NAMIBIA QUALITY BEVERAGES

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Namibia Quality Beverages focus MANUFACTURING

South Africa Magazine talks to Charl Coetzee, CEO of Namibia Quality Beverages, a man who believes in promoting local products and that Namibian businesses have a lot to offer. By Ian Armitage

amibia relies heavily upon imports to meet its needs, with an estimated 48 percent of the GDP being spent on goods produced outside the country. Unsurprisingly it is flooded with imported goods, many from South Africa. No more is this true than in the world of soft drinks. However, Namibian Quality Beverages (NQB) has managed to turn the tide through its supply of a unique brand 4 U, which has been warmly welcomed by the local market. The firm specialises in manufacturing, import, export, sales and distribution. It produces local, quality products and opened its doors in 2008. Our brand name is 4 U, implying for Namibians by Namibians, says Charl Coetzee, CEO of NQB, which started by manufacturing juice, then expanded to add in YKP Fire balls, YKP Cheese Curls and Hi-pro Dog food. The juices come in three ranges: 100% fruit Juices, Lite Juices and Nectars and have recently introduced ice tea made from Rooibos extract. Juice 4 U is sold in more than 30 retail shops around the country. We are a fully owned Namibian company and believe in promoting local products, says Coetzee. We are proud of what we as Namibian manufacturers have accomplished over the past few years against huge odds. Namibia used to import absolutely everything and still depends on imports but weve seen an increase in the number of local people buying Namibian products and I think there is a growing hunger for locally produced goods. That has certainly helped. Before we started as a business we looked at the local economy, local industry, and we looked at what other companies were doing right and we developed a solid game plan before we kicked off. We continue to analyse whats
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Namibia Quality Beverages focus MANUFACTURING

happening and have been active in finding new areas for growth. We change according to the market. Coetzee says that the prices on the shelf are mostly governed by well known imported brands, and the manufacturers carry the loss. That is a challenge. So too is an annual increase in prices of local products which is linked to the countrys inflation rate. Coetzee says the greatest challenge to the local producer remains to be able to compete against imported products flooding the market. Huge companies with a consumer base of millions
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This helps to create more local jobs and many other economic benefits that lead to the things people want - service improvements and inflation dropping

generally supply these theyre able to sell quantity while their expenses are kept to the minimum. A typical supplier in South Africa, in Joburg for example, has more than seven or eight million consumers in a 300km radius. A local producer here in Namibia has a consumer base of only about two million, spread across the whole country. To be able to compete, local producers need to grow to a point where they can export and compete on the doorstep of the opposition. That is a challenge. So too is growth and finding investment capital. In a small, emerging

Granor Passi is a proud supplier of Namibia Quality Beverages

economy like Namibia attracting investment can be a challenge. However, local produces are still in demand. Consumers want what we are making and selling. I think there is a real awareness that if people buy locally, wealth is created as the money is kept in the country. This helps to create more local jobs and many other economic benefits that lead to the things people want - service improvements and inflation dropping; that sort of thing. And if you manufacture locally all the money stays in the country instead of leaving like it does with imported good. So could more be done, particularly on a governmental level? I think the government does a wonderful job they certainly put money into start ups. The issue is that a business reaches a point where it becomes too big to be small and too small to be big. It needs next level funding. That funding is difficult to obtain and normally after three or four years a business will fold because it grows faster than it can manage and ends up in huge debt or reaches the point where it restricts or limits growth. That is the challenge NQB is faced with. It needs next level funding. At the moment the shareholders are covering it but we have reached the point where it is limiting growth, says Coetzee. Nonetheless, the future is bright. NQB is currently working on a very exciting longterm project in which they want to make oil from local fruit called project nut and the oil-made will be used as a cosmetic oil for skin care and secondly for cooking. This is part of NQBs social responsibility and a way to plough back into the market, the economy and the country. The business plan revolves around three pillars. The centre pillar is the actual company itself, which will be extracting the oil - Namibia Quality Oils. It wont really employ a lot of people - probably the maximum of 10-20 people. The primary
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Namibia Quality Beverages focus MANUFACTURING

Long-term it should grow, we foresee, to over 1000 people and all of them will be basically selfemployed

pillar would be where we actually go into rural areas and set up a less formal small medium enterprise where these people will gather the fruits and then sell it to us so they will have their own community business. In the shortterm that should create, we estimate, about 100 people jobs. That should grow extensively as the product starts selling. These are people with absolutely no skills - rural poor communities and the previously disadvantaged. Long-term it should grow,

we foresee, to over 1000 people and all of them will be basically self-employed. The third pillar that were looking at is from that there will be spin-offs for the upcoming entrepreneurs; we will assist them in setting up small medium enterprises in industries that our waste products, for instance, will spawn. That is further job creation. The name NQB is perhaps a bit misleading then, at least to the untrained eye? I suppose it is. Were much more already than a

beverage producer. Weve thought about having another name but what we are looking at, most probably in the future, is to create a holding company and then have Namibia Quality Beverages, Namibia Quality Foods, Namibia Quality Oils and then maybe Namibia Quality Cosmetics. It is something that were thinking about and is in the pipeline. Well see how it plays out. We wish them luck. END To learn more visit www.namibia-beverages.com
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Namibia Quality Beverages 85 Hans Dietrich Genscher Str Khomasdal Windhoek Namibia Tel: +264 61 305 902 Fax: +264 61 244 390 Email: info@namibia-beverages.com

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