Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) has reiterated its commitment to product quality and integrity, pledging that this would remain the gold standard of its operations.
This assurance was given by the Country General Manager of NBC, Mr Matthieu Seguin, during the company’s 2020 Stakeholders Forum held on Tuesday and themed Product Quality and Integrity: Challenges and Opportunities.
The function, which held virtually, also featured key contributions from the Vice President, Quality, Safety and Environment, The Coca-Cola Company, Zoltan Syposs; Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Moji Adeyeye, and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Babatunde Irukera.
Mr Seguin explained that quality remains the hallmark of the operations of the Coke System, saying, “At NBC, we understand that only products and services valued and accepted by our customers and consumers will deliver help our business grow.”
“We are committed to driving our business forward by continually improving quality control across the organisation, working together with Coca-Cola Nigeria, local authorities, partners, suppliers, customers and consumers,” he further said.
Mr 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,” Mr 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.”
Speaking in the same vein as Mr Seguin, Syposs said that the Coca-Cola System comprising Coca-Cola and NBC is vigilant about product quality and integrity because research has shown 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, the CEO of FCCPC, Mr Babatunde 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 is to provide clarity of information, legitimacy of both direct and indirect claims, consistency of product delivery and consumer satisfaction derived from product usage.
Also speaking at the event, Professor Adeyeye who was represented by the Director, Food Safety and Nutrition, NAFDAC, Mr Sherif Olagunju said it is 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.
Furthermore, the NAFDAC boss said, “to survive in severe competition brand loyalty is a powerful tool and there can be no loyalty without product quality and consumer satisfaction”.
They both commended NBC for its conscious self-regulation and internal audit, noting that this explains why consumers trust the company’s products.
