Checkers Custard: The Mission to be in 100% of African Kitchens and Homes

By Amechi Obiakpu

From just a product trying to fill a void in the Nigeria’s pudding industry a little more than five years ago, Checkers Africa is making in road to be in 100% of African kitchens and homes. This is gradually becoming a reality as the company which started with the flagship Checkers Custard has launched several other products under the Checkers brand – aimed at delighting and providing nourishing value to Nigerians.

With a very deep knowledge of the taste, lifestyle and customs of the Nigerian consuming public, the company has been able to build a rich portfolio of products that has become consumers’ delight. First was Checkers Custard which comes in different variants – the Vanilla, Banana, the Milk 3-in-1 which contains Vitamins A and B, high-quality sugar and high-quality milk, followed by Checkers Crunchy Peanut, Checkers Custard Pap 3-in-1, Checkers 3-in-1 ChocoTee and, Checkers Corn Flour.

And if promises from the company’s management is anything to go by, more innovative products should be expected soon.

What this means is that, any one or more of Checkers’ products will be seen in every Nigerian and by extension African home visited – a target, management of the company believes has been long overdue.

Surviving the harsh economic situation

Like other brands, the Checkers brand is not insulated from the harsh economic situation and the unease that comes with doing business in the country but, it has been able to meander in the volatile business landscape to become the leading brand in the pudding industry and one of the leaders in the FMCG space.

“It’s pretty daunting to meander in the economic land in Nigeria, definitely, but we are still here, just like every other player still around. It shows our resilience and the ability to adapt and constantly reiterate, be it when it comes to the manufacturing side or the distribution side, or even in our marketing endeavors, we are ever ready and dynamic to adapt to changes as fast as we can”, says a marketing executive of the organization in a chat with Espinews.

However, the acceptance the brand is enjoying in the market, it is evident that the FMCG is not resting on their oars as they consistently enjoy Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA) in the market and with most buyers of the category.

“At Checkers Africa Ltd., we are very aggressive with the way we push and position our products. Though, some of our products play in the competitive space and we know that visibility is something that is very important for our brand and that is why we innovatively ensure the products are available to the consumers,” says Timothy Ogundele, the Head of Marketing.

“One of the strategic things we did last year was to foster our alliances with sales. Of course, naturally, we must always synergize. But now we have what we call product heads. And these product heads are responsible not just for pushing and driving sales, but are very key liaisons for marketing. They also have a lot of marketing input into the way that these products are put out in the market. These among others help us be on our toes all the time, and we are able to understand the landscape more just by the fact that we have these personalities, making sure that they put their heads together. We also have reviews and a lot of meetings looking at what happens in shorter spans of time to be able to navigate better. This is something that we think has really helped us”.

Asked if there were areas of regrets, Ogundele responded in the affirmative but quickly added that it has become part of the learning curves: “In every organization, no matter how well you always project to do better, and if there is even just a 1% shortfall from what your expectation is, all is not well. It can only be well when you exceed, or at least hit on the mark of your expectations. We are grateful that the economy seems to be, in some ways, getting better, especially as we source our raw materials from very best sources around the world.”

“It is a very delicate balancing act when you try to be a premium brand and also be affordable, it’s something that we have been able to do with the custard. With other products, we are learning as we are moving on,” he added.

Continuing he said: “As a whole, Checkers has brought a lot of recall from all our marketing activities. It’s basically something that is very visible for our buyers and even new buyers. People switch because they have come in contact with our products, not just through marketing, but it’s visible in the market. Our distribution is very profound and well ordered. Again, let’s understand that, any new product, especially from a different category will have its own unique traits as a product and the people that are consumers of that product. But all in all, we have at least touched on a fair level to find acceptance of all our products across board. And don’t forget that we also have Checkers Corn Flour, which is our premium corn flour brand, which is used for pastries, gravies and baking and all that. We have a diverse product portfolio, and if we are going to take it as a whole, we have very good or fair to fine acceptance of all our products.”

“One of our brands, Checkers Crunchy Peanut, which is our coated peanut brand, is a best seller. We are unable to meet up with the demands of that particular product, people have accepted it. We believe at this point in time, it’s category leading”.

In his reaction to the question on how his organization is stabilizing the 3-in-1 Choco Tee and how soon should the market be expecting additional product from the brands, Ogundele noted:

“Checkers 3-in-1 Choco Tee is playing in a challenging category, but we have been able to reach a point where we know that we are here to stay. We just need to learn a bit more, especially as regards the distribution of the product, because as much as we have our infrastructure, we also have uptakers. They have their own unique traits and the dynamics of how you distribute one product to the other. It’s not all the time it follows the exact same channel, because you have different characteristics of buyers as well. So, we have been able to at least serve our distributors and, in essence, our buyers. We are also ramping up marketing. We are also trying to enter other regions that we have not been able to push this particular product well to, so we are doing our groundwork with market research and engaging all the stakeholders as much as possible so that we can have this product widely available pan Nigeria. This is what we have been able to do with the product at this point in time.

“On innovating products, yes, we will definitely put more products out. But for the next few months, we need to slam the brakes to ensure that we put our heads together and focus more on ensuring that all these our brands are giving us enough confidence before we move on to the next thing. Definitely, we are a very innovative company. We always do research and development and product development. We just want to take our time and not bite more than we can chew at this point in time. But we have that in the works, and definitely at the right time, they will come out; and definitely innovative products that will be something that people would love and identify with,” he assured.

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