According to Alayande Lateef, human relations and admin manager of Sona Agro, the company saw the visit by students from the Sparkling Minds Educentre in Lagos as an opportunity to interact with its customers who consume biscuits most: children.
"We want to ensure our upcoming generations are conversant with the factory setting where their favourite [snacks] are produced,” said Lateef.
The biscuit company took the students from the Educentre on a guided tour of its mechanized factory, explaining the processes involved in the manufacturing of biscuits, including the movement of raw materials to mixing, molding, oven end, cooling, packaging and warehousing.
Expanding capacity
To meet the demand for its products, it expanded the plant capacity in 2014, from 14 tons per day to 100 tons per day, procuring and commissioning the equipment from Italy and India.
Biscuits are the most consumed wheat-based bakery product in Nigeria, although RTS foodtrending data noted that biscuit consumption is comparatively low throughout Africa.
It remains a luxury and is thus accessible only to those with incomes that are more significant.
ResearchandMarkets added competition is increasing in Nigeria and the market is tending towards more sophistication, with foreign-owned companies trying to find local partners to grow distribution and introducing higher-priced products.
Accessible to all
However, said RTS, the urban-dwelling middle classes are growing as expected and biscuit sales can also be expected to develop.
RTS reported the biscuit category in Africa was worth $8,248m in 2016 and is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2% to $9,199m by 2021.
Mondor Intelligence reported the global biscuits market is expected to reach $125bn by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7%.
Sparkling Minds Educentre principal Olufunmi Adefuye said what the children has seen surpassed expectation.
She also applauded the company for its devotion to hygiene in its operating environment – Sona Agro is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company.
The company daily sells 50,000 cartons of its products, which include the Rich Tea, Sona Malty, Sona’s Choppys, Sona Digestives, Sona Ginger Delight, Thins Crackers and Sona Krispee biscuit brands, among others.
Nigeria was one of the world’s fastest-growing economies during the 1980s oil boom and investors flocked to the country to tap the potential of its young, fast-growing population.
The UN forecasts the country will be the world’s third largest, behind India and China, by 2050.