Chemical and food raw materials focus company, Cormart Nigeria Ltd said it will be investing N2 billion this year to increase local manufacturing of its product offerings in Nigeria.
Cormart, a member of the Tropical General Investments (TGI) group, is investing more in its research and development (R&D) department that continuously seeks to improve the quality of products by introducing better alternatives into the market.
Johannes Flosbach, the general manager, Cormart Nigeria limited, said the company has enjoyed a 30 per cent growth annually in the last three years despite the challenging environment, and expect a 40 per cent growth in 2020.
According to Flosbach, Cormart main goal is sustainability of the business model to ensure its operation continue and grow stronger. He opined that the company’s management is keen on contributing to the industrial development of others. “…when it comes to the industrial development of Nigeria; Cormart is in the center of it all,” said Flosbach.
Martin Middernacht, MD, Cormart Nigeria limited said the company’s philosophy is built on reinvesting its profits back into the business year-on-year. This he said was responsible for Cormart growth in the last 40 years in Nigeria.
According to Middernacht, access to forex was a major challenge to the company’s operation in 2019, which forced it to innovate its product offerings with animal feeds for export substitution to earn forex to offset its Letter of Credit (L/c).
Speaking further on the challenges faced in emerging market like Nigeria, Middernacht stated that Nigeria’s biggest problem is education, as it is responsible for finding the right-fit human capital. “Human resource is a key challenge to business development in Nigeria; Power, finance constitute a barrier to business development,” said Middernacht.
According to him, clearing cost negatively impact businesses in Nigeria, as the company paid N400, 000 more to get goods off the ports in Apapa. He further disclosed that Cormart could not export some of its products to Ghana in 2019 because of the ports congestion and had to recall its container after about two months at the ports for road transport.
