Despite all odds this country of over 180 million consumers is grappling with, Pakistan happens to be one of the world’s best investment destinations for Multinational Corporations (MNCs) like the Procter and Gamble (P&G).
The world’s leading consumer goods firm, whose yearly global sales turnover accounts for over $85 billion backed by the company’s deep-rooted presence in more than 180 countries, has identified Pakistan among 10 other nation states as a future destination for its investment.
Having already invested millions of dollars since its inception in Pakistan over two decades ago, the growth-driven P&G Global tends to make fresh investment in Pakistan in what company officials said were three areas: infrastructure, marketing and human resource.
“P&G has so far invested millions of dollars in Pakistan in fixed assets. Its investment continues to yield socio-economic benefits to the country,” Omeir Idris Dawoodji, P&G’s country communications manager, told a group of journalists who visited the state-of-the-art Aerial Plant, the company had opened at Port Qasim in 2010. Asked how P&G was doing in Pakistan, Dawoodji was all praises for the country that, to him, was one of the world’s best consumer markets. “For P&G the last three years in Pakistan were the best!” he told Pakistan Today.
“We keep setting and beating our (business) expectations here. We have a leading performance in the P&G world,” he said jubilantly. Refraining from giving numbers that, he said, he was not authorised to, the P&G official said under its future growth strategy P&G Global had identified Pakistan among 10 other countries for investment. “Definitely, Pakistan is going to attract a lot of investment in the future,” Dawoodji said. That investment, he said, would be made in venues like marketing, physical infrastructure and human resource development.
The Aerial Plant may be one of the grounds that can attract some investment the multinational is planning for. “This is a huge piece of land and we are hardly covering less than a third of it,” said Hasham Jamili, the plant manager.
“This may be a mega site for many other sites we are planning. This is going to be a mega manufacturing facility,” added Dawoodji.
A strong believer in hiring, nurturing and developing local talent, the P&G has created the much-needed direct and indirect jobs, at least 5,000, in Pakistan where youth constitutes a sufficient number of the country’s huge population. “All working at this facility are locals,” said plant manager Hasham about scores of technical and administrative staffers at the laundry detergent plant.
The global producer of consumer items had entered Pakistan some 22 years back with the launch of one of its leading household shampoos, Head and Shoulders, in 1991. Since then the American company has remarkably expanded its network in the country, prominently, in terms of infrastructure, production, marketing, sales, supplies, sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
“Today we are marketing eight high quality brands to Pakistani consumers,” said Dawoodji adding that “six of these are billion dollar brands”. Popular brands like Pantene, Safeguard, Ariel, Pampers, Always and Gillette mark the success of P&G’s quality-driven business in Pakistan where M/s Abu Dawood is the company’s sole distributor since 2009.
“Many of these brands have achieved leadership in their respective categories,” said the communications manager. Asked if counterfeiting was impacting their business in anyway, Dawoodji said, “It indeed hurts our business adversely”. Perhaps in a bid to turn this challenge into an opportunity, the P&G official said even counterfeiting was reflective of the fact that his side was producing something good. “People copy something which is good.”
Claiming to have been engaged with concerned government agencies on the issue, Dawoodji urged the former to do more to curb the anti-business menace. The year 2007 saw the multinational augmenting its vast local empire by joining hands with logistic giants like Agility which partnered with P&G to launch new 3PL warehouses in Pakistan.
According to Dawoodji, his company over the years was able to develop a strong local supplier base that translates into millions of dollars in local value. “P&G is working with skilled professional partners like Abu Dawood and Agility logistics to set up and grow its operations here,” said Dawoodji.
However, the P&G’s business in Pakistan is not a rudderless ship. Instead it is driven by a well thought-out vision that emphasises, sometimes seemingly over-emphasises, on improving the socio-environmental footprints of P&G’s business.
In his briefing to journalists, Shehryar Saeed, responsible for operations of the Aerial Plant, underlined various steps his side was proactively taking to achieve the company’s sustainability goals.
“We try to use maximum renewable sources of energy like wind, solar etc (at the plant),” said Saeed adding that to conserve energy, the facility was designed to use skylights during daytime with placement of increased glass windows in the office and factory areas. During last couple of years, Saeed said, his side was able to reduce its energy consumption by 17 percent, water by 22 percent and waste by 49 percent. “Less than 2 percent of our solid waste goes to landfills while 97 percent is reused beneficially,” the official said.
“P&G plants were amongst the top 10 companies in Pakistan that were recognised for benchmark environmental management systems, vision, environmentally-friendly policies and steps taken under P&G’s sustainability program,” he said.
It was because of these sustainability measures, Saeed said, that P&G was winning the Annual Environmental Excellence Award from the National Forum for Environment & Health for the fourth consecutive years.
The P&G officials attributed the numerous milestones their company had achieved over the last 175 years of its history to the vision of P&G’s founders, William Procter and James Gamble.