Last Friday in Lagos, brewing giant, Nigerian Breweries Plc, held an award ceremony to celebrate its distributors and trade partners who excelled in the course of their business partnerships with the company in the last year.
During the occasion, Uche Unigwe, the company’s Sale Director, said the theme of this year’s award ‘Winning More Together’, was conceived to recognize and reward the excellent performance of the company’s distributors and transporters for the year 2017.
He added that despite the challenges in the operating environment, the company did well and achieved many milestones that called for celebration.
Unigwe described the partners as “super stars of Nigerian Breweries who constitute the important segment in the route to the market”.
While saluting them for their excellent contribution to the company’s success, he emphasized that the partners are the best in the industry.
In his remarks, the Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Jordi Borrut Bel lauded the partners for the long years of support and affirmed that the company looks forward to a more rewarding relationship with them in the years ahead.
He also thanked the distributors for the value added to the business last year, while also restating the commitment and sustained support of the company in the years ahead despite the continuing challenges.
“As partners for progress, we need you now more than ever before to win. The environment is more intense and the competitive landscape continues to change. This are challenging times in the market”, he noted.
He stated that the strategy to forge ahead and win is to shift focus to “our boss”, which is the consumer. “In the years ahead, we will excites the consumers more and make them happy. We should work together to woo the consumers,” he said.
The awards presented during the event included: CFAO Award for non-alcohol Distributors; Growth Award and Isuzu Direct Depletion to Road Award. Others were Regional Key Transporters Award; Brand Champions; National Key Transporter; Regional Champions and National Champions.
In the high point of the event, last’s year winner, Ken Maduakor Group Limited from Nnewi in Onitsha Business Region clinched the National Champion Award as the Company’s best distributor for 2017. Ken Maduakor Group had also won the award in 2016, making this the third consecutive year it would be named best distributor.
Ifeoma Chukwuka Nigeria Limited, came second while Nathan Ofoma and Sons Limited, Nkpor, Anambra State clinched the third position.
Kenneth Maduakor, Chairman of Ken Maduakor Group thanked the company for the gesture and advised that the momentum be sustained to stay on top.
For their efforts, Maduakor got an Isuzu Truck, an award trophy and ten Pallets; Ifeoma Chukwuka got an Isuzu NMR, an award trophy and six Pallets; while Ofoma got six pallets, an award trophy in addition to an Isuzu NMR.
In the Transporter of the Year category, Ancaps Global Investment Limited from Kaduna won the National Key Transporter Award and got a plaque, an award trophy and a Mitsubishi L200 double cabin 4×4 DC Van. Priwan Ventures Nigeria Limited from Enugu which won the raffle draw for the night got a Mitsubishi L200 van.
Nigeria Breweries Plc, the pioneer and largest brewing company in Nigeria was incorporated in 1946 and recorded a landmark when the first bottle of Star Lager beer rolled off the bottling lines in its Lagos Brewery in June 1949.