INTERVIEW coast has been a lot bigger and more forward thinking and long term, that’s what really differentiates us.
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We are investing and pushing finances in an area where nobody wants to go into and that’s what has been our distinction in the market”.
Yo ur market p enetra tion strategy has been superb, and I know this impact on the bottom line, but aren’t you perturbed about fake products? How do you manage this threat?
Engr Ernest Nwapa (fmr E.S NCDMB) presents award to Mr George Onofowokan at NOG 2019
“NOG 2019 Awards: ...a confirmation of our tenacity, hardwork” - Onafowokan, MD Coleman Cables
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oleman Wires and Cables is an ISO 9 0 01:2 015 certif ied , indi genous company, committed to manufacturing consistent quality wires and cables locally. Part of its strategy to maintain and increase its market share has been a continual improvement of its processes and services delivery through staff development, motivation and creation of a conducive work environment. In this interview with Majorwaves Energy Report, Mr George Onofowokan explains why Coleman emerged as the Best Indigenous Company of Year; he also touched on a couple of other innovative activities ongoing at the company. Excerpts. Congratulations on the award as NOG 2019 Indigenous Company of the Year. What do you have to say about this recognition? Thanks. I’m very excited about this award. It’s been a long time coming. It goes to say hardwork pays. Our investments over the years is being recognised. We’ve been tested, but we are still here; this is a confirmation of our tenacity, grit and hardwork.
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Majorwaves Energy Report
What do you do differently to set your business apart from the other players in this industry? For Coleman, what we do differently is that, we have actually invested a lot more. We have looked at the long term and decided to invest in the cable industry, surpassing others in the industry; and our investments have gone into pioneering products. Pioneering products like the High Voltage (HV) Cable which we did in 2014, like CAT5 and CAT6 Cable which we did in 2015; Instrumentation pressure Cable which we also did in 2015 and currently, we’re also investing in backward integration, in copper and aluminium production in-country, and also looking at the oil and gas industry. For the oil and gas, we are also moving into marine vessel cables. By the time we finish that project, we will only be the second country of production in Africa. All the projects we have made were pioneers in the whole of West Africa, which is what makes us innovative and totally different and exceptional in the Industry, because we are making cables that nobody is actually doing. On the normal cables, in terms of capacity and size, we are actually equivalent to the whole industry in West Africa multiplied by two. So our own vision for the country and the West African
SEPTEMBER 2019, Vol 2 No 6
We are always perturbed about fake, adulterated and substandard cables because that has been the bone of the industry for years and it will continue to be. But our philosophy in fighting fake and adulterated is a bit different - by building capacity because one thing we realised is you do not fight what is too available. Basically, what is “pure water” (sachet water)? Nobody adulterates it. In my philosophy, you won’t see anybody adulterating pure water, it’s damn too cheap and available and there are so many players. Now, what we need to do and the industry has never done, which Coleman is doing, is to make product available and cheap and of good value too. So when you have good value and good pricing; and you have the capacity to back that good pricing, you actually drop the substandard and faking of your cables because you’re matching, if not beating, the price of the fake of the cables; and that has been our focus in the last two years. “We now use our capacity to build availability to fight substandard cables’’ and we fought it with SON, and fought it with government agencies. But we found out it wasn’t working. Some of the government’s agencies seem not to do the work they are supposed to do enough. Nevertheless, we need to sustain and survive and the way we have done it is to change the dynamics.
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Why not make these cables to be available and viable for people to want to buy it and then at those levels?”
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