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Local manufacturer attributes loss of market share to adulteration

By Femi Adekoya
04 September 2015   |   1:22 am
The Nigeria Ball Point Pen Industries Plc, (NIPEN), makers of BIC products, including shavers and pen, has stated that adulteration and counterfeiting are responsible for local manufacturers losing half of ‎their market share in the country.

DrugsThe Nigeria Ball Point Pen Industries Plc, (NIPEN), makers of BIC products, including shavers and pen, has stated that adulteration and counterfeiting are responsible for local manufacturers losing half of ‎their market share in the country.

NIPEN through its National Sales Manager, NIPEN, Fatai Olasore, explained that the manufacturing sector is already plagued by myriad of challenges hindering the sector’s growth, and therefore urged the federal government, through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to put an end to the menace.

Olasore during a visit to SON office in Lagos stated the firm’s agitation was to put an end to the adulterator of its products for the past 12 years.

He added that his company has lost so much‎ patronage as a result of complaints concerning the quality of its products.

“We are calling on the federal government of Nigeria to empower SON to rid this country off fake and substandard products that have almost taken our market.

“As a result of this act from the adulterator, we have lost so much patronage receiving complaints from our consumers saying that our shaving sticks are not shaving. We have come out to tell the whole world that Bendusco is not the franchise owner of BIC products. If he claims to be, let him come out and show his documents of ownership. I have the audacity and confidence to come out and make a claim of the franchise,” he said.

“‎He is accusing SON of unfair treatment while ‎SON is busy carrying out their statutory duties in ensuring that no fake product is found in the nation’s market. It is as a result of this, we are coming to tell the whole world that Benjamin Uwizu, the owner of Bendusco brands of ball-point pen and shaving sticks ‎is an unrepentant adulterator of BIC shaving stick and other original products in the country.”

According to him, the adulterator on a yearly basis, push out between 26 million ‎and 30 million units of fake BIC shaving sticks into the market, thereby taking a valuable share of the market share and rubbing off the consumers of their hard earned money.

“We are appealing to SON not to be intimidated into giving up. We are solidly behind you and we are also assuring you that we will not spare any effort to ensure justice is done.‎ How can an adulterator of an original product have the audacity to confront ‎ a constituted authority by organising a protest. This is unacceptable in a country that there is law,” he noted.

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