BUA Foods Plc: Driving Food Sufficiency In Africa

BUA Foods Plc, has shown its effort in the country’s resolve to achieve self-sufficiency in food production in the country. This led to the BUA Group, the parent company to list its food business on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).

BUA Foods is a leading Food and Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business which processes, manufactures, and distributes food produce as well as packaged food. Its business operations comprise of five divisions, including Sugar, Flour, Pasta, Rice, and Edible Oils.

Efforts in Boosting Food Production

The Company expects to commence the processing, manufacturing, and distribution of rice in 2022 and edible oils by 2024. The Sugar segment of BUA Foods currently operates the second-largest sugar refinery in West Africa, with a total refining capacity of 1.5 million Metric Tons (MT) per annum.

The overall performance of sugar segment in 2021 grew by 84.5 per cent to N209.43 billion from N113.53 billion reported in audited 2020 results. Sugar segment contributed 62.8 per cent of the total turnover reported in 2021 as against 58.8 per cent in 2020.

The company is a leading producer of fortified and non-fortified sugar in West Africa. It operates across the value chain of the sugar industry, including the production, processing, refining, and distribution of raw sugar and its by-products such as bagasse, molasses and mud cakes.

As a response to Nigeria’s backward integration policy in the Sugar Industry, BUA Group invested in large scale estates within the country to deepen local sugar production through the acquisition of the Lafiagi Sugar Company Ltd (LASUCO) in Kwara state in 2008 and also, the establishment of the Bassa Sugar Company in Kogi State.

BUA Foods also owns a state-of-the-art flour mill in Port Harcourt with high efficiency specifications for energy saving and waste reduction. It commenced production in 2019 with a capacity of 500,000 MT per annum.

Flour is one of the staple foods contributing to the development of Nigeria and to cater for the growing flour demand in Nigeria, BUA Foods is currently expanding its milling facility by 800,000 MT per annum to 1.3 million MT per annum. The facility expansion is expected to be completed in 2022. The Flour division operates from BUA’s Foods Industrial Complex, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Due to increasing demand and the Company’s plan to expand its business beyond the North and South-South region of Nigeria, BUA Foods is in the process of constructing a second pasta plant with a capacity of 250,000 MT per annum

The combination of these two plants, upon the commencement of operation of the second plant, will yield a total capacity of 500,000 MT per annum, positioning the Company to become the second-largest pasta producer in Nigeria. In addition, the Company is aggressively developing its pasta brand and broadening its product range to satisfy varying consumer needs.

Its Rice Division has a rice milling facility in Kano with a milling capacity of 200,000 MT per annum, which will be operational in 2022. The mill is the largest in Nigeria and is currently being upgraded to a capacity of one million MT per annum, by installing new rice mill facilities in Gujungu, Jigawa State and establishing a rice mill and plantation in Agaie, Niger State.

Upon completion, it is expected to be the biggest single-line rice mill in Nigeria, with the potential to produce quality parboiled rice, with a very strong identity that will be identifiable to target customers and capable of meeting part of the domestic rice production deficit. It will leverage the existing strong BUA brand name and consumer loyalty recall.

While BUA Foods’ oil mills, located in Kano and Lagos, have a total capacity of 250,000 MT per annum and are expected to become operational in 2024. The Company plans to resuscitate its edible oil operations with the establishment of a new milling and packaging plant, with an annual capacity of 300,000 MT. Both retail and bulk customers will be targeted, with retail pack offerings ranging in size between 0.5 litres and 6.0 litres.

Company of the Year 2022 Award

The managing director of BUA Foods, Mr. Ayodele Abioye said the leading food and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company will continue to uphold the values and virtue which earned it the LEADERSHIP Company of the Year 2022 award.

Abioye stated this while receiving the management of LEADERSHIP Newspapers in Lagos. He noted that the award conferred on it by LEADERSHIP was a worthy one as the media group is one of the most reputable in the country.

He commended the management of LEADERSHIP for its dedication towards maintaining a high level of reputation in the media industry, saying, “we are sure that you did not just arrive at selecting us, there must have been some in-house evaluation. We are very glad to receive this.

“We have received so many awards recently, and this coming from LEADERSHIP, which is a very reputable brand is a reconfirmation that we are doing well. This is because the giver of the award is very important and LEADERSHIP is one of the major newspapers. We are very happy to be on your paper.

“We remain very proud of ourselves in Africa, made out of Nigeria. I am sure if you go to other organisations, you will probably see a lot of foreigners but we are proudly Nigerian. Made in Nigeria and we see ourselves as the pride of Africa. We want to continue to do more of whatever we are doing very well.”

LEADERSHIP vice chairman, Mr. Mike Okpere noted that a lot had been put into consideration before BUA Foods was named the 2022 Leadership Company of the Year. He furthered that “being recognized as leadership company of the Year, we hope this will spur you to do greater things in the future.”

Listing On NGX

In December 2021, BUA Group integrated its sugar, flour, pasta, rice and edible oil businesses into a single entity called BUA Foods and in February 2022, listed a total of 18 billion shares on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.

As at December 13, 2022, the Company’s share rose by 58.5 per cent or N23.40 per share to N63.40 from N40.00 per share at which it was listed on January 5, 2022.

Outlook for the Company

The managing director BUA Foods Plc, Engr. Ayodele Abioye said, “we are making progress with the recommencement of the rice business before year end 2022 to further diversify our revenue base.

“In addition, we are making progress with the backward integration plans for the sugar business and our capacity expansion plans for the flour, rice, and pasta divisions.”

Abioye explained that “we expect optimizing our supply value chain as we strive to increase market share across market regions. Furthermore, our rice division recommencement is on course as we continue to nourish lives and increase market reach.

“Our retail strategy remains a priority for us in the near term, while we drive to sustain the upward momentum of our export market strategy. We remain committed to reducing Africa insecurity issues while nourishing lives.”