Browse the shelves of any supermarket or corner store in Nigeria and you’re likely to see local favorites like Gala sausage rolls, Funtime coconut chips, Kingsway pastry rolls and Supreme ice cream, all products of Nigerian brand UAC Foods.
UAC Foods has been manufacturing diverse, high-quality food and beverages in Nigeria for 62 years, and since Managing Director and CEO Oluyemi Oloyede joined the company in March 2023, he’s been focused on supercharging the growth of the business.
“Lots of companies have not grown as fast or reached the scale I would love them to be at,” he tells The CEO Magazine. “So, when I got approached about this opportunity, I saw this as the opportunity to compete with multinational companies and develop a company that Nigerians and Africans will be proud of.”
People power
Having been in the role just over a year, Oloyede has already overseen several cultural changes, which he believes are the keys to success.
“The most important part of our business is our people. For me, success in this area is about delivering happiness and joy to our employees,” he says.
“That means ensuring our people are paid the right level of salary and given the right incentives. I want my people to be happy; I want them to be well paid; I want them to be well incentivized.”
This change has led to UAC Foods being certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’ by the Great Place to Work Institute. According to the institute’s research into employee satisfaction:
• 90 percent say it is a great place to work compared to 57 percent of employees at a typical company.
• 95 percent say, “I feel I make a difference here”.
• 92 percent say people at UAC Foods are willing to give extra to get the job done.
“These results and certification are a testament to the culture that the new leadership team is building,” Oloyede says. “We’re very focused on route-to-market and our customers, so to achieve this we’re speaking directly to the heart of our organization, our employees. We focus on our culture, our people, our customers and our brands, and the market is rewarding us with results.
“Our medium-term objective is increasing revenue by 500 percent by 2026 compared to 2022. This requires significant investment in our brands, our people and our distribution networks. We know this is very ambitious, but looking at our progress so far, 225 percent growth compared to just 15 months ago, we believe it is achievable.”
“The most important part of our business is our people. For me, success in this area is about delivering happiness and joy to our employees.”
One of the ways this will be achieved is by focusing on operational excellence across the business.
“We are obsessed about operational excellence,” Oloyede says. “We never stop asking for more from ourselves, from our team, from our customers, from our factories, from our brand. It’s that obsession about never staying on the results of the last period.”
This performance doesn’t just come through determination, it comes through talent and training.
“To achieve excellence, we need to have the best people, in sales, marketing, finance, operations and so on,” he adds. “So we invest heavily in making sure they are the best, and we naturally just see them delivering the best of results.”
Prioritizing profitability
Despite the company’s recent successes, it has not all been smooth sailing, with supply chain disruption being one of its biggest challenges. These disruptions come in many forms, such as inflation, the increasing price of fuel and currency fluctuations, all factors that affect market stability and profitability.
One of the ways UAC Foods has navigated these uncertainties is by cultivating strong supplier relationships by dealing in cash rather than requesting credit and ensuring that everyone gets paid promptly.
“For many of our suppliers, we are their customer of choice,” Oloyede says. “We don’t undercut them, we don’t play games with them, we want them to succeed, and as a result, they prioritize us because they see us as a reliable customer.”
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But good supplier relationships are just one part of the company’s ability to navigate disruption, according to Oloyede.
“The key thing we’ve learned is that it’s about being ready. There have been many disruptions, and there will be many more, so we must be ready to face the next one and the one after that,” he says.
UAC Foods has done this by ensuring that decision-making is agile and able to respond to disruption.
“Organizations that are slow in decision-making – what happens is that while they are trying to respond to one disruption, the next one comes along, then they’re not able to respond to either,” he explains.
“That’s why we need to be able to make decisions very quickly, and the quality of our decisions is as important as speed.”
“We will see opportunities where we can step into gaps in the market and create value for our customers, our employees and shareholders.”
This is crucial because UAC Foods prides itself as one of the few organizations in Nigeria and Africa that prioritizes profitability over revenue. With its agile decision-making and ability to adjust prices quickly, Oloyede believes that provides a competitive advantage.
“As the population of Africa grows, there is a devaluation in multiple currencies, which causes problems for multinational companies with their international supply chains,” he says.
“We see this as an opportunity, as some multinationals will be likely to scale down their presence in certain markets or exit completely.
“In the spirit of being ready, we will see opportunities where we can step into gaps in the market and create value for our customers, our employees and shareholders.”
As Oloyede looks ahead, he feels the foundations for growth and success are in place, ensuring the company is ready to quickly respond to any future disruptions and opportunities.
“We’re very proud about the quality of our talent and the strength of our brands,” he concludes. “We believe these two things are very important in delivering the future of our company.”
