Soft
drinks giant, Coca-Cola Nigeria has emerged the Most Innovative Multinational
Company in Nigeria at the BusinessDay Top 25 Most Innovative Companies &
Institutions Awards 2017. Organized by leading business publication,
BusinessDay Media, the awards event held at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos
on Friday 28 April 2017.
Coca-Cola
clinched the Most Innovative Multinational category on account of its
pioneering the bottles-to-fibre recycling operation in the country. Under the
unique initiative which was launched in 2005 in partnership with Alkem Nigeria
Limited, a PET bottles collection and buyback system was developed and expanded
to several cities across the country and the recovered bottles are recycled
into synthetic fibre which serves as valuable raw materials for many
industries, including textile, furniture and bedding industries.
The
company’s entry also featured other innovative initiatives including the 5Alive
Pulpy Orange, which is not just the first and only Nigerian made juice with
pulp but also produced in Nigeria’s first hot-fill line that was inaugurated in
2015. Other initiatives were Coca-Cola’s inimitable Share-a-Coke marketing
campaign and the more recent spectacular launch of Coca-Cola’s Taste the
Feeling campaign in 2016 on a unique made-for-purpose ‘Coke Island’ that was
created on the Lagos lagoon.
Receiving
the award on behalf of Coca-Cola, the company’s Public Affairs and
Communications Director for West Africa, Clem Ugorji, thanked Business Day for
the recognition and acknowledged the recycling programme partners, Alkem
Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC). He said Coca-Cola has
leveraged the success of the recycling programme to lead the establishment of
the Food & Beverage Recycling Alliance – a platform it is steering along
with Nestle Waters, Nigerian Breweries and Seven-Up Bottling Company to promote
industry collaboration and scale up the programme for national coverage. Noting
that PET bottles, in themselves, do not harm the environment but poor disposal
habit does, Ugorji called on Nigerians to support the recycling programme by
sorting and selling their used PET bottles to the many entrepreneurs who are
playing a vital role as PET bottle buyback agents in various communities.
In
his welcome address at the award ceremony, the Publisher/CEO of BusinessDay
Newspaper, Mr. Frank Aigbogun remarked that it is important to note that
despite the economic challenges that have shaken Nigeria in recent times, some
notable companies have continued to weather the storm in their quest to sustain
operations and at the same time add value to their immediate society in
particular and the Nigeria society in general. He said the awards team at
BusinessDay Media had taken pains to ensure that the companies that emerged
winners in various categories were selected through merit expressed by the
observation of due care in all qualifying criteria.
Other
companies nominated alongside Coca-Cola Nigeria for the Most Innovative
Multinational Company Award are Guinness Nigeria, LafargeHolcim and AJEAST. The
event was attended by top organisations in Corporate Nigeria as well as top
government dignitaries, amongst whom are Mr. Emmanuel Ukeje, Special Adviser to
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Senior
Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment.
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