British deputy high commissioner commissions £2m Guinness plant in Lagos

Ben Llewellyn-Jones, the British deputy high commissioner to Nigeria, and John O’Keeffe, president of Diageo Africa, have commissioned a new £2 million production line at the Guinness Nigeria plant in Ogba, Lagos.

The new line, which is designed for the production of spirit drinks, is expected to produce about 600,000 EUs of the company’s spirits brands per year. The product line was commissioned on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.

While interacting with journalists and other invited guests at the facility, Baker Magunda, the managing director of Guinness Nigeria, said the Company is determined to ensure that it meets the demands of its “loyal consumers” who have believed in the iconic brands from the company for over seven decades.

“What we have today is a reflection of our ambition to grow our investments and the focus on optimizing our capital expenditure,” Magunda said.

“This investment forms a key part of our supply strategy for meeting the increasing demands for brands in our portfolio and particularly our spirit drinks to satisfy our customers. Therefore, we will keep pushing hard and progressively towards matching our supply capacity with the increasing demand for our iconic products across our value chain despite the challenging business environment in which we operate”.

80% OF DIAGEO PRODUCTS IN AFRICA ARE SOURCED LOCALLY

John O’Keeffe, president of Diageo Africa, said Guinness is determined to support the efforts of governments across Africa to grow their economies through effective backward integration.

He said Diageo Africa is all for backward integration and has — over the last five years — increased locally sourced ingredients to 80 percent, with plans to do more in the very near future.

“This project is part of the Mainstream Spirit Capacity expansion programme with a cost of £2m to install an additional cube packaging line at our Ogba brewery for the packaging of Orijin Bitters in the sizes and formats desired by consumers,” he said. 

“The investment forms a key part of Guinness Nigeria Plc’s supply strategy for meeting increased demand for our highly successful portfolio of mainstream spirits,” O’Keeffe added.

He added that “this new line will create more job opportunities in the value chain. In addition, materials for production will largely be sourced locally thereby further strengthening our commitment to support farmers and other businesses in our value chain in Nigeria as part of its socio-economic contributions to the country’s GDP”.

Llewellyn-Jones expressed satisfaction that Guinness Nigeria was making headway despite the difficult operating environment, stating that the British government is keen to improve the economic relations between British companies and Nigeria.

“We are excited to work with British companies in Nigeria as they continue to show commitment in their investment drive towards economic growth of the country,” Llewellyn-Jones said. 

“We will continue to also work closely with the government to scale up infrastructural development that will aid business growth and creation of job opportunities”.