Aighobahi Felix, Sales Director, Euro Global Foods and Distilleries Limited, one of leading producers of fast moving consumer goods in the country, located in Sango-Ota, Ogun State, in this interview with Razaq Ayinla, talked about efforts of the firm to ensure that 100% local content is achieved in the production of its products and what government could do to ensure compliance on local content usage by manufacturers. Excerpts:
How do you assess the business environment in Nigeria?
The business environment in Nigeria is still okay; the atmosphere is very good if not for financial issues with us. For Euro Global, we have come out with varieties of products because we know our consumers’ needs. We start from non-alcoholic drinks; alcoholic drinks and we are even planning of bringing more fruit drinks into the system. We found out that we are one of the companies who spread through all age brackets; religion, age and sex are not barriers to us. We have wine; we have hotel drinks; we have bitters; and we even have soft drinks, among others. So, the economy is good and not bad.
Having evolved different brands for different consumers, how do you create awareness about the products and drive sales in the market?
This year, we have given all our customers targets to go for. We are giving bumper gift items and cash rewards to our distributors, and to enhance that, we are coming out with more brands to make sure they make more profits too, and cover the market more. But, at the same time, we are going on promotional activities. As I am talking now, we have kicked off different road shows in Ibadan to create more awareness and product visibility to the consumers.
We are also engaged in market survey and market activation, which are done to ease the trade for our distributors and make things easier for them. And we are going to have it like that in every Nigerian city.
How has expansion and introduction of new brands affected your jobs creation and employment drive?
I believe the correct data are with the Human Resource Department, but I will tell you that we have created 20 – 25% employment increase in recent times because as new brands are coming in, we have more people on the plants to produce most of these brands and at the same time, we are employing sales and marketing staff. We are also expanding distributorship. Previously, some distributors did not readily accept and sell our products; probably because they are alcohols. Immediately we started producing non-alcohols, they would started selling our products, and with that, we have created more grounds for distributors to sell our products. So, both direct and indirect employment is around 25%.
Going by what you produce which are majorly foods and beverages, what have you done in terms of sourcing raw materials locally, as part of measures to key into government’s policy on local content?
There are products now that we developed with local sorghum, which will be out soon. Then, there are other products that we are having now, and we make sure that we source some of the raw materials from the farm. Even with machinery, we are fabricating locally the ones we can. We are building ethanol plant to make sure we can use either sugarcane or other seeds to make ethanol instead of importing. So, we are on it, it is a project that we must complete this year. Right now, we are using 85% local content as against 15% imported raw materials; we moved from 50, 60, 70 and now 85%, and these are well-processed items, even better than what we import.
If you are sourcing raw materials locally and through farmers, how far have you empowered and reached out to farmers in terms of human capital development, credit facilities and other benefits?
It is a plan we are going to develop. We are already in a talk with the government, so that we will be able to reach some of the farmers through co-operatives and other platforms. We also are discussing with most societies that have affiliates with farmers. We are discussing with them on the production of sugarcane and other variants that we use in our plants.
It is necessary for Euro Global Foods and Distilleries to have its own farms that will grow its own raw materials?
Having farms? We don’t do propaganda; some people have small farms and tell you they farm all their products. Presently, we prefer to buy from farmers to allow money flow in circulation and create more job opportunities for the people. When it comes to actual farming, we will let everybody know, but presently, we buy from farmers.
Do you think Euro Global Foods and Distilleries has the capacity to supply Nigerian market and exports?
We are not alone in the market, but in our own segment, I can tell you that we are only operating 30% of our installed capacity. We really still have space to grow with 70%, to take care of our local market and exports. That is why we are developing our brands in international standard. We are not doing brands for our local market alone; it is costing us more money, but we prefer it that way. Our products here match international standards, and we are improving more and more everyday. We are lucky, the capacity is there, labour and machinery are also on ground. The only challenge is sourcing for fund. Fund in Nigeria is challenging, the most difficult part of it is sourcing for foreign exchange; it is a serious barrier, but we are coping with it.
What do you think government could do on ease of doing business in the country?
There are three major areas now. Cost of energy is too high; we are running on generators for 24 hours and 7 days. Secondly, foreign exchange is a serious problem, even if we have allocation, it cannot take us for one week, meaning that, we have to scramble to look for it at a very high rate. The third is logistics; the roads are so bad, if you are taking goods from here to the North, even within the state, roads are really bad. These are the things we want government to intervene and make sure that they are really taken off.
