CPC to operate second factory by the end of the year

CPC (fin)

Story: Boahene Asamoah

COCOA Processing Company (CPC) exporters of cocoa liquor, cake and butter says its rehabilitation works on its second factory would be completed by the end of the year.
The rehabiltation of its old factory which was expected to have been completed in my middle of this year had to be postponed because of the inability of the West African Pipeline project which was expected to power the new factory.
The expansion works on the second factory constitued an upgrade of the old factory to modern standards which would increase its current capacity to from 25,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes.
The company last year completed the first phase of its expansion work which saw the installation of a new modern cocoa milling plant with a capacity of 30,000.
The complete expansion works would move the company’s total production capacity to about 65,000 tonnes per annun and generate over $100 million in revenue.
Speaking in an interview the Managing Director of the company, Mr Richard Armah-Tetteh, said as a result of the non completion of the West African Gas Pipeline an alternative arrangement has been made to procure a steman coil to power the factory.
The company as part of its expansion programme contracted a 22 million euro for its expansion works and a another $22 million for the rehabilitation and civil works.
‘Our aim is to be build a world class factory site comparable to any other factory in the world’, he stated.
Mr Tetteh added that the rehabilitation also includes the rehabilitation of the confectionery section to upgrade its capacity to about 3,000 metric tonnes per annum from the current 1,600 metric tonnes.
The company is currently replacing old machines with new ones.
He said there has been tremendous increase in the demand for confectionery products of the company over the past few years.
‘The Ghanaian market is expanding greatly and we need to position ourselves to take advantage of that to make the products available,’ the managing director stated.
He said to ensure availability of the its confectionery products the company has in collaboration with the Ghana Cocoa Board established a shop at the refurburshed Cocoa Houset to provide a one-stop shop for both wholesellers and retailers as well as servce as the marketing information centre.
Additionally, the company has opened new depot in Kumasi and Takoradi as part of efforts to promote its finished products.
Mr Tetteh said ‘our long term vision is process 60 per cent of the raw materials’, noting that the finished products are the high earning products.
He said the company has also embarked on a diverisfication of the markets for its products to new market areas such as Asia, Eastern Europe and other African countries.