Wemy Industries is making a comeback by focusing on three categories and is poised to lead in two categories of the hygiene sector in Nigeria. Founded 35 years ago, Wemy Industries Limited is the foremost local pioneer manufacturer of baby diapers in Nigeria. With the brands Dr. Browns and Nightinale, which are well known to Nigerian consumers of baby care, feminine care and adult care products, Wemy has grown from a mono product company to a company that manufactures and trades over 15 product lines with a nationwide coverage. Today, the company owns a highly modernized world class factory in Lagos. In 2016, the company was one of the victims of the massive recession that hit the country and it had to lay off over 200 workers, according to a recent report in Business Day Nigeria.
Already leading the wet wipes category with a 19% market share, according to the most recent Euromonitor report, after a three year absence in baby care, Wemy Industries has re-launched its baby diapers in Nigeria and is also focusing on another hygiene category, adult diapers, according to a recent report by Business Day Nigeria. Wemy Industries’ strategy for the adult diaper category is to service the local Nigerian population as well as to target the rest of the ECOWAS market. Exports to the other markets within the same economic block of ECOWAS means that Wemy Industries pays no duties to export their products in high growth markets including Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
The machines for the adult diapers have already been purchased and the company awaits installation. This prepares them for a pole position in the adult diapers category as they will most likely be the only major regional manufacturer of adult diapers within the ECOWAS economic block. About 80% of the raw materials are imported, so exports will be a very key part of the business strategy as it will allow the business to earn foreign currency, while at the same time assisting the other countries in the economic block to obtain the products like adult diapers at better prices than they would pay by importing them from overseas. Most of the packaging is procured locally, as much as 60-70% on some lines but on some as little as 10%. This is likely to improve as there are plans that Dangote will be coming into this space soon, which will improve Wemy Industries’ backward integration in the next five years.