Nigeria Bottling Company Plc has emphasized its commitment to the long term development of human capital in Nigeria through its staff training and skills acquisition programmes.
Ambassador Olusegun Apata, NBC chairman while speaking at the 57th Annual General Meeting of the company in Lagos recently stated that the company has continued its huge investment into staff development. “Throughout 2008 we focused our efforts on skill building initiatives, especially for our commercial and manufacturing staff. Our Management cadres are replenished through the Graduate Management Trainee program that two full classes of university graduates completed in 2008. We have also increased the intake of our Technical Training Schools to endow them with the appropriate skills for a company with very sophisticated bottling equipment.”
Apata noted that the NBC commenced operations in the year with a high degree of confidence, based on its vision, business strategies and significant investment plans for the year and it efforts were rewarded with growth.”
“This was driven by a strong focus on our range of sparkling soft drinks where the new “on-the-go” can packaging added significant revenue. 33cl cans are now available for Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta Orange, Sprite and Schweppes Bitter Lemon. Also the introduction of new light-weight “Ultra” glass bottles, although a huge investment, has been boosting our volume in this segment of the market. The other main driver of growth was Eva. The new line in our Ikeja plant has added significant extra capacity for the fast growing market of bottled water.”
Speaking further, he noted that “In the course of the year, our Supply Chain efforts continued to centre on upgrading our thirteen manufacturing facilities, further improving on our product and package quality, investing into Health & Safety and driving efficiencies in all aspects of our logistics chain. We also invested further in regulatory compliance and water treatment plants to protect the environment. “
The NBC chairman also announced a 17% increase in turnover from N68.5billion to N80.1billion in the current financial year. He assured that despite the global economic challenges “we remain focused on further development of our fundamental strengths, especially our dedication to manufacturing and sales excellence, quality and innovation. This will allow us to consolidate our leadership position and create new opportunities for our business, our people, our suppliers and our customers. We are focused on three core areas to ensure we are well positioned to survive the global financial crisis and its concomitant impact on the Nigerian economy and benefit from its recovery.
“Given the current climate, we have renewed our focus on cost control and enhanced operational efficiencies. Moreover, we are devising measures to contain our power costs driven by the erratic national electricity supply. We are in the process of rebuilding our Benin plant and expect to be back in operation by third quarter of 2009".
Ebelt, managing director remarked that “we want to reassure our consumers that we shall continue to provide them with their preferred choice of beverage at the right quality and the right price – no matter where they are in Nigeria.”
