Interview: Namık Kemal Parlak

In this exclusive interview with Miller Magazine, Peter Lloyd, Regional Technical Director at U.S. Wheat Associates, reflects on nearly five decades in flour milling, sharing the lessons, values, and practical insights he has gathered across generations of industry change. Blending technical wisdom with human insight, his reflections offer not only a tribute to the craft of milling, but also a guide for the next generation that will lead it forward.

For nearly half a century, Peter Lloyd has stood at the intersection of tradition, technology, and human expertise in flour milling. Recently honored with the IAOM MEA “Miller of the Year” award, Lloyd is one of the industry’s most respected technical voices. From his earliest memories of accompanying his father to the mill in Nairobi to his decades of work across Africa, Europe, and beyond, his professional journey mirrors the transformation of the milling industry itself.

Peter Lloyd, Regional Technical Director, U.S. Wheat Associates

He speaks with the clarity of someone who has seen the sector evolve from mechanically driven plants to highly automated, digitally monitored, data-rich operations, yet has never lost sight of its human core. As he puts it, “Milling is a people business.” In another remark that captures both his technical discipline and practical philosophy, he adds: “The miller must run the mill, not the mill runs the miller.”

This conversation is therefore more than a technical interview. It is a tribute to a miller whose career spans generations of change and whose observations offer both historical depth and practical wisdom. Lloyd speaks not only as an engineer, manager, and technical leader, but also as a teacher who has spent years translating complexity into clarity. His reflections move beyond machines, diagrams, and extraction rates to the deeper forces that determine a mill’s success: discipline, curiosity, training, consistency, and respect for people

At a time when the industry is being reshaped by automation, consolidation, digitalization, and artificial intelligence, Lloyd’s perspective serves as both a record of where milling has come from and a guide to where it must go next. In that sense, this interview is not only the story of one distinguished career, but also a valuable roadmap for the next generation of millers who will carry the industry forward.

Mr. Lloyd, you have spent nearly five decades in milling, across multiple continents and very different market environments. When you look back to your first years in the industry, what first drew you into flour milling, and what has kept your passion alive ever since?

My career in milling began at a very early age, accompanying my father to the mill in Nairobi over the weekends. I was fascinated by the complexity of the systems; we still had line shafts in those days. I would also accompany my father to the company’s mills “up country” in Nakuru and Eldoret, and that is how the interest began.

After completing my education, I spent ten years with Henry Simon Ltd. in England and South Africa, commissioning mills in the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, and Kenya. The mill engineering business was extremely interesting to me. In South Africa, I learned lessons that have stayed with me throughout my career. I was working in sales and was very fortunate to sell a mill. When I came back, our chief engineer said to me, “You sold it, you engineer it,” and later, “You engineered it; now build it, commission it, and hand it over to the buyer.” This enabled me to have a full-circle experience that few people are lucky enough to get. Added to this, we were also part of a consortium that built a 55,000-ton concrete silo complex, with 2 km of rail line. I got to see the upstream end of flour milling. I guess one could say that keeping an interest in the art of milling is what initially kept the passion alive. The love of teaching came later.

You grew up close to the milling trade through your family and later built your career from plant-level technical work to global technical leadership. How did those early experiences shape your understanding of what milling really is beyond machines and process flows?

I guess the beginnings of this were the interaction between the different parts of flour milling: upstream in grain logistics, storage, and the intrinsic qualities of different wheats, and downstream in finished-product processing, all overseen by quality control and, for those fortunate enough to work in that environment, quality assurance. They are all tied together, and they all need trained and motivated staff to function at their best.

Milling is a people business, fueled by curiosity and an interest in complex systems, driven by discipline and quality in pursuit of success. A mill is only as good as the sum of its parts: men, machines, and systems. I believe that people are the biggest asset in a mill, and that a well-trained, motivated staff can make profitable, high-quality flour from an old mill, while a poorly motivated, untrained staff cannot make profitable, high-quality flour even from a brand-new, state-of-the-art mill.

I was very fortunate to experience the power of motivation during my time in Botswana. The company I worked for had a very forward-thinking corporate HR department, which implemented some amazing practices across the mills and wholesale operations. These practices helped make it the fastest-growing company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange at the time. All permanent staff were shareholders in the business. That was one of the great lessons of those early years: well-designed equipment and excellent flow diagrams are only as good as the people running the mill.

