Where there’s a perennial need, there’s money to be made. When that need is essential to living and functioning, the opportunity for a stable, thriving problem solving enterprise becomes even more certain. An example: because we can’t help being thirsty, space constantly opens up for new water packaging and distribution businesses. Clean drinkable water isn’t always as readily available as we suppose it should, so we’re willing to part with a token just to appease our yearning throats.
Unlike most other businesses, you won’t have to worry about sourcing a variety of inputs for your product. All you’ll need is water. Of course, you should also get the bottles and production machines in place (more on this later).
Steps you should take
- Study the market
It’s not enough to assume that you’ll just slide into the market with ease and start piling profits off the bat. Perhaps the population you’re targeting has a small number of packaged water brands to choose from; then you have an opportunity to do well with your own brand. But if they are already spoilt for choice, you might have a hard time making an impression on them.
Note the performance of possible competitors, the buying power of your potential customers, the price(s) they’re currently paying for the product, and how industry regulations are impacting producers.
Take
a systematic approach to surveying the market. If you want to carry out an in-depth investigation, you should do a feasibility study. But if you can’t handle this yourself, you could outsource it to a professional market researcher or hire a market research firm.
- Create a business plan
Use the information you gather in the research process to draw up
a comprehensive business plan. The business plan is a detailed description of your business- what it is and does, who its customers and competitors are, the opportunities and obstacles it will encounter, and its future prospects.
Because business plans typically include such things as company managerial structure, location and financial costs, you will have to decide on these details before writing the plan.
Find out what equipment you will use and what they cost, the legal requirements, where you’ll be setting up, and who will help with managing the business (it’s practically impossible to operate a water bottling company as a one-man enterprise).
- Find a location
You will have to be extra careful about this. Because you’ll be handling and selling a consumable, you should ensure that your production and storage centres are sited in hygenic locations.
Existing regulations regarding the siting of water packaging factories require that they not be located near an abattoir, cemetery, saw mill, sewage plant or oil depot; they should also be demarcated from neighbouring buildings by a fence.
The usual thing to do here would be to rent a building and convert its compartments into the needed cloakroom, packaging materials store, production room or finished product store. Or you might decide to build the whole facility from scratch. But there’s the option of buying an already existing business; you could do this if you can afford to.
- Acquire equipment and install facilities
Equipment you’ll need include bottle loaders, filing and capping machines, water sterilizers and dispensers, conveyors, sealers, storage tanks and (for the sake of stable power supply) a power generator.
Your workers will need overalls, hand gloves, nose/mouth masks, headgears and rubber shoes.
There are rules governing the installation of production facilities. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (
NAFDAC) stipulates that boreholes (which serve as business’s water source) should have a minimum depth of between 100 and 150 feet (specific depth depends on topography). Water may also be sourced from the public mains. All water sources are expected to be at least 30-50 feet away from the nearest septic tank.
Storage tanks, pipes and taps should be made of stainless steel or Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).
- Choose a bottle supplier
It’s unlikely that you’ll be making your bottles yourself. Search out bottle suppliers by scouring the web, and by asking people you know or people who are already in the business. Collect information about their prices, product quality and service provision. Compare these across board, and
choose the supplier with the best balance of all your evaluative criteria.
- Register your business
NAFDAC is mandated by law to regulate food and drug production and advertising in Nigeria. Their regulatory powers apply to bottled water companies, so you should be sure to obtain a Certificate of Registration from them.
There’s also the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), where you’re expected to register your company as a business entity operating within the borders of the country. Other registrations should be done at the
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and State Internal Revenue Board offices closest to you.
- Hire workers
Be careful to employ people with the prerequisite qualifications to run the technical aspects of the business. You’ll need several people to work with from the start, and more to join in as the business grows and production expands.
- Start off
Publicize the launch of your business beforehand. Inform all your contacts, and spread the word on social media. Reach out to retailers, and advertise on multiple media platforms, to potential customers and for distributors.
Set out and stick to efficient production and administrative processes. Constantly evaluate your business as it grows, fixing faults and amplifying strong points.
