Going into Water Treatment and Bottling Business
By Godwin Uba
The market for packaged (bottled) water is very large today and there is the tendency that the growth will continu e. The business is assuring and will also keep on being profitable.
Recent research carried out by the writer confirms that more investors are needed in this area.
It is based on this funding that the writer makes this write up.
Reasons for Ingrease in Demand
A recent study carried out by tPle World Bank has confirmed that only about 36 percent of Nigerians have access to good water from the public systems. This is not far from the truth.
For instance, there u sed to be a time when freshly treated good drinking water used to flow from public supplies taps fresh, with bubbles in million and a tint of chlorine escaping into the atmosphere when freshly collected glass cups. In those days, water taps are seen in the major streets. That is now history.
Where and when you get public water supply at all, the old quality from the fresh water supplies is lacking.
The increasing cost of treatment, coupled with the age of buried water pipelines which is already corroding have made continuous supply of good water by government doubtful.
This has rightly created the need for private organizations and people to go into water production for homes, offices, industries, social activities and other commercial productions of packaged water.
The reality of the Nigerian water situation is that packaged water consumption has come to stay and the demand will continue to increase, thereby putting the fates of the consumers in the hands of the packaged water producers.
Therefore the major source of good drinking water in Nigeria today is from packaged water. The population of the country is increasing. Awareness for good health is also being created everyday.
Therefore the demand for packed water will continue to 1ncrease.
Water Business
Water is offered for sale in Nigeria as packaged water in sachets, PET bottles and breakable bottles. This is erroneously referred to as "pure water". Pure water as in water is defined as drinking water that has been de-chlorinated and de-ionized or distilled.
It is therefore not recommended for consumption. It is only used for the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaccuticals Packaged water is referred to as drinking water or portable water.
Portable water is normally raw water, which has been, if necessary, chemically treated to remove unwanted chemicals and filtered and chlorinated.
This is exactly the concept of this project profile. When you talk of going into water business, you must look at producing portable water.
Establishment of the Plant
The project may be located in any part of Nigeria with good resources.
The water supply must be from spring or borehole or tap water. This is NAFDAC requirement. Other inputs include few chemicals (chlorine) and packaging materials. All these are all locally available.
The machines required to set up this project include a complete set of water treatment plant, au tomatic bottling machines as well as shrink-wrapping machine. Details on sources, prices, installation & testrunning will be embodied in the comprehensive feasibility studies/ report for interested investors.
The production process is a combination of aeration, treatment filtration, and chlorination bottling and packaging. All the essential details including quality control will also be embodied in the feasibility report.
The plant under consideration will be able to produce 500, 000 liters of treated water per 8 hours.
Annual production 500 million liters, which will be packaged in the PET bottles
The Market
The products can be sold to distributors, households, super markets, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, clubs, parastals and the general public.
The product may also be exported to other African countries. Details will be given to prospective investors.
Market research has shown that despite few producers of the bottled water, the market is still receptive, with demand gap elongating everyday.
Therefore it is a very good investment opportunities for Nigeria investors.
Added Advantage
The advantage of investing in this project is that the promoter can use the same machines to produce other products such as fruit juice, bottled Soya milk, liquid yogurts and even bottled wlne.
Financial Implications
Investment depends on how much that the prospective investor has earmarked for this project. The modem water project demands large sum of money to procure all the required hi-tech machines.
From estimation, the project can be set up with the sum of N 12.58 million as shown below.
Cash flow also very impressive
For details on preparation of comprehensive & bankable feasibility studies/ report, sourcing & installation of quality & durable machines, Recruitment & Training, Sourcing of Investment funds, please contact the writer.
Mr Uba is with Global Trust Consulting Group 56 Ishaga Road ( 1 St floor) Surulere, Lagos Tel: 4721550, 08023664368
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