Alcohol Industry in Ghana: An Overview of GIHOC Distilleries by Maxwell Jumah

Interview with Maxwell Jumah, Managing Director of GIHOC Distilleries

What is your assessment of the sector in Ghana? What are the latest trends? Is the market competitive?

The environment has been changing. In the past, Ghana was a beer drinking country. Only the very elite drank wine and cognac, etc. Gradually, the general population has moved primarily to bitters. The consumption of beer is still big but not as much as it used to be. Many beer manufacturers have folded. This trend is transient in the sense that if you study the European market, they also went through this shift. In the future, people will be more conscious about their personal health and a little more careful about what they are taking. If it will stay bitters, I see a shift to medicinal qualities or more fruit-based and mineral-based alcohols. People will look at the health benefits they will get from drinking. Now, we have 43 companies producing bitters. GIHOC started quite a while ago with the introduction of Mandingo Bitters which was coopted from the Italian bitters industry. Gradually, we developed local bitters, which is our Herb Afrik, with more emphasis on the medicinal qualities. This put GIHOC and especially Herb Afrik into a very strategic position for the future. As the taste shifts to medicinal and health conscious consumers, Herb Afrik is uniquely poised to take advantage of that new taste.

Is the bitters market something that is localized in Ghana? Is there a similar trend in neighboring countries?

When it comes to consumption trends, Ghana and Nigeria have been the leaders. The shift to bitters will also cut across the entire Sub Saharan region.

What products do you offer and what makes them different?

The diaspora was already drinking our products before they left the shores of Africa. They become our first port of call and the missionaries for our product because they already know our product and they know how good it is.

There are three types of alcohol. Molasses, which is basically made from sugar cane, is cheap and easily available and the low end of alcohol. You get what you get when you use a lot of sugar. Then, we have the grain-based alcohol which is widespread. Beer and Guinness and whiskey are all made from grain and it is middle quality. Then, there is the fruit-based alcohol. GIHOC over the years has never used molasses. We are a notch above the others because we have insisted on good quality alcohol. All GIHOC products are either fruit-based or grain-based. Also, some of these products use flavors as compared to concentrates. Flavors are a cheaper version. You get the taste and color of fruit, but it is not really fruit. You do not need a lot to produce your beverage so it is cheaper to use flavors. You get a very cheap product that pretends to be what it is but it is not. At GIHOC, our policy is to never use flavors or colors. All our products are either grain-based or fruit-based and concentrate. Our star is definitely Herb Afrik. Herb Afrik took advantage of traditional medicinal concoctions and incorporated them into a new product in bitters. The emphasis is on the health benefits for both males and females. We have combined more than 16 traditional herbs to make this beverage. With Herb Afrik, some of the herbs we actually grow ourselves. We do not buy them because they are not easy to get. Some of the herbs we use were traditionally used to cure malaria fever. If you drink Herb Afrik, you will not get malaria fever because it helps fight malaria. It is as simple as that. Some of these herbs also have high levels of potassium, which fights sodium, which brings your blood pressure up. Many people in Ghana have problems with sodium and high salt levels. So, you get the benefits, but all from natural sources, not chemicals. There are other herbs such as for pain relief for people that have problems with body pains. You are drinking, but at the same time, you are taking advantage of traditional healing practices. That is what makes Herb Afrik a star. It is a win-win situation. Ghana is best known for its cocoa. We produce the best in the world. Ghana’s cocoa is premium. It is an acknowledged fact all over the world. So, we decided to take advantage of that. We of course know the benefits also. We combined cocoa and coffee to form the concentrate for our Takai liqueur. We do not have a lot of sugar in our products. For example, with Mandingo, you taste the bitters, but it is not too bitter, but at the same time there is less sugar. For the ladies, they get menstrual cramps and Herb Afrik has been proven to lessen the pain and discomfort associated with that. It has been very popular among women. It is the number one drink for women here. Almost every woman working for GIHOC drinks Herb Afrik here because of its benefits. For men, we have a different reason. The company policy is that you cannot drink here but given the chance we would have very little product left to sell. We have Castle Bridge and I would dare anyone to take the best gin in the world and do a taste test. We have the best. We use local and foreign ingredients to get very smooth tasting gin. Africa is not known for brandy, but almost 60 years ago, GIHOC introduced Chevalier Brandy. From the name, you can tell there is a French connection. It was developed in France and over the years they have added local ingredients to it to make it the sweetest brandy you can get in Africa. Now, we want to play with the big boys and we believe we can beat them. We also dare you to test it against the big brandies. It is less expensive, the packaging is excellent, and it is very smooth. If it had been made in France it would be called the best cognac, but this is the Ghanaian version.

