International Drinks Festival enables local brands to grow and reach the world —Adamu

Mr Ezekiel Adamu is the Chief Executive Officer of Balmoral Group, organisers of the International Drinks Festival (IDR) in Nigeria. In this interview, he explains how important the festival is to consumers and how it solves the problems in the drinks industry. SEGUN KASALI brings excerpts.

As the CEO of Balmoral Group, what birthed International Drinks Festival?

The maiden edition was held in 2017. The country was just coming out of recession but it was interesting to see that consumption of beer, amongst other drinks, was not really affected by the economic climate. That, along with other research done by our team, caused us to take a look into the drinks industry and see how we could affect in a positive way.

Why the inclusion of ‘International’ since it’s a Nigerian thing?

First, it’s an international event held In Nigeria. And the reason it’s international is because we have brands come in from different parts of the world to take part in the exhibition. New Brand and businesses use our exhibition to make the right business connection to expand their business in Nigeria. For example, what other event brings together major distributors from all parts of Nigeria?

Are you trying to fix a problem in the drinks industry and hence the festival? If yes, how do you intend to sustain this since the festival is just once in a year?

In every industry that will grow, there will be new challenges and problems to solve, also new innovations to make. So, the first step is to awaken the consciousness of the people to being more than just consumers but for them to see opportunities in a very lucrative industry such as the drinks industry.

• Effects of disposable plastic usage on human health

As it continues to grow and evolve, there will be new challenges to face, which in turn creates an opportunity for a sustainable conversation each year. As for it being once a year, over time, we will most likely have it more than once, however we do take into consideration those that are coming into the country and how many times they will like to attend.

How did you have over 18,000 attendees in the last edition and how were they catered for?

Very good marketing, strong PR communications and the event was spread over three days so we had people come through on different days.

We know starting something for the first time is sometimes difficult. What were the challenges you had in the maiden edition?

Doing something that’s new is usually a challenge. I guess the most challenging part was selling the idea but it caught on very quickly.

How much of these challenges have you been able to confront in order to avoid a repeat of them this year?

Well, because we’ve done the first edition it was a little easier to get more people on board.

The festival will have a B2B drinks summit, who are the people that should attend the summit and who are the people that will be speaking at the summit?

We are going to be have government officials from different regulatory agencies inclusive of NAFDAC, MAN, SON and Customs as well as professionals in the private sector from brands and marketing to manufacturing.

The summit should be attended by anyone who is either in the drinks business, wants to start a business in the drinks industry or needs to network or is inquisitive about the business of drinks.

How many and what were the brands present at the maiden edition and any plans to bring new brands on board this year? If yes, what are the brands?

Some of the brands we had last year are Hennessy, Glenfiddich, Remy Martin, Pepsi, Rite foods, and host of others. And yes, there will be new brands this year, especially in the wine and spirits category. We have one brand in particular from Argentina but we will let the public come and find out the rest.

Are local drinks going to be part of the event?

Definitely yes! Like I said, we are catering to local and international brands. And creating platforms for the local brand to grow and reach the world.

Beyond exhibiting their products, what are the other roles the brands, especially the alcoholic brands, are expected to play?

The major thing is to engage with the consumers and have them experience their brands. Also the brands get to network with distributors and make in roads into the Nigerian terrain.

We have come across the beer village. What will be happening there?

In this area, beer brands will also engage with their consumers. There will also be a live band, food and many kinds of entertainment.

The infuse eat feature… What is infuse eat, what does it entail?

This feature is where magic happens with food and drinks. It’s a part of the master class section that teaches and educates making foods infused with drinks especially with alcohol. We have celebrity chefs Eros, Benedict, Fregz and Yeide taking the infuse eat master class.

How many consumers, professionals and exhibitors are you expecting at this year’s edition?

We are expecting over 15,000 attendees, 32 professionals, and at least 200 brands.

What do you think will be the impact of the festival on the general development of the country?

Hopefully, we intend to be an incubator of business in the drinks industry.