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‘Why Suyu table water is unique’ – H20 Tech boss, Abiodun Amusa

ON Friday, October 31, 2014, ENCOMIUM Weekly visited the CEO, H20Tech Ltd., manufacturers of Suyu table water, Alhaji Abiodun Amusa in his Egbeda, Lagos headquarters, where he spoke exclusively on the progress so far concerning the business and other issues.

H20Tech, producers of Suyu table water, was established about two and a half years ago.  How would you describe the experience so far?

First, we have to thank God for being our guide and guard.  The two and a half years of our existence has been both challenging and interesting.  But all praises and adoration go to Allah for His constant guidance.  We have been able to move from our 30 per cent to almost 35 per cent.  Though, it’s still below our expectation, we believe that with more publicity and other offers, we will certainly be there in no time.  We are now the toast of the elites.  We give Almighty Allah thanks for that.

Your initial goal was to cut across all the major distribution channels, including A-list hotels, department stores, supermarkets and all that.  How far have you been able to achieve that?

Yes, when I said that we’re more or less preferred by the elite, these are the kind of people that generally patronize supermarkets, department stores and similar outlets.  We’re getting to them rather very slowly, but the bulk of our customers are concentrated along the people who buy from hotels, supermarkets and others.  We don’t deal with street traders, but their emphasis is to maximize profit.

What have been the challenges of running the business?

The only challenge is electricity.  We run now 100 per cent on generator for the past seven months.  Discos have not been kind to us in our area.  We strive to get a bigger transformer in addition to the one we have in our own company.  We realized that the one that was supplied to the community was even fake.  And, we have to shut down ours too because of the tariff.  We were paying about N360,000 on our transformer per month because the blower that blows the bottles consumes a lot of electricity.  Whether we’re using the transformer or not, we have a fixed charge of N195,000 every month.  So, we have to shut down to use diesel which we found more economical.  Also, the other challenge lies in the area of retailers’ orientation.  They are more or less looking for cheaper products.  And we must be honest to ourselves, we have a lot of waters in circulation but we rank ourselves with the big five including Eva, Nestle, Ragolis and the rest.  We can’t afford to do business with Agege or Ogba marketers who are really looking for cheaper products.  And some of these products are not even purified.

Since we know our goal, we are forging ahead.  We are mostly reckoned with by some hotels around Omole, Ikeja but we’re yet to break through into Excellence Hotels, which has been our target since we started.  But In sha Allah, we shall get there soon.  The other area is that of running cost, apart from diesel and salary.  Salary is taken care of already because we have to scale down the staff to cope with the level of our production.  By and large, we believe that with the rains almost over now, we’re more or less approaching our season.  And from what we have experienced so far in the latter part of October, it means we’re in for a good business from November.

That reminds us, how do you cope during the rainy season because water business is usually least profitable at that period?

Yes, the rainy season is a major headache of the business, but there is nothing we can do about that because it has to do with weather and climate.  Only God decides the duration of things like that.  I think this year, we have a longer rainy season.  But the most important thing is for us to do our business within seven or eight months of the year so that we could live above board within the rainy season.  It’s a period we have to cater far ahead.  With the general acceptance of our products now, I believe by the time we’re three, we should be able to give more thanks to Almighty God. But as per where we’re today, I say Alhamdullilah.

What’ the numerical strength of your staffers right now?

Right now, we have pruned it down to 15 from 22.  This is generally because of the lull in business, and also the need to be able to be responsive to our staffers.  And Alhamdulillah, we’re not owing any of our staffers.  In fact, we’re paying that of October today by the grace of Almighty Allah.  So, we want to be socially responsible to our workers so that we don’t just keep the staff strength we can’t afford to pay.  Even, by the time we resume fully into the dry and hot season, the signs are there that some of the staffers that were asked to go may be recalled.

With the benefit of hindsight, would you now conclude that Nigeria is conducive and favourable for business growth and development? 

The atmosphere in Nigeria is not really for any business to thrive.  In fact, most of the infrastructure that most businesses are battling with ought to have been provided freely by the government.  But the Nigerian government seems to leave everyone to take care of himself.  The other thing that is even very embarrassing nowadays is taxation.  For instance, the Lagos State Internal Revenue (LSIR) comes up with all sorts of levies, PAYEs.  This has not really meant well for the development of the business. But by and large, we have no other country we can call our own, we just have to make do with whatever is available. But business will thrive if new businesses are encouraged to have access to the so-called SME fund.  But the conditions for this are really very discouraging, and by the time you even get the fund, you’re already close to repayment period.  So, government should, as a matter of policy, encourage new business by having a kind of tax relief or holiday so that businesses could attain a stabilizing stage before they start to cope with this issue of double or multiple taxation.

What are the main things you’re planning to inject into the business now?

Our initial plan was to go into production of other liquid beverages like yogurt, milk and others in that category.  But since we’re still battling infrastructure problem, we still have to put everything on hold for now.  But by the time we’re liquid enough and stable on the table water business, we will go into all those areas so that we can complement our product base.

In some major businesses, some people will say after two or three years, they’re yet to attain a break-even stage, let alone make any profit.  What’s your experience concerning this as regards H20Tech?

To be honest, if any business wishes to make any profit within two or three years, even four years in Nigeria, that must be a very tall order because it’s when the infrastructure is in a very good state that maybe when we can be talking of making any profit within two years of operation.  The problem in Nigeria is getting the market to accept you first.  The general conception concerning table water is we’re used to Eva, Nestle and the rest.  They do not take the pain to see or know whether you compete more favourably with any of these brands.  So, to change the brand loyalty is always a very herculean task. It requires a lot of promotions, adverts and publicity to get people to want to give you a chance.  And to be honest, you can’t get all these done successfully within one or two years.  So, an entrepreneur who desires to make a lasting existence in business must give him or herself four years holiday to get stabilized.  And anything after that, then the business is not right.

What makes Suyu water unique?

The selling point of Suyu table water is its quality.  Suyu water is triple-filtered unlike most other brands, especially those dominated by one man or one woman because we also have a lot of women in this business, and their orientation is to make profit as quickly as possible.  We give quality our priority.  Unlike others, we never recycle our bottles.  Some other manufacturers encourage young staffers to pick bottles from parties or events and such bottles are reused for subsequent productions. But in our own case, we blow our bottles with the use of raw material called Preform.  It’s the one that will now blow into the bottles of various sizes, be it 50cl, 1.5ltr and others.  Once you can get the bottles right, and your filtration is also right, you’re bound to get the right quality.  Some even use what’s called Standard Filtration, which is simply using the sound and carbon. But we have two stages ahead of that.  We have a machine called Reverse Osmosis. This is the machine that removes odour from water.  There is no way you get water from the ground and it will not be full of odour.  But it’s this machine that will remove the entire odour.  It’s more or less like a bleacher.  It removes every odour in vitamins or what have you. We now come back to re-energise the water with what we call Ozone.  So, our own process is Standard Filtration, Reverse Osmosis, then ozonation.  Some of our competitors end up in Standard Filtration, while the other two stages are ignored.  So, quality remains our watchword in H20Tech.  And that we will ever guarantee our customers nationwide.

– TADE ASIFAT

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