Tori dey fly say diaper and sanitary pad company, Kimberley Clark, go soon announce say dem dey close dia Ikorodu factory two years afta dem invest $100 million for Nigeria.
According to wetin NairaMetrics report, people wey dey work for di company say di plant don dey produce small-small since late 2023 enter 2024 sake of di tough condition for di kontri.
For 2022, di company open $100 million factory for Ikorodu, Lagos state to start work again afta dem bin close for 2019 afta dem check dia business well-well.
Kimberly-Clark start work for Naija for 2012 but dem stop afta five years for 2019 sake of condition no dey favourable, come start again for 2021.
Di company dey produce Huggies diapers, sanitary pads, Kotex and oda tins wey people dey use clean demsef. KC dey New York Stock Exchange and plenty big-big investors like Blackrock Inc., Vanguard Group, Morgan Stanley and odas get dia shares pass.
According to di person wey no wan make dem call im name, di company don dey struggle with high cost of light, raw materials and people no too dey buy dia tins sake of how tins be for di kontri since late 2022.
Dis one don make dem reduce workers and di time wey dem dey produce tins from every day of di week to just Mondays go reach Thursdays.
Di company dey spend like N100 million every month on top light mata, and dia monthly money wey dem dey spend on top work don pass N500 million.
Im say, “Our first two years dey kampe well-well for sales and market shares inside di diaper industry. But from late 2022 enter 2023, tins no too dey okay for di company sake of how di economy be.”
“Di money wey we dey spend dey high well-well. We dey spend pass N500 million every month and na like N100 million we dey spend on top gas to dey power di engine, and we still dey maintain am. Di company get two assets and for last year, dose ones no work reach like 90 days out of 365 days.”
“For early dis year, di company come reduce work go two shifts instead of four shifts. Before, we dey run am 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days for di year but now, we no dey work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday again sake of how tins be for di economy. Dem don already stop to dey employ people from outside sef. Di company dey find way to reduce cost since dem no dey make profit again.”
Di person still talk say di high cost to produce dey come from how di price of raw materials wey dem dey import don increase.
Wen di company start work like three years ago, dem keep some money for work wey dem tink say go reach dem for five years, come be say afta dat one, di money wey dem go make from Naija go fit sustain di work.
E be like say di company no go wan import tins like dia oda company Procter and Gamble dey do, and e mean say dem no go dey do business for di kontri again.
Di reason why Kimberly-Clark wan comot from Naija be di same reason why oda companies don comot from di kontri for di past few years.
High cost to produce tins, how dollar don increase wey dey affect how dem dey import raw materials, and people no too get money to dey buy tins.
Last year, anoda U.S company wey dey sell tins to clean body, Procter and Gamble (P&G), stop to dey produce for Naija just like dis one afta dem don invest like $300 million (di biggest money wey any U.S company don put for Naija wey no be oil) for factory for Ibadan.
For di same way, PZ Cussons talk for last month say dem dey check wetin dem fit do with dia Africa business wey Naija be di biggest one and how dem go take make dia investors happy well-well. Di company don start to dey sell dia property dem for Naija again afta dem bin stop sake of forex wahala.
Dem say di baby diaper business for Naija worth like $920 million and e fit grow reach like 11% between 2024 and 2028 according to Statista. Di big names for di industry na Pampers wey P&G dey produce, Molfix, and Kimberly-Clark Huggies. But plenti company dey drag market share and dem reach like 15 sef.
