Nigeria’s largest haircare manufacturing firm, Natures Gentle Touch (NGT), which celebrated 25 years of operation within the nation on the weekend, plans to listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) and broaden its manufacturing footprints to totally different components of the world.
The firm which set the tempo for made-in-Nigerian merchandise at a time when shopping for overseas signaled class and the most suitable choice, and created an unusual advertising and marketing by concentrating on girls and youths throughout Nigerian universities, stated it has paid off because it helped many women to find their distinctive private types.
Speaking to journalists at a digital occasion, to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the corporate, an industrial chemist and founder/CEO, Natures Gentle Touch, Chika Ikenga, stated a powerful need to assist every lady specific, maintain and stamp her distinctive private model and id on her surroundings drove a Nigerian 25 years in the past, to create the required hair care and sweetness merchandise.
He famous that the take-off was tough however they have been decided to climate the storm and defeated the preliminary resistance and sabotage from middlemen or distributors. The firm created private care options to allow every lady to unleash her distinctive model and individuality however was greeted with doubts from the market together with hairdressing salons, a scenario which distributors compounded.
But NGT defeated each by elevating a platoon of influencers from a military of youths at universities throughout Nigeria. The experience between the model and the younger elite has developed into one thing which will be described as jolly and charming through the years, with the belief constructed seeing the options supplied by Natures Gentle Touch incomes world attraction and acceptance.
“Our rivals had large promoting budgets which we didn’t. What we did was to go to increased establishments like UNILAG, ABU, UI, IFE, UNIJOS, and different public universities in Nigeria. We went and knocked on their doorways, we inspired them to embrace Nigerian merchandise. We had icons like Oluchi Onweagba, Agbani Darego to promote for us. Many folks nonetheless believed we have been a overseas model.”
According to Ikenga, Natures Gentle Touch is concentrated on replicating its distinctive service choices in different markets the world over, having found that many, significantly Africans use their hair to specific their model and id.
This has seen the corporate purchase a beauty firm within the Republic of South Africa with sights firmly set on different African international locations and different components of the world. “We are at a degree the place we would like increasingly folks to have the ability to entry the options we provide the world over.
“The acquisition in South Africa is a sign of intent. We need to set our footprints in different African international locations and different continents. “We may also contemplate availing members of the general public the prospect to be a part of possession by issuing and itemizing our shares,” Ikenga added.
While many could also be considering success for a enterprise that has survived for 25 years by way of steadiness sheet or backside line, Ikenga’s contentment is in redefining the non-public way of life phase, a feat his efforts have delivered in Nigeria.
He stated, “We take pleasure in being the wholly Nigerian model, which stood agency and took the daring step to empower Nigerian and African girls with the data required to specific themselves by means of each their hair and private life.”
“People usually assume it’s a overseas model. We wished to alter the perspective of Nigerians of not believing in made in Nigeria, that’s why we began Nature’s Gentle Touch. We determined to create a product that’s higher than overseas. Secondly, was to handle the hair scalp Nigerian girls had.
“I began researching in 1993 and by 1995 I needed to resign from paid employment and that was how we began totally in 1997. We commercialized in 1997. NGT began as a Relaxer and not likely hair scalp.
Today extra folks imagine in made in Nigerian merchandise. We laid the muse that has seen extra folks proudly owning made in Nigerian merchandise. In the start we met a number of roadblocks. Many folks believed that overseas was higher. Many folks have been leaving Nigeria as nicely however I stated to myself that I received’t go away Nigeria.
Recounting the early days of the enterprise, Ikenga identified that when distributors appeared set to represent a stumbling block for the model’s market entry, they averted them and took in the marketplace straight. “Our story can’t be full with out mentioning Nigerian tertiary establishments, significantly the University of Lagos,” Ikenga famous.
He calls to thoughts that price range constraints wouldn’t allow them so as to add standard advertising and marketing to their technique. However, they discovered a method round this through the use of phrase of mouth, individual to individual advertising and marketing at Nigerian universities. The University of Lagos served as a launch pad from the place different universities have been added.
Convincing the teeming inhabitants of youth at tertiary establishments was all the time going to be powerful. They have been already used to overseas merchandise and “our branding made them assume that Natures Gentle Touch manufacturers have been imported,” Ikenga identified.
However, as soon as they have been satisfied concerning the high quality, they embraced the options NGT manufacturers have been providing with each palms. Ikenga educated as an industrial chemist. In the course of his work, it dawned on him that many African girls have been having challenges discovering their private life and flaunting their identities as strongly as they might have preferred.
He was impressed to create an natural answer for every individual. This was how Natures Gentle Touch got down to develop and deploy customised way of life options within the areas of haircare and skincare.
According to Ikenga, “We found that as much as 80 p.c of Nigerian and African girls required tailored haircare options, due to the climate, the eating regimen and different issues, so the fervour to unravel these gave beginning to Natures Gentle Touch.
“Our core providing is in private styling options. In our enterprise mannequin, that is finest delivered by means of our hair institute. We had only one at Isolo. We have added two others at Victoria Island and Ikeja GRA.
“Often we communicate concerning the hair institute greater than the merchandise as a result of we would like folks to expertise it and discern for themselves. I can’t keep in mind any hair or pores and skin problem that was tabled that we Natures Gentle Touch has not solved,” the GMD highlighted.
The success story of the NGT is that the non-public model options it’s providing have charmed a lot of high-profile celebrities, magnificence queens, and discerning girls. The model serves those that can afford it however delivers on all guarantees on a constant foundation.
The United States of America-based Nigerian supermodel, Oluchi Onweagba was amongst these to have been related to Natures Gentle Touch. She showcased the personalised model options delivered by the model with pleasure. Another notable magnificence queen who endorsed the NGT is former Miss World, Agbani Darego.
Those who know Onweagba and Darego proclaim that for these icons to place their names and private manufacturers on something, private model, it should be value it. On the worldwide stage, magnificence queen and supermodel, Leila Lopes can be recognized to have proudly embraced the advertising and marketing of Natures Gentle Touch’s private way of life options a while in the past.
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