Kosher Certified

Multi-Trex was registered in 1999 as a cocoa beans merchant. Leveraging on the twelve-year Cocoa commerce experience of its CEO, the company, at the outset, bought Cocoa beans from its select group of local suppliers, including cooperative union of farmers, processed and exported them to its customers that are mainly in Europe.

 

In 2003, the company expanded its business operation to include processing of cocoa beans into semi-finished industrial products i.e. Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Cake. Then, it exclusively hired the facility of the Nigeria’s premier cocoa processing plant, Cocoa Industries Limited (CIL), Ikeja, Lagos. The partnership arrangement with CIL afforded the company the opportunity to retrain the generality of its staff and generally prepare it for manufacturing business.

 

As a result of the success recorded in the trial manufacturing operation at CIL, the company, over the period 2004 and 2005, resolved to invest in the construction of its own factory and acquire a cocoa processing plant of 10,000mt of cocoa beans capacity. The manufacturers of the main equipment are DUYVIS, CAOTECH and G.W. BARTH

 

In funding the project, the company enjoyed the support of Nigerian Export-Import Bank, Abuja, Nigeria and Eko International Bank plc, Lagos, Nigeria (which later became one of the constituent banks that together transformed to Skye Bank Plc).

 

Multi-Trex commenced cocoa processing at its strategically located factory on October 1, 2005 and the factory was commissioned on February 1, 2006 by the nation’s former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

 

The company’s current nine member Board, whose profiles are as set out in the appropriate section of this plan, directs the affairs of the company. The company’s workforce as at the time of preparing this report was 168.

 

Multi-Trex’s products enjoy good reputation in the international market for its superior quality and packaging. The activities of the company’s workforce are closely guided by detailed serialized operating manuals. Still on the integrity of processes, a number of valuable management reports are regularly prepared for sound decision making.

 

The company, since inception, has always enjoyed good relationships with all the manufacturers of its equipment. Effective partnership also exists between North Pearl Limited, UK (suppliers of machinery/spares) and Tekru B.V / Digitron B.V., both of Netherlands (Technical consultants.) These companies have been retained to complement the technical support enjoyed with the local experts.

 

The company recently invested in the acquisition of a fleet of trailers to aid its logistics and afford it some degree of self reliance.

 

The switch from being a trading company to a young manufacturing concern demanded the restructuring of the company’s capital. A greater demand for increase in the company’s working capital, for example, stem from the need to address the usual imbalance in the seasonality of cocoa beans harvest and the all-year round factory demand for the raw material.

 

For most of the company’s first two years of manufacturing life, inadequate funding prevented the company from storing up adequate raw cocoa beans, spare parts/consumables - a situation that compelled the company to enter into a working arrangement with one of its buyers. Under the arrangement, the buyer contracts to simultaneously sell cocoa beans to us and buy the relative products. It is expected that the company will gain greater control on its products when it is able to adequately fund its working capital requirements

 

The second phase of the company’s critical expansion plan was aimed at increasing both capacity, advancing value-addition, reducing over dependence and improving profitability.