Expat Exec: Nepal easier place to work
KATHMANDU, SEP 30 -
After working in Afghanistan and Iran, Nepal is a more comfortable and easier place for Salman Latif Rawn to work. Salman, who joined as country manager of Coca-Cola Sabco for Nepal in early 2012, has reasons for this. “I had brush with death thrice when I was working for Coca-Cola in Afghanistan,” says Salman. “My family is living with me after 12 years.”
His professional career of around 25 years has revolved around the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, mainly with soft drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola.
Prior to joining Coca-Cola, he worked in the capacity of general manager at Pepsi Cola Franchise Iran. He has also worked as the country manager at Alokozay Group of Companies in Dubai, UAE. From 2005 to 2007, he was with Coca-Cola, managing its franchise in Afganistan in the capacity of country general manager. An MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, Lahore, Salman is currently overseeing Bottlers Nepal’s expansion drive, one of the biggest investment the company has made in Nepal.
As non-Nepali CEO, running a multinational company franchise in Nepal has its own challenges. And, Salman admits it. The biggest challenge, according to him, is developing technical people. “You’ve to develop talent as technical people aren’t easily available here,” says Salman.
The lack of quality human resource might be a reason, according to him, why most of the companies operating in Nepal haven’t come in a big way or not expanded their businesses.
But it has not stopped Salman from going into the expansion of Bottlers Nepal’s product line and making foray into non-carbonated drink segment. Salman says $25 million has already been invested in plant expansion in Bharatpur.
According to Salman, Coca-Cola has another $50-million investment plan for Nepal, but that will happen once the country gets the much-needed political stability.
Salman shares his nine-month experience in Nepal to the Post.
Serving in Nepal as a non-Nepali CEO
To be very honest, it’s a very interesting and exciting to be here in Nepal. There is no language barrier here compared to Afghanistan and Iran where I worked earlier. Nepal is comparatively comfortable and easier place to work. My family is living with me after 12 years. The Nepali people are not as over demanding as some other nations are. They are self contempt. That is a good part. I am loving the country and so is my family.
Bottlers Nepal’s expansion plan
Bottlers Nepal currently has two plants — one in Kathmandu and the other in Bharatpur, Chitwan. The Kathmandu plant has two lines, one is RGB line, i.e., glass bottle and the other is PET line which is plastic bottle. But the Bharatpur plant has only RGB line. This year, we are putting up almost $25 million into Bharatpur plant where we will put high speed PET lines. The construction that has already started should be completed by the next year. We expect to operate it by the start of the next year. This is one of the highest investments Bottlers Nepal has made in Nepal. That will help us supply our products more effectively, efficiently in the East and West Nepal.
Making foray into noncarbonated drinks
We are working on going into other areas which could be energy drink, juice or bottled water. We can expand current packages, come up with many flavours. Coca-Cola has various flavours in many markets across the globe, but in Nepal, we have only three available. So we can expand flavours, capacity and also new machines.
But, every time we work on that, we look into the country’s situation, i.e., prolonged political transition and deadlock over constitution. We hope there will be political stability and the country will have a constitution. Once that happens, we can think about bringing in big investment. We have plans to bring $50 million within the next three years. The plan is still on and we need to see the right time.
Quality standards
Coca-Cola Company doesn’t have different standards for different plants. They have the same standards either it is in the USA, Nepal or India. They will not change standards. We need to follow their standards and they don’t change it as per the country.
We have improved quality in our plants. We are above the target set for 2012. We are very open for any forum to come and look up the production facility, standards or the quality and equipment we use.
CSR Initiatives
As a commercial company, Coca-Cola does take seriously the responsibility towards the community. So the company is going ahead with projects which are purely community based.
One of the biggest community-based projects that the company is currently undertaking is water. We believe what we use should be returned back to the soil. Among the projects we are doing is rain water harvesting. Even in the Kathmandu plant, the entire roof has been converted down and has a drainage system where all the water goes to the soil. Apart from water, we are also spending on recycling. A lot many PET bottles from other companies are being used, but are not being recycled. Our new project is to extend support to women entrepreneurs, so we have adopted a vision ‘5 BY 20’ which is a commitment to empower 5 million women to turn them into successful entrepreneurs by the 2020. Nepal has also been selected for the project from the South-West Asia Region.
What we are planning in Nepal is initiating a recycle project using women. This will help empower women.
The soft drink market
The business is growing, but one cannot say it is growing aggressively. We are in a seasonal business and when the time goes bad in season it is difficult. However, we are having reasonable good year. Had there been more stable political situation, the business could have been much stronger. This is what other FMCG people also feel. The size of the carbonated drink market in Nepal is around Rs 9 billion. And, as per our report, Coca-Cola has .
The issue of SAP software
SAP is software used by multinational companies so that the headquarters or regional offices can directly have a look at the business. This software helps analyse the companies’ happenings through any place across the globe. For us, it is much easier to get reports and analysis through it. We are struggling to get it here. We have already placed an application at the Inland Revenue Department, but still we aren’t being able to get to it. There are other companies in Nepal which are already using this software. Out of all nine countries of Coca-Cola Sabco, we are the only one that doesn’t have SAP software.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
