade and size of the lump you want.

Shipped from Namibia
We manage supply chain logistics from our factory to your door, making sure you get the correct order.
NRC house brand
Phoenix Charcoal is our own house brand for direct orders. On the following landing page we provide more information about the product and its origin.

Species of bush we harvest
Vachellia erubescens – Bluethorn
Vachellia fleckii – Bladethorn tree
Vachellia luederitzii – False Umbrella Thorn
Vachellia reficiens – Red Bark Acacia
Vachellia Mellifera – Blackthorn
Dichrostachys Cinerea – Sicklebush
Vachellia haematoxylon – Grey Camelthorn
Terminalia prunioides – Purple Pod Terminalia
Terminalia sericea – Clusterleaf
