The Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) has assured its numerous customers and consumers of its products that its commitment to integrity and product quality is from production to delivery, pledging that these would remain the gold standard of its operations.
The company’s Country General Manager, Matthieu Seguin, stated this at its 2020 Stakeholders Forum held virtually with the theme, ‘Product Quality and Integrity: Challenges and Opportunities’.
The event also featured key contributions from Zoltan Syposs, the company’s Vice President, Quality, Safety and Environment; Moji Adeyeye, Director General, National Agency for Foods, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and Babatunde Irukera, CEO, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).
Seguin explained that quality remained the hallmark of the operations of the Coke System. “At NBC, we understand that only products and services valued and accepted by our customers and consumers will deliver and help our business to grow.
We are committed to driving our business forward by continually improving quality control across the organization and working together with Coca-Cola Nigeria, local authorities, partners, suppliers, customers and consumers,” he said.
Seguin disclosed that a survey NBC conducted earlier in the year showed that product quality and integrity ranked highest among the demands of its stakeholders, hence its decision to continue prioritising it.
“Our commitment to quality and integrity is from production to delivery. Everyone at NBC works hard to procure the finest ingredient, equipment and services from some of the industry’s most respected suppliers. We also complement this with our state of the art local production and distribution system,” Seguin said.
He added that the NBC achieves the highest product quality and integrity through compliance with local and international standards, certification of its systems, auditing and regular feedback from customers.
“We keep the line of communication open to our consumers for regular feedback which we get a lot, and this also guarantees the prompt resolution of complaints they may have. As the world evolves and consumers’ preferences change, we believe in continuous improvement of our system,” he assured.
Syposs affirmed, explaining that the Coca-Cola System, comprising Coca-Cola and NBC, was vigilant about product quality and integrity because research has showed that about 200 different types of diseases are spread through contaminated food and beverages, with about 420,000 deaths recorded annually from contaminated food, 125,000 of them among children under the age of five.
Syposs further noted that The Coca-Cola System was building a total beverage company and that it would continue to maintain the highest product quality to further earn consumers’ trust.
In his presentation, Irukera stressed the importance of product quality and integrity, noting that it helps in sustaining brand loyalty. He explained that the most basic obligations of manufacturers to consumers was to provide clarity of information, legitimacy of both direct and indirect claims, consistency of product delivery and consumer satisfaction derived from product usage.
Adeyeye who was represented by the Director, Food Safety and Nutrition at NAFDAC, Sherif Olagunju, said it was important for businesses to look for ways of gaining and sustaining brand loyalty by increasingly building quality into their products and consequentially building customer trust.
“To survive in severe competition, brand loyalty is a powerful tool and there can be no loyalty without product quality and consumer satisfaction,” he said.
