Beta Glass Plc, a member of the Frigoglass Group, aims to export its product in a push for a share in the West African market. It projects to produce 650 million bottles per year.
Alexander Gendis, CEO of Beta Glass, said during a factory tour at the Agbara industrial hub of Ogun State that the manufacturing processes of the glasses are to ensure commitment to sustainability.
“Beta Glass integrates advanced technology, sustainability, and efficiency in its operations. We are pushing for export because we want to be a hub for West Africa and we are the biggest with 70 percent market share as we do 720 metric tons per day, we can also do 650 million bottles per year,” he said.
This firm caters to major customers including Nigerian Breweries (Heineken), AB InBev, and Guinness Nigeria Plc. (Diageo), Nigerian Bottling Company (Coca-Cola), Nigerian Distilleries Ltd., Pharmaceuticals & perfumes, Intercontinental Distillers Ltd, Wines & Spirits.
The use of bottled drinks dates back to ages when an opener was used to open the bottles and consumers enjoyed the content from diverse consumer brands.
The truth is the majority of these consumer goods brands outsource their bottles from manufacturing companies whose occupation is to solely manufacture glass bottles for wines, soda drinks, and hard liquor and also glass containers used for the packaging of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products.
Beta Glass Plc is one of them which holds 70 percent market share; it is a Nigerian industrial goods company headquartered in Lagos but has production plants in the Agbara industrial hub of Ogun State, as well as Ughelli which is located in the Southern Nigerian state of Delta.
How bottles for drinks are made
Prasad Govind, plant manager at Beta Glass said during the factory tour that the process of making the glass includes raw materials, batching, furnace(melting, refining, and conditioning), then the forming of glass stage, hot end surface treatment, cold end surface treatment, cold end inspection equipment and packaging.
According to him, the process of melting the raw materials starts with the highest heat of 1450 degrees Celsius at the furnace level then the process of heating reduces gradually depending on the levels till it reaches 50 degrees Celsius which is the cold end inception equipment.
At the furnace level, the personal protective equipment that must be worn include a hard net, safety glass, coverall, safety boot, ear muff, and hand glove due to the level of heat.
The raw materials used for glass include Cobalt, Selenium, Silica sand, Soda ash, Sodium sulphate, Limestone, Feldspar, and Cullet.
As of February 7, 2025, Beta Glass safety performance board reveals that there was no fatality year-to-date(YTD), no first aid cases, no lost time incident, 1 near miss, 103 unsafe conditions reported, 39 unsafe acts reported and the last accident date was May 17, 2024 which was a finger accident by a worker.
Read also: NNFM, Beta Glass push NGX higher as earnings season spurs buy actions
”No child labor – persons below 18 years of age are prohibited to work in this factory, according to a written statement at the factory.
The firm has a quality policy that states that individual jobs are carried out in line with clients’ requirements which ensures customer satisfaction and total commitment to continual improvement of the Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2015).
Hence, to achieve the quality policy it stated that the quality objectives include achieving customer satisfaction by on-time delivery of quality products which is measured by comparing total dispatch to market requirements.
It also includes ensuring that the number of justified customer complaints is not above the yearly set target of three maximum.
To ensure quality assurance, Sunday Olagbende, supervisor/chemical lab manager at Beta Glass said the chemical laboratory is responsible for ensuring that Beta Glass’s composition is stable.
“We achieve a stable composition of all our glass by ensuring that all incoming raw materials are checked properly to ensure that they meet specifications that will give a quality glass material,” he said.
“We have equipment to ensure that we always meet the international standard of glass. Some raw materials are imported such as soda ash and sodium sulphate.
“Other materials such as sand and feldspar are sourced locally. Other ingredients added to the glass composition to build up the quality glass are sourced locally,” Olagbende stated.
Beta Glass Plc stated its intention to be the leading manufacturer of glass containers and plastic crates in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.
Financial performance
Beta Glass Plc, in its unaudited financial statement filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, reveals a 116 percent growth in after-tax profit to N13.9 billion in 2024 from N6.44 billion in 2023.
The firm recorded an 87 percent growth in revenue to N117.8 billion driven by sales of glassware and bottles to the Nigerian market worth N107.7 billion and export sales worth N117.6 billion.
Similarly, input cost increased to N87.2 billion from N50.6 billion during the comparable periods.
Beta Glass Plc is a subsidiary of Frigoglass Industries Nigeria Limited, which holds a 61.9 percent stake in Beta. Frigoglass is itself a subsidiary of the Greek company, Frigoglass S.A.I.C, which is a major player in the global Ice Cold Merchandisers (ICM) market. Consequently, it is the Athens-based Frigoglass S.A.I.C that owns the controlling share in Nigeria’s Beta Glass Plc.
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