P&G Invests In Africa’s Booming Population

Consumer goods giant, Procter &Gamble (P&G) has announced that it will be building a manufacturing plant in Africa’s largest economy, South Africa.

The new plant will manufacture range of products, including detergents and feminine hygiene goods for local and export markets. Construction is set to begin next year while operations are expected to commence in 2016 or early 2017.

With this new investment; P&G will tap into Africa’ booming consumer market.

Speaking on the new development, vice president of Procter & Gamble's global business units said, "We are in Africa because of the size. It's about a billion people, that's the size of China and India for example, just under, and the population is growing, the economies are getting more and more stable, so huge opportunities here.

"We have businesses in Nigeria, in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania -- we are going to go to Angola, Ethiopia."

"We want to be in every country," he adds. "In the last 10 years we've gone from about 20% of our business being in emerging markets to about 40%. Obviously there is a huge upside; this is where the babies are being born, where more and more consumers are getting ready for our products, so it's really taken off in the last few years, last 10 years for us."

Panayotopoulos says that emerging markets, especially the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, and China are currently driving demand for P&G and other consumer goods groups.

"Africa is also very relevant and is very similar to the BRIC markets too."

Vice-president of Procter & Gamble’s Southern and East African operations, Standa Vecera, 

"Countries like Africa, China, India and Brazil are the markets of the future because that’s where the population is, that’s where the growth rates are."

"Outside South Africa, the way retail is conducted is through very small, high-frequency stores, where people shop on a daily basis — there is big opportunity in Africa."

"There are also opportunities in South Africa. We’re seeing big shopping centres being built and there is still scope to develop store formats that cater to lower-income consumers close to the townships. Some retailers in South Africa are addressing that and developing models that they can expand outside the country to the rest of the continent."

Procter & Gamble’s (P&G’s) brands include Gillette, Pantene, Duracell and Oral-B.