We’ve been promoting local industries, says McVitie’s Digestive

Kwame Wiafe, managing director, McVitie’s Nigeria, says the company depends on raw materials sourced locally for its production.

McVitie’s is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits., is celebrating the 125th anniversary of one of its products, McVitie’s Digestive.

Speaking in Lagos at an occasion to mark the 125th anniversary of one of its products, McVitie’s Digestive, Wiafe said the company is currently rewarding consumers of McVitie’s Digestive brand with airtime and cash prices.

“I can guarantee you that the quality we produce here is the same as the quality you get anywhere globally. The only difference is the raw material that we use and that is why it would bring a slight deviation in the taste of the product,” he said.

“For example, in order to promote local industries, we ensure that all the raw materials used in production- our flour, sugar, fats- which are the three key products for baking of biscuits are sourced locally.

“But recently, we have been working with our raw materials sourcing partners to prepare our quality to be standard and to ensure that as much as possible, we mitigate any differences in taste in what is sourced here and what is sourced in the UK.

“We are not completely there yet but we are working with them closely to ensure that they also meet a certain minimum quality standard that will assure us or guarantee the same quality as we offer to our consumers worldwide.”

Toyin Nnodi, marketing director, McVitie’s Nigeria, said as part of the celebration of the company’s over a century existence, McVitie’s decided to launch a consumer’s campaign.

“McVitie’s biscuits is 125 years. Not many brands come that close can boast about these key fact and it is a fact that we are very proud of,” he said.

“It has been 37 years that the brand has been inside Nigeria and to share this happiness with us, the team has decided to launch a national consumer’s promotion.

“We do realise that the consumers have been part of this success story for every step of the way for the last 125 years and even longer because the brand McVitie’s is actually older than 125 years but Digestive is 125 years, we would be launching a national consumer promotion.

“Official date was on the first of July which was on a Saturday but we are breaking this news to all of you today so that you would be part of this success story.

“We have two types of prices we plan to give out- there is going to be airtime and cash. We have taken our time to think about the prices we wanted to give out because coming out of research, we felt that these are the prices that they really would love.

“And for airtime, playing on the numbers 1, 2 and 5, we would be giving out 100, 200 and 500 hundred naira airtime. Every day, from Monday to Friday for 12 weeks, we would have winners emerging for a total of 750 winners, 250 people winning each of these three airtime denominations.”