Alpha Industries introduces new chocolate products

Beverages and confectioneries manufacturer, Alpha Industries Ltd., has introduced two new products, Top Choco Bread Spread and Top Choco 3-in-1 Chocolate Drink onto the Ghanaian market with plans to expand its product mix to include chocolate-based confectioneries the coming years.

Marketing Manager, Majid Abdul Raqman, speaking to journalists on the side-lines of a media tour of the factory in Tema, indicated that the company has come as a local competitor in the confectionery and beverages business and to promote a healthy economy with the touted health benefits of cocoa.

He said: “Alpha Industries, as a company, believes in innovation and dynamism and that is what led us to come out with these two products as a way of promoting the consumption of cocoa which has numerous health benefits.

“Top Choco Bread Spread and Top Choco 3-in-1 Instant Chocolate Drink have been produced with a unique taste and under the most hygienic conditions from start to finish; these products conveniently suits consumer lifestyle and demand.”

Alpha Industries was one of the companies that the Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah visited when he toured some industries in the Tema Industrial Area recently.

According to the marketing manager, the company which is in its second year of operations—having been incorporated in 2014—entered the confectionery and beverages market to reverse the situation whereby most of those products being consumed in the country is imported, aside providing jobs for the teeming unemployed youth as well as side

He added: “We are into confectionery products and beverages because we realised that what is in the market are mostly imported; and also, we ventured into this business to ensure that people can get jobs.”

Alpha Industries currently has its permanent workforce exceeding 80 and believes that plans to expand production capacity and product lines could see it engage more factory hands.

Mr. Raqman indicated that the company is well poised to contain the pressures of the market leveraging on its competitive advantage and with strategic plans to grow its market share: “In terms of competition, we are prepared to outrun competitors because we have that advantage.

“There is not a strong competition in the area of chocolate spread; we actually created a market for it. But that aside, we have embarked on an aggressive effective communications and marketing campaigns to grow our market share.

“We have positioned our products in both supermarkets and the open markets, engaged in a number of roadshows and all of these have helped us to penetrate the market. There is also an effective distribution channel that seeks to get our products accessible and available in every part of the country.”

For a company that relies heavily on cocoa as a raw material for production, the challenge has been the available of the product at all times.

To ensure ready access to the commodity, the company wants government to establish a buffer stock of raw cocoa for local industries.

Mr. Raqman said: “We want to plead with government to have a buffer stock of raw cocoa for local industries in the confectionery business. There are times that we have to compete with the foreigners and we tend to have difficulty in accessing the commodity for production.

“Government must also raise the duties on the import of finished cocoa products to save local industry who could raise revenue to support economic growth.”