Royal Crown (RC) Cola, an international beverage brand from the United States, is the latest beverage company to come into the Nigerian market with the launch of its factory in Agbara, Ogun state.
The company whose history dates back to 1905 when it was developed by Claud A. Hatcher, a pharmacist in Columbus, Georgia, says they are ready for the competition in the Nigerian beverage market and expressed confidence that the brand will be very successful.
The Managing Director of RC Cola, Moshy Cohen said RC Cola is a successful brand whose strict commitment to quality, a very powerful recipe and consistency has given them the ability to be in over 65 countries and compete favourably.
“The Nigerian market is huge and interesting. Our idea in Nigeria is to supply the demand because it is huge. So, the magic is not only to supply the demand, the magic is to be consistent and keep to our value, quality over time. We produce 35,000 bottles for an hour, 11 lines with more than 40,000 per hour and we are setting more lines that will give us 90,000 per hour to enable us meet up with demands of our customers,” he said.
Speaking on the launch of RC Cola in Nigeria, the Plant Manager, Jide Aweda said that the concept of setting up a factory like this which is a contract packaging company is new in Nigeria. When the idea of being franchise owners of RC Cola was conceptualised, there were some people who wanted to register one product or another but didn’t have required capital to buy land or equipment.
“With this facility which is built for 11 lines, we decided to take the franchise ownership of RC Cola. Presently, we needed a product that can play well with the existing brands in Nigeria. From the great taste of RC Cola which the people have accepted, we can make a headway in our operation in Nigeria. We have invested more money in bringing in more machines to meet up with the demand that is why we started with big dealers,” he said.
With this development, the competition in the Nigerian beverage market is rife. RC Cola will be facing stiff competition from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Bigi Cola and Big Cola. Earlier last month, Ajeast Nigeria Limited, makers of Big Cola, received funding to expand its production base and operations.