THE GOLDEN RULES OF A MILLING LIFE

Reflecting on those early years with your family in the industry, was there a specific “golden rule” or a piece of wisdom passed down to you that you still find yourself sharing with young millers today?

My late father once said to me, “Learn something new every day, however small. The day you think you know everything about milling, go and do something else, because your mind will have closed.”

“The man sweeping the floor in the mill knows well where the problem areas are; he cleans them up.”

“If your tempering/conditioning is correct, you will have an easy life. If it is not, you will run and run from problem to problem in the mill.”

And from the best boss I ever had: “You technical guys have a very poor understanding of mill finance. If you are intending to go higher and higher in the organization, you need to gain an understanding of mill finance. I do not mean that you must become an accountant, but you must be able to understand the concepts of return on investment and financial statements.”

Harry Lloyd first introduced his son, Peter Lloyd,
to the world of milling through childhood visits
to the mills in Nairobi. He
passed away in 1982, but his lessons and
influence continued to shape Peter Lloyd’s
lifelong journey in flour milling.

THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES OF A WELL-RUN MILL

Over the years, you have designed, commissioned, managed, and supported mills in many different countries. Across all those experiences, what are the universal principles of a well-run flour mill, regardless of geography?

•  A well-designed flow diagram for the types of finished products demanded. This begins with a clear understanding of the flour granulations and quality parameters needed from the mill, and the wheat needed to make that flour. The price of one or two extra roller mills over the life of the mill is relatively unimportant compared with the cost of not having them.
•  Solidly built, reliable milling equipment. The miller must run the mill, not the mill run the miller. The cheapest equipment is seldom the best option. Signing a contract with an equipment supplier is like a marriage; you are together for the next 10 to 20 years.
•  Consistent quality of wheat. Bakery customers value consistent flour quality above all else.
•  Well-trained, motivated mill staff. “Pay peanuts, get monkeys.”
•  Mill staff need to belong to a company they value, and they need to feel that they are seen and valued by the company. Partnering with your staff really works well.

For Peter Lloyd, flour milling has always been best understood from inside the mill itself, where technology, discipline, and human judgment come together every day.

THE EVOLVING PROFILE OF THE MODERN MILLER

You have worked with millers from North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and beyond. In your view, how has the profile of the successful miller changed over the past 30 to 40 years?

Mills have become bigger and more complex since the 1970s, when a 300 t/day mill was considered big. In 2026, we see multiple-line mills totaling 4,500 t/day, some with as few as four people running the entire operation. For me, the most important single requirement of any mill is the foundation-level training of its millers. It is not possible to train a person to become a head miller in a multi-line, automated flour mill if he does not have a strong foundation.

Today’s millers are still required to be part artist, part scientist, part laboratory technician, and part teacher, but they are also required to be more adaptable to new technologies like automation and AI. In this environment, having a sound milling foundation as well as natural curiosity is more important than ever.

Today’s shift millers are responsible for operating multi-million-dollar flour mills, grinding multi-million-dollar raw material values each year, using technology that was never available to our fathers or grandfathers, such as color sorters and on-line quality control equipment, and operating within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems against global certification standards.

The profit of every flour mill is determined to some extent by the settings of equipment in the mill, as it always has been, but today the scale is far greater than before.

In my experience, we have a worldwide shortage of millers with the required foundational training, and even more critical is the shortage of those with both foundational training and experience. There are some with one year of experience repeated twenty times, which is not the same as twenty years of experience. Careful selection of your mill staff is critical today, and getting those who will share their knowledge and mentor their colleagues is important.

Mills with the best millers are natural targets for staff poaching, today even more so than 40 years ago, and this is a challenge for HR departments. My advice is to train twice as many people as you think you will need. Ensure that you have access to a good training establishment so that you can secure your company’s future needs.

HOW TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMED THE MILLING INDUSTRY

When you first entered the industry, milling was more mechanical, more experience-driven, and in many cases less data-intensive. Today we talk about automation, digitalisation, analytics, traceability, and smart milling. What do you see as the most profound transformation the industry has undergone during your career?

