Tema, March 17, Ghanadot/GNA - Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) Limited
expects to significantly increase its revenue and widen its
target markets this year, thanks to the completion of a
five-year expansion programme that has more than doubled its
throughput, its director has said.
The company now has cocoa beans throughput capacity of 64,500
tonnes, up from an initial installed capacity of 25,000 tonnes
as a result of the expansion, completed in the third quarter of
its 2007/08 financial year after a year’s delay, Managing
Director Richard Amarh Tetteh told the Ghana News Agency in Tema.
"The year 2008/09 promises to be good for the company as it
positions itself to process 64,500 tonnes of cocoa and generate
projected revenue of $208 million," Mr Tetteh said.
CPC declared revenue of GH¢59.3 million for the 2007/2008
financial year, saying its operations were hampered by the
global financial crisis which led to high costs as a result of
rise in crude oil prices which peaked at $147 per barrel last
July.
Unreliable power supply also contributed to operational costs
which rose by 22 percent, Mr Tetteh said.
“In spite of the tough global economic crises experienced in
2007/08, the company managed to operate profitably and was able
to complete the final phase of its expansion programme in the
third quarter of the 2007/2008 financial year," he added.
The company declared a net profit of GH¢1.27 million, compared
to GH¢647,193 in the previous year.
The expansion, which was in two phases, began in 2003 with a
loan of Euros 22 million and an additional $22 million, plus a
local component of GH¢1.67 million.
Mr Tetteh said the company had since been ready to run at full
steam and has embarked on “aggressive marketing strategies” to
increase its market share of the cocoa and confectionery trade.
The first phase which entailed the construction of a new plant
to process 30,000 tonnes of cocoa into liquor was commissioned
in 2005. The second project involved the upgrading of the old
cocoa factory to process 34,500 tonnes of semi-finished cocoa
products, up from its 1965 installed capacity of 25,000 tonnes.
"CPC now operates, in addition to a confectionery factory, two
modern state-of-the-art cocoa processing factories with a
combined capacity of 64,500 tonnes of raw cocoa beans per
annum,” he said, adding that it is one of the most modern
processing facilities in Ghana currently.
The cocoa factory grinds beans into semi-finished products such
as cocoa liquor, butter, natural/alkalized cake, or powder while
the confectionery manufactures the flagship 'Golden Tree
chocolate bars', couverture, pebbles, and drinking chocolate
powder and chocolate spread.
He mentioned Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and other African
countries as new market targets the company was considering.
Currently, CPC exports about 95 percent of its semi-finished
products to Europe and the Americas.
Mr Tetteh said CPC only deals with buyers on a spot-sale
contract basis. This, he explained, is aimed at reducing the
company's exposure to the volatility of the international cocoa
trade.
CPC, formerly wholly-owned by the state, was partially
privatised after the government offloaded 25 percent of its
stake and listed it on the Ghana Stock Exchange in February
2003.
GNA
