Interview with Dr. Manfred Takyi, CEO of Joy Industries

What is your assessment of the industry in 2018? What are the latest trends? Is it a very competitive sector? Are there new entrants?

We are in the herbal manufacturing industry. In the beginning, in 2001, the business was registered as an herbal enterprise. While we were growing, we registered it as a limited liability with three brothers as shareholders in the company. Then, along the line, we had a technical person who is in charge of the formulation of the products, Dr. Fafa. He is also the one with more of the herbal knowledge. As a team, we have come together to build a strong brand. When you talk about one of the best herbal medicine companies in the world today, Joy Industries is rated number one.

What are your competitive advantages? Why is your product better than the others?

We manufacture a lot of health products. We include alcohol in this, which might sound a bit strange. However, we have a lot of knowledge of medicinal herbs, herbs that will make the body grow strong. We have introduced those medicinal herbs in our alcoholic beverage product so that when you drink our alcoholic beverages, instead of feeling the negative effects of alcohol, the medicinal herbs that we have infused neutralize the effect of alcohol as a whole in the human system. It is quite unique and in no other part of the world can you get a product like the one that we produce here. We also produce herbal medicines without alcohol such as herbal soap, herbal ointments, etc.

Can you give more detail about your products?

People have faith in our product and like the trade name, “Joy”, we are doing our best to maintain that trademark. For anything that we produce, we make sure that whoever will consume that product will be filled with joy after taking it.

We started producing ointment first and we later introduced our herbal soap. The other herbal medicines followed. What made us go into alcohol is that in Ghana, especially in the remote areas, when you visit the villages, you see people that have drank alcohol. We have an alcoholic product that is brewed locally called Akpeteshie. It effects people quite strongly because of its content. It is not brewed to its finest level. Neither does it contain any medicinal properties. So, we decided that with our knowledge in healing herbs, we had to introduce those herbs into alcohol. We have herbs that take care of the kidneys, the liver, that strain the blood, or that are good for general well-being. People drink our alcohol not just like drinking any alcoholic product, they are taking it so that they will also get the medicinal benefit. It is doing wonders for so many people. We have had calls from all angles of customers that drank our alcoholic beverage when they were having an illness or sickness, and they cannot feel it anymore. It is because of the medicinal herbs that we use in producing the alcoholic beverage.

Is Ghana the only place you sell this product?

We have started exporting to neighboring African countries like Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Liberia, and others. It is making massive inroads there because of its potent medicinal effects.

What makes your product unique? Do you use a special technology?

Scientifically, there is a unique way of doing things. We are knowledgeable about what we do and passionate about what we do. We think about our fellow human being. We have a heart of healing, we do not have a heart of only taking money or getting money from our customers. Our priority is that whoever will take our product will benefit and have good health. Our motto is “Good health brings Joy.” Once someone buys our product, they get value for their money. You do not buy something with money, then at the end of it all, develop health problems from it. So, we have that at the back of our minds that we need to produce good things for our consumers all over the world.

What does Joy mean for people? How do people perceive your brand?

It is the top brand in Ghana now and other countries, too. You will never regret taking our product. Our products are purely organic. Human beings are organic so organic materials, organic things, are very good for the body, for the system, compared to artificial materials. People have faith in our product and like the trade name, “Joy”, we are doing our best to maintain that trademark. For anything that we produce, we make sure that whoever will consume that product will be filled with joy after taking it.

You sell to distributors, not directly to customers. What is your specific strategy towards them?

We have a good marketing plan with our distributors and they are happy with it. They sell our products and make a good profit. They even make a better profit than we as manufacturers do.

Are you looking to attract partners or investors to your business?

As we are developing, our slogan is “healing the world.” We are not healing just a few people. Investors are all welcome from all angles. We need to boost our production so that if not all, at least the majority of the population can benefit from the good things we are doing here as an industry.

What current projects are you focusing on?

Our current project is getting a facility that will last and increase our production yield.

Is that a future plan or is it something that you have already started?

It is something we want to start soon with the help of other investors who would like to come in.

Is there anything else you feel strongly on that you would like to give a message about?

As a corporate entity, we have so many responsibilities, in social interventions, especially. We take care of people who have serious health problems that need to undergo surgery and we do full sponsorship of such cases. Before we take any step, we have an NGO, the DMAC Foundation, that we deal with, who investigates the case. When or if it is genuine, they bring the proposal to the company and then we bear full cost for such people. We do a lot of things as part of our social responsibility, too. We go to villages and give money to people who cannot afford more than one or two square meals a day. We do a lot of programs with the aged as well as much more.

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

In three years’ time, we want the brand that we have already built to be very solid everywhere. Then, we will go into soft drinks. We have developed soft drinks which we want to make accessible to everyone and some of the other unique products that are under development.

In terms of capacity you are also regional, not only in Ghana?

We want to reach out to most of the African countries and then probably, we will export some of our products to European countries and to the United States.

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