What is your strategy for exports and selling abroad?

We have perfected the art and the science of putting together good alcoholic products. We are now ready to face the world. We have started selling aggressively in the West Coast in Nigeria, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone. They say charity begins at home. I also remember that when I was in the States, many people were drinking Mandingo and that was almost 20 years ago. So, we went to the US last year and did a promo with some politicians and all of them agree that we should come to their market. They did not know that we are such a good product hidden somewhere in the remotest part of Africa. We will go to the United States and definitely to Europe where we have traditionally had links. Soon, we want to be in Asia, China, and other countries. GIHOC is the best that is coming out of the middle of Africa.

When you go internationally, do you get support from the diaspora?

Of course. The diaspora was already drinking our products before they left the shores of Africa. They become our first port of call and the missionaries for our product because they already know our product and they know how good it is. Through them, we are able to reach the larger communities in both Europe and the Americas. They already know the reputation of GIHOC.

Are you looking for strategic investors or partners in finance, technology, etc.?

Definitely. It is a fast-moving industry. Production lines are improved and more efficient. Even the act of putting together good quality concentrates is always changing and new recipes are coming up. If you are going to go international, you need to be able to partner with people that are already established in those environments. Strategic partners will definitely help a lot. We want to invite all of them to taste our product and compare it to what they have. Once you taste it, it is easy to believe what we say and to sell it. We have some good things coming out of Africa. We are looking for strategic partners in all of these areas from the production line to packaging. New forms of packaging and the marketing of our products are always changing. We want to invite those partners to taste our product and join us in the success that is coming out of Africa. The best quality alcohol is the fruit alcohol. In Europe you have wines and champagnes made from grapes. God in His wisdom created an environment that naturally has fruits in abundance, and that is here in Ghana. Unfortunately, people are not taking advantage of this fact. If you look around, no one is producing fruit alcohol in this area. GIHOC has started it but in a small way. We are looking for partners to join us to produce good quality alcohol made out of all kinds of tropical fruits, not just grapes. They are here and they are available.

What are your biggest challenges?

Ghana went through some trouble in the late ‘70s when the oil crisis happened. A lot of these young countries could not survive, and many are still struggling with civil strife. In Ghana, we did not have the civil strife. We had no civil war, but it affected our economy. GIHOC was one of the companies that was very affected. Getting it back to its former glory has been a major challenge, but we have made a lot of progress. Before the economic crisis, GIHOC was the number one company. Nobody would even dare challenge GIHOC. When we came out of the trauma, there were 43 companies producing bitters and Ghana had also shifted to a bitters market. Competing with 43 other companies is not easy. You always have to be up and thinking and coming up with creative ways to stay on top. We are still not on top yet, but we are about to be. We are constantly moving, thinking how we can best overcome all those challenges and make sales. I have no doubt that we have the best product in the world. My challenge now is to get the rest of the world to know.

Do you have a specific policy regarding CSR?

We are very sensitive to a lot of the global challenges. Sometimes, we have to pay more. If you look at our competition, they are all producing plastic bottles. We have refused to do that. We maintain our glass bottles so it is easier to recycle and the environmental impact is reduced. Of course, using glass to bottle your products comes with cost: they break when you are shipping, they break when you are bottling, they break even when you are distributing, and that adds to your cost. That has been a major thing for us. But we said that we are not going to compromise. For 60 years, GIHOC has been at the forefront and we want to maintain that tradition. In terms of disposal of our waste, we have our own treatment plant. We will not negatively impact the environment. We also support local charities, especially the ones that deal with children and women.

Project yourself two to three years. What is your vision? What do you want to achieve for the company in the medium term?

We want this to be the best place to work in Ghana. We want a stress free, productive, creative work environment. We want to pay people well. In terms of the benefit that you get from working at GIHOC, we do not want anybody to compete with us on that. At the same time, we want to be able to make use of our natural resources. For example, we want to produce our own glass because Ghana has all the ingredients to do this. We are working on it now and in the foreseeable future, we see ourselves producing glass, not only for GIHOC, but for the entire country. We also want to be in the forefront in using fruit alcohol instead of the other alcohols. It is healthy and it is good for you. In our future, we want to see a GIHOC that is environmentally friendly. We want satisfied workers who wake up in the morning wanting to get to work. Even if they are not feeling well, maybe the therapeutic effect of going to work in such a good environment will reduce whatever is wrong with them. We also want to be able to save the country money by manufacturing a lot of things that we already have the available resources for like the glass for our bottles. We want to let the world know that alcohol is not that bad after all and that is because GIHOC is there.

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