The Board Chairman of the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), Kwaku Owusu Baah has hinted that CPC will soon pay dividends to the government of Ghana.
He said the company, which, in the past, was mismanaged had now been put on the right path under the current management.
“We should be out of the woods in the couple of years. We can’t wait to send a very fat dividend cheque to the government as the top shareholder,” he stressed.
The Board Chairman, who was speaking at the launching of new cocoa products by CPC, said before the current management took over the company, which could process about 264,500 metric tonnes of cocoa beans, had no working capital to buy cocoa and process them.
He explained that CPC was servicing loans it had contracted despite not having working capital.
He added that CPC was also recording loses of US$9.1 million annually, but said last year, the company managed to beat down the loses to US$5.5 million.
Through the ingenuity of the current management led by Nana Agyenim Boateng I and the board, the story of CPC is gradually changing.
Mr Owusu Baah noted that the current management has also taken steps to ensure that the cost of electricity consumed by CPC is reduced going forward by collaborating with some private firms to build 3.5 Megawatts Biomass gasification and combined heat power plant.
The 19 new goldentree chocolate varieties, which were outdoored by CPC, are Heritage Premium Nut chocolate, TQ Premium Dark Chocolate, Premium White