The marriage of electronics with flour milling has been the largest change I have seen. We have seen the industry go from everything mechanical to completely automated “lights-out” flour mills, from daily production reports to instant extraction and quality data, and to ERP systems that tell us when fan bearings need to be changed.

I first used a personal computer in Botswana in 1984 and had a feeling that this would become something profound. Little did I know that within 20 years we would have weighers with more computing power.

Today Morocco has approximately 25 to 30 large industrial flour mills of 200 t/day or more, out of roughly 130 industrial mills nationwide. These large mills account for most national milling capacity and are dominated by six major groups. This consolidation of milling capacity is something we see all around our region. Large mills are becoming larger and fewer in number. Inland mills are disappearing in favour of mills located along the coast, where transport rates are lower, and the artisanal milling sector is under threat from the increased national emphasis on food safety.

If we take the example of China, there are more than 2,500 mills with a capacity greater than 500 t/day, with the cheapest per-ton equipment cost in the region of 1,100 t/day. This number is 750 t/day in other parts of the world.

Industry consolidation has improved efficiency, scale, and technological capability while reducing the number of operating units, increasing market concentration, and placing greater emphasis on capital intensity and skilled human resources.

So technology, consolidation, and size are the three significant transformations in our industry during my career.

THE MISTAKES THAT ERODE MILL PROFITABILITY

You have often emphasized that the real value of technical support lies in improving a mill’s bottom line, not just in theoretical optimization. In your opinion, what are the most common technical or managerial mistakes that still prevent mills from reaching their full profitability?

The largest mistake I see is focusing on the FOB cost of wheat. The real cost of wheat is the cost of clean, tempered wheat at B1/IBk. When comparing wheat costs, people often overlook the differences in the moisture basis used for protein reporting. Carefully comparing apples with apples is essential. Focusing on protein/gluten quantity rather than protein/gluten quality is likely to reduce potential benefits. Grain is traded on protein quantity, but customer satisfaction is based on protein/gluten quality.

Next, I see that dirty wheat extraction is often used to measure the miller’s performance, when it is actually a measure of the purchasing efficiency of a company. Clean wheat extraction is the real measure of a miller’s work.

For an importing company, wheat moisture is of great importance, as even in the driest countries on earth, water still costs less than wheat. There is no need to bring water from overseas, paying freight and duty on it, when it can be corrected in-country.

Next, I see many mills where the mill staff are seen as a necessary evil rather than key components of the company’s profitability. I have seen the benefits of treating one’s mill staff well; the return on investment is significant.

Finally, many of the less illustrious flour mills I visit are examples where the mill is running the miller, normally because the mill is being asked to do something it was never designed to do, or because, due to poor maintenance, it is no longer capable of doing so.

FROM JUST-IN-TIME TO JUST-IN-CASE

You have long helped customers understand the balance between wheat cost, flour functionality, and overall profitability. In today’s environment of volatile grain markets and rising operational pressures, how should millers think about wheat purchasing decisions more strategically?

The trend was clearly just-in-time logistics before COVID-19 turned the world upside down. Running out of wheat is a cardinal sin in the milling business, and today we see the change from just-in-time to just-in-case. Mills are carrying larger inventories and are building increased storage. Back in the 1970s, it was typical for a mill to carry 90 days of wheat; in many countries today, 30 to 40 days is more typical. It carries risk, and in some countries such as Saudi Arabia there has been an increased focus on strategic government stocks, which provide a buffer against global events like COVID. This is not possible for most mills without government intervention.

Some mills enter into yearly agreements with their suppliers, which is an excellent idea, as it provides visibility to both seller and buyer, with commensurate savings benefits for both.

Risk mitigation is an important concept both in the trade of grain and in the currency risk attached to importing wheat. Most reputable grain traders are more interested in repeat business than in a one-off “hit-and-run” trade. Long-term repeat business is their stock in trade. Partner with them and learn from them how to buy better.

Over the decades, you have seen some mills thrive while others struggle. In your view, which performance indicators are still too often overlooked or undervalued in milling operations?

In addition to the normal quick ratios, such as Debt Ratio, Debt-to-Equity Ratio, Current Ratio, Acid Test, Return on Investment, and Return on Equity, we must consider Dirty Wheat Extraction, Clean Wheat Extraction, and Finished Product Extraction. Many times, mill capacity utilization is not given the importance it deserves. Extraction rates and capacity utilization affect mill profit significantly.

Likewise, the total credit burden on a mill, and the cost of carrying stocks of either wheat or flour, can impact an otherwise well-run mill. Reducing credit sales and replacing them with discount structures can be very lucrative.

Similarly, not all millers consider the impact of time on their calculations. A “cash sale” can actually take 30 days by the time the paperwork is processed. Replacing paper with an electronic transfer at delivery can make a very big difference to the mill’s cash flow.

Finally, staff turnover has always been a silent indicator of the health of a mill. Some of the happiest mills to work in, and the most successful, are also those with the lowest staff turnover. Take good care of your millers; it gives a great return on investment.

CAN AI REPLACE THE HEAD MILLER?

We are witnessing a growing bridge between traditional milling methods and the integration of Industry 4.0 and AI. In your opinion, can digitalization and automation ever replace the intuition and decades of experience of a head miller?

I remember when we built the first automatic “lights-out” mill in Norway in 1979. It was revolutionary, and today “lights-out” mills are routine. Digitalization and automation are the only way these mills can work. I spoke earlier about the 4,000 t/day mill I visited in Xiamen, China, that operates very successfully with four staff in the entire mill, including packing, palletizing, and the vertical warehouse. It’s not science fiction; it’s here today.

From my own experience, AI has been a wonderful source of assistance to me, enabling me to do more, more quickly, and better than before. Will this ever replace a head miller? I hope not, for our sake. What I do see is that AI and automation will allow our head millers to run very large mills with fewer people, ensuring that the head miller and his shift miller are two of the four people in the mill.

AI may eventually replace the head miller, but hopefully only after I am dead and buried, and hopefully running the water mill in Jannah.

THE CORE QUALITIES OF FUTURE MILLING LEADERS

What are the core skills and mindsets that the next generation must possess to lead the mills of tomorrow?

In my opinion:

•  Foundational training in flour milling from one of the recognized centers of milling training, as a prerequisite
•  A high degree of comfort with computers and technology, including some experience with AI
•  A naturally inquisitive nature
•  The ability to diagnose issues in the mill quickly and effectively
•  Good teamwork skills
•  Ideally, the instincts of a natural teacher
•  A tendency toward precision and self-discipline
•  A self-starter

I realize that these are not directly related to academic profile, but that is taken care of in the first bullet point: foundational training. That process sorts out those suited to a career in milling from those who are not.

A VETERAN’S ADVICE TO YOUNG MILLERS

What advice would you give to a young milling engineer or flour technologist entering the industry today?

•  Welcome to the wonderful world of flour milling, guys and girls. This career has taken me around the world and enabled me to see different countries and cultures beyond anything I ever thought possible.
•  Learn something new every day, however small. The day you think you know everything about milling, go and do something else, because your mind will have closed.
•  The man sweeping the floor in the mill knows well where the problem areas are; he cleans them up.
•  If your tempering/conditioning is correct, you will have an easy life. If it is not, you will run and run from problem to problem in the mill.
•  You technical guys have a very poor understanding of mill finance. If you are intending to go higher and higher in the organization, you need to gain an understanding of mill finance. I do not mean that you must become an accountant, but you must be able to understand the concepts of return on investment and be able to read and understand what financial statements are telling you about the company.
•  The miller must run the mill, not the mill run the miller.
•  Flour customers value consistency above all else.

THE ENDURING HUMAN CORE OF MILLING

Finally, after all the miles, mills, projects, lectures, and people you have encountered, what still gives you hope about the future of global flour milling?

What gives me hope is that, despite all the technology, scale, and consolidation we see today, flour milling remains fundamentally a people business. I continue to meet young millers, engineers, and bakers around the world who are curious, disciplined, and genuinely proud of their craft. When solid foundational training is combined with modern tools, automation, digital quality systems, and now AI, we see mills that are safer, more efficient, and more consistent than ever before. The industry has always adapted to change, and it is doing so again. As long as we continue to invest in people, share knowledge generously, and respect the raw material we are entrusted with, I am confident that flour milling will remain a vital, sustainable, and rewarding industry for generations to come.