MY COMPANY PROFILE: BIG BOTTLING COMPANY
BBC Nigeria: Investing in a new bottling line to grow Nigeria’s soft drinks industry The soft beverages industry in Nigeria is bigger than any other market in Africa. The Big Bottling Company is investing in the country to tap into this vast opportunity, where competition is stiff, and challenges abound. In this interview with the company’s CEO Prahlad Gangadharan, we discuss the prospects and future of the company By Francis Juma
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ig Bottling Company (BBC), a relatively young company in Africa’s largest economy by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Nigeria has huge ambitions to serve the growing demand for soft drinks in the country. The continent’s most heavily populated country with 200 million plus people, the firm’s CEO, Prahlad Gangadharan, and the Board of the company have their eyes and goals set on riding the wave, as the country’s economy grows further and its population, which the UN projects will double by 2050 to more than 400 million, become more urbanized and thereby demand more of the company’s menu of products. Having joined BBC in November 2018, but with vast experience in the country’s beverage industry for over 15 years, Prahlad has his work cut out, a task that he relishes, with pride. “Prior to joining the Big Bottling Company, I was in the FMCG space and I have worked with companies such as Coca-Cola, Cargill and the Shell Petroleum Company,” he informs Food Business Africa on a Zoom call from Lagos, where he is based. “I also have experience in the telecoms sector as well. In short, I am basically a sales and marketing guy with an eye for technology and development. Beverage has been my passion and looking at Africa, the future beholds well, especially for Nigeria that has a large population consisting mainly of young people and there is availability of natural resources.” BOTTLING NIGERIA’S DRINKS BBC is the bottling company for AJE, one of the largest global multinational beverage companies that is based in Lima, Peru, and the brand owner to the BIG Cola franchise of brands. FOODBUSINESSAFRICA.COM
It is owned by DUET Group, a British private equity company and a principal investor in emerging and frontier markets after the Group acquired a majority stake in AJEAST Nigeria Limited, the sub-Saharan Africa subsidiary of AJE in 2018. With a total investment in the transaction in excess of US$50 million, DUET is targeting a young demography of growing socio-economic segments, capturing both the significant advance of middle-income households, as well as the demographic dividend of the country’s expansive youth base. Commenting about the transaction, Henry Gabay, Co-Founder at Duet Group, said: “At Duet we strongly believe in the African consumer growth story. As the number of middle-income households in Nigeria and select West-African markets keeps expanding, and more consumers are entering the formal economy through urbanisation, the demand for products such as BIG Cola will grow exponentially.” Prahlad informs us that after the acquisition by DUET, the company embarked on a restructuring process of its business, from organizing a new team to starting a new bottling line. The plant is located in Agbara on the outskirts of Lagos, the commercial canter of Nigeria. With Nigeria set to have the world’s third-largest population after India and China by 2050, he believes that the opportunity is still at its infancy, with a huge demand for carbonated soft drinks and water for years to come, in a market that consumed north of 45 billion litres of bottled water in 2019. In contrast, with a volume of approximately 2 billion liters the carbonated soft drinks segment in Nigeria is modest, but growing from a low base, compared to the rest of the world. The company believes that there is a huge potential for growth in the hotly
We have plans of expanding into the neighboring countries in the future, because we often get enquiries from Togo, Ghana and the likes; but first we aim at satisfying the in-house demand in Nigeria.
MARCH/APRIL 2021 | FOOD BUSINESS AFRICA
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