Coca Cola Nigeria Limited has revealed that its operations have not been affected by the country’s foreign exchange crisis as the company gets most of its inputs locally including plastics, crowns, label and sugar. It added that concentrate imports are not that huge to cause a disruption to the business.
This is as the company has reported a triple increase in its e-commerce sales this year in Nigeria after the coronavirus-induced lockdowns led to a change in consumer habits across the country.
The US beverage giant saw a sharp rise in online sales of its products after the Nigerian government was forced to impose lockdown with movement restrictions on people as part of measures to curb the spread of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
This disclosure was made known by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Coca Cola Nigeria, Alfred Olajide, during an interview in Lagos, according to Bloomberg.
What the CEO of Cola-Cola Nigeria is saying
Olajide, without providing details as the company is not listed in Nigeria, said, “The first one month of Covid-19 was the pivot point,” for e-commerce penetration in the company. We have more than tripled the e-commerce business that we have in our portfolio.
“Right now e-commerce orders as a proportion of sales is still in the single-digit but the ambition for us is to scale it to double-digit and make it a very big significant channel of choice for our consumers,” the CEO said without giving a timeline. “We are partnering to help the trend grow and you will see more of that coming through in our strategy.”
Olajide noted that while the high unemployment and inflation rates have negatively impacted the disposable income, the company is beginning to experience return back of sales probably to the pre-Covid period as the economy improves.
He said that the company which also produces Fanta and Sprite carbonated drinks in addition to Eva water, is partnering with popular e-commerce platform, Jumia Technologies, to push its products in the country.
The Coca-Cola Nigeria boss said that as part of its market strategy to boost its sales after the market downturn in 2020 due to the pandemic, the food and beverage firm has adjusted prices and has smaller, more value-based pack sizes to cater for consumers that have low disposable income.
He said, “What we do as an organization is to look for ways to continue to be more efficient. There is a lot of recovery happening in the business and I will peg it to the fact that the country itself is improving.”
Bottom line
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant imposition of lockdown across the country led to the change in lifestyle and consumption pattern of Nigerians. While some sectors experienced serious downturns in their operations, some sectors like telecommunications, food and beverages, retail stores, fast-moving goods and others, have had their sales getting to record levels.
Nigeria is seen as a frontier market for growth in e-commerce due to a largely youthful population and increased data penetration. The use of smartphones is poised to rise almost fourfold to 140 million by 2025, according to Statista.com, adding to the number of people going online to buy everything from groceries to clothes
Coca cola are doing well
This is pure lie.. a bottle of coke sold for 100 is now 120 even the plastic coke sold for 150 is now 180 and some places 200.. they are all lies everything has added money.