We are not at war with any company – Flour Mills

The management of Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc, has again refuted rumour, making the rounds, that its subsidiary, Golden Penny Sugar, is at daggers drawn with some operators in the market segment on the issue of pricing.

Dispelling the rumour, in a chat with the media, in Lagos, after hosting the Management Team of the NSDC, led by its new Executive Secretary, Mr Zacch Adedeji; the Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Agro-Allied Division/Director Backward Integration Program (FMN), Mr. Sadiq Usman, added that the only ‘war’ the company was presently fighting remains how to achieve its commitments to the government and its shareholders.

According to him, while the company had earlier released some statements to that effect, it had become imperative to reiterate the company’s position that its product pricing would only be determined by its raw material costs, and not because of any bitter price war.

“We had put out a statement to the general public, and we specifically put out a statement to the stock exchange. We are not engaged in a bitter war with any company at FMN. The only war we are presently engaged in is with ourselves, which is to achieve our commitments to both the government and our shareholders,” he added.

Sodiq also argued that as a publicly-listed company, that had been around since 1978, the company would never be involved in any ‘business of collusion’, aimed at shortchanging its teeming customers.

“We are much older than most of the other companies in this sector, we are not in the business of collusion. We are committed to providing our customers with quality products, and if we have to vary prices, it will be determined by the factor of our raw material costs, and these are transparent issues since they are internationally-traded,” he added.

Expressing his delight at the state-of-the-art facility at the sugar refinery company, the Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Mr. Zacch Adedeji, assured of the federal government’s commitment to fully implement the Sugar Masterplan.

According to him, when fully implemented, the policy would go a long way in solving the knotty issue of unemployment in the country.

“The sugar industry presents to us the opportunity of a direct labour of 110,000 when we are in full gear of meeting 1.7million tonnes per annum of local demand. That is why the FG is fully committed to implementing Nigeria Sugar Masterplan.

“We’ll do it not because we just have to do it, but because that is one of those things we have to do to solve the problem of unemployment in the country.

Today unemployment is very high and the only way to solve this is to give the sugar industry the much-needed attention.

“We are, therefore, here to implement the masterplan, so as to create jobs and ensure that investors get returns on their investments and there is prosperity for us all,” the NSDC’s boss stated.

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