FON GROUP inaugurates new factory

A corrugated carton box manufacturing factory has been inaugurated in Accra by FON Packaging Ventures to produce global standard packaging products to feed local manufacturing industries in the country.

The factory is expected to address the issue of poor packaging associated with Ghanaian products.

The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkora, who inaugurated the factory, said the country would save millions in foreign exchange if it could address the issues of poor packaging.

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“The packaging industry is critical to industrialisation and is the world’s third largest manufacturing sector next to food and pharmaceuticals, and incidentally it drives its growth from the other two whose demand is doubtlessly growing in leaps and bounds for obvious reasons, because packaging’s role lies in reducing product waste and loss, especially in the food industry supply chain,” he said.

Mr Ahenkora revealed that within the year, the European Union (EU) market had rejected several exported products from the country due to poor packaging, and that is why the operation of a world standard packaging factory in the country is a novelty.

“It is important, therefore, to acknowledge the service you provide as a key component of our industrialisation agenda which is export led, because packaging is a thematic area in our export strategy and the government is committed to providing all the necessary support for the packaging industry with the view to promoting exports,” he noted.

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The factory, a subsidiary of the Fon Group of Companies, is a wholly owned Ghanaian manufacturer that has been in operation for the past three years, and has slowly grown to become a major player in the budding packaging industry.

“Your growth over these few years is not surprising since increasingly, Ghanaians are becoming aware of the strict packaging standards of large supermarket chains as they engage in exports,” Mr Ahenkora noted in his address.

Poised to expand

The Chairman of the Fon Group of Companies, Mr Safo Ntim, in his address at the inauguration of the factory, said though the packaging industry was until recently the reserve of the expatriate community, his outfit was expanding its operations to match the major multinationals in the sector.

“After three years of finding our feet and successfully cementing our position as a major player in the industry, we have come to be known by companies such as Nestle, Unilever, Promasidor, Niche Cocoa, Olam Group and a host of others as a reliable supplier for their packaging needs,” he said.

On right path

The factory, which is currently supplying on a consistent basis to about 80 manufacturers, has the capacity to produce 250,000 packaging products per day, and has a growth rate of 45 per cent.

With a staff strength of 75, the General Manager of the Fon Packaging Ventures, Mr Emmanuel Osei Ntim, in an interview with the Graphic Business, said his outfit was on the right path of growth and sought to expand in the coming years to become the leader in the packaging industry in West Africa.

“We are currently on the right path, using the right raw materials that are sourced both locally and internationally to produce to meet the required world standard, so we don’t foresee any challenges in the near future but continuous growth,” he mentioned. — GB