The Chief Executive Office of Unilever, Mr. Charles Cofie, on Friday reiterated his call on the Ghana Standard Board (GSB) and other authorities to control the influx of counterfeit products onto the Ghanaian market.

Speaking at the Facts behind the Figures programme on the Ghana Stock Exchange, Mr Cofie said allowing inferior goods, including medicines, food products and clothing onto the Ghanaian market projects gave a bad image to the country since people would assume that criminal activities were permitted in the country.

The Unilever CEO said imitation in trade is a dangerous phenomenon,
which cripples the activities of genuine producers, erode the confidence of consumers in the products as they find it difficult to differentiate between genuine and counterfeit products.

“Apart from cheating the licensed producers and customers, government
is also deprived of revenue due to the evasion of taxes by such business organizations,” Mr Cofie said.

The Facts behind the Figures Programme organized by the Stock Exchange allow companies listed on the bourse to explain their performance to investing public and the press.

Mr. Cofie said Unilever was not talking about the bad effects of
unfair trade practices because it stood to gain from such controls but to ensure that a conducive environment was created for trade and
competition to thrive.

He said despite the challenges of last year the company was able to
meet its targets, delivering improved margins and profit as well as
cutting down unproductive cost.

He said a major challenge had been crude palm oil, the main raw
material, which cost went up in the world market by over 70 per cent
from $800 to $1,340.

Mr Cofie said Unilever rose to the challenge by adopting cost saving measures, a reshaping of the portfolio and support for the company’s distributors, especially those operating in difficult areas that enable it to deliver a sterling performance last year.

On his expectations for 2009, Mr Cofie said it was going to be a
challenging year, especially in the face of the global economic downturn and the risk and threat from unfair competition.

He expressed the hope that Unilever would rise above the challenge
through appropriate internal options to ensure profitability.

Revenue for 2008 grew by 19.1 percent to GHC165.6 million up from 139.0 million in 2007 while operating margin was 17.2 percent up from 13.1 percent.

Mr Stephen Larbi, Unilever Production Manager in-charge of soaps, led the MPs to tour the factory and said palm oil constitute 60 percent of the elements used in soap production and that his outfit uses 70,000 metric tonnes of palm oil per annum to produce soap. 22 July 08


Source: GNA