Mr. Stephen Ezesinachi Irechukwu is the
Chief Executive Officer of Stean Nigeria Company Limited; a company that deals
in industrial machines, especially sachet water making machines. In this interview with JULIANA FRANCIS, he
reveals how sachet water machine can be a money spinner, even as he added that
in life, “There is no excuse for anybody to be unemployed.” Excerpt:
What’s Stean Company about?
We deal in carbonated drinks line or
filling machines. We deal in different types of industrial machines, especially
those use in making sachet water. When people need these machines, we order
them for the person.
The company Stean Nigeria Company Limited,
started as a production company and consultancy firm. We started with the
production of sachet water (pure water),
we are the first set of people that started pure
water business with a manual machine. We later engaged in consultancy of
water packaging. Having gone to several seminars, workshops and on the work
training, we started importing the industrial machines. As at now, we sell
different kinds of machines such as liquid packaging machine, bottle filling
line, water bottle filling line, pet-blow machine, injection machine, water
treatment equipment, reverse osmosis, ozone, carbonated drinks filling line
etc. We also install and service these entire machines for customers who want
us to.
Why did you choose to specialise in this sort of business?
After I graduated from the University
of Science and Technology Port-Harcourt, where I read mathematics and
statistics, I came down to Lagos. I worked with a few companies. After that, I
started thinking of how I can package water. By then, pure water business was not common. One day, on my way to Sango
Ota, Ogun State, I saw where they were preparing sachet water through manual
machine. I entered there, discussed with them; I bought some of the nylon. I
went home and tried to prepare it myself. That was how I started pure water Business Company with manual
machine. Although then it was not registered, but later we registered it.
Did you give it any name?
Yes, we called it ripples water before the Automation machine packaging started
coming in, from there it became interesting. There are a lot of advantages in having
to work with these machines.
Initially the first machine that came
into the country was always disappointing people, this led us to research for a
better, durable and long lasting machine.
What happened to the first machine?
The first machine was imported from India and
all the millions invested in the importation were what I called wastage until
we decided to go into research for a better machine.
How much does someone needs to start such a line of business?
If you have an apartment, bore-hole and
a generator set, vehicles, truck for distribution, with N10 million, one can
start off with pure water and bottle
filling line, depending on the company capacity. We have water bottle filling
line machine that produces 50,000 bottles per hour, pet-blow machine that
produces 48,000 per hour that is if one is going into the business on a large
scale.
What is the cheapest machine you have in your collection?
We have a particular machine called
manual coding machine for coding, it cost about N70, 000 and another micro
filters for N7000.
Tell us about the sachet water (pure water) making machines. How can someone start off pure water business and how is the
profit like?
To start a pure water business, you need a land and a building that must have at
least four rooms for production; a room for changing and another for storing raw
material and production/ finish product room, excluding office space and a rest
room. You also need bore-hole and NAFDAC registration number.
What do you think of unemployment in Nigeria?
Unemployment in Nigeria makes one to
weep. We have talented youths but lack of money makes them not to be useful.
While some have the money but government agencies and social amenities, always
frustrate them, such as irregular Power supply etc. We have social network here
and there, and our youths are doing good with this, so I think it’s all about
economy of the country.
From your experience in the Labour Market, do think people
have any excuse for being unemployed?
People may think that they have excuse
to be unemployed but after listening to them, you will see that they don’t have
any tangible excuse for not engaging themselves with one thing or another. One
will not blame most of them because the social and cultural setting of the
country gives room to such. A situation where one, after graduating from
school, continues to depend on his or her parents, staying with them, eating
free food, makes most of them not to hustle like others because they have free food
to eat every day. With the free accommodation they are enjoying, why would they
look for job? There are several ways one can start be generating fund but the
lazy one’s will always remain lazy.
If everywhere is right, there’s no
reason for anybody to be unemployed. There’s always a business to do. Proposals
to write about a business idea and approach banks to help you start me.
Personally, I will help anybody who has a sound proposal. If I like the
proposal, we’ll discuss on how to start off and how to share the profit.
What’s your advice to unemployed people out there?
Before I give advice to the youths, let
me talk about myself. I started business at the age of seven. My parents bought
toys for me then, there’s this boy that so much love those toys, so I decided
to sell them to him. He paid and I made profit from it. I later went to buy another for myself and
kept the remaining change. Another incident like that was when I was in
secondary school. We had a team called Flamingo football team then, I was the
one that volunteered to provide their football jersey. How did I manage to do
this? Today, some children want to get involved in all kinds of things to raise
fund or they’ll start tasking their parents.
But back then, after school, I will go
to bush and cut elephant grasses, use truck to convey them to the market where
they sell goat. So whatever I realised was what we used in maintaining that
team. So it continued like.
The same thing at the university. I made copies of past questions and sold to
fellow students. My parents were well to do but I never depend on them. As a
student then, I was also a business guy. So for you to say that you are
unemployed, it means you lack vision and dedication.
After graduating, instead of staying at home
looking for job, why not go and buy a popcorn making machine and think of a
nice look you could give it to attract customers. If one buys a 1kg of corn,
you make over 150 percent profits.
There is also what we call recycling
business. There’s a lot of money in it. All you needed was to collect used
sachet water lyon or empty plastic of bottled water. People buy and later grind
them in machines to make plastics. If I tell you the money you make just by
collecting and selling plastics, you would be shocked!
Tell me about your educational background?
I read Math and Statistic at the
University of Science and technology, Port Harcourt.
Why did you choose your particular course at the university?
It’s not as if I choose that very course
I read at the university. I wanted to read medicine but since I was desperate
to get admission into higher institution, I decided to take up Math and Statistics
with the hope of changing the course later. But unfortunately, I found out that
I was in love with this very course. So at that point there was no need to
change the course.
What is your business mission and vision?
The vision and mission of my company is
to eliminate unemployment. The motto is satisfaction at all time.
What state are you from?
I’m from Imo State. My office is at suit 1A
LSDPC along Oba Ogunji Road Ogba. My
Website is www.steannig.com
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