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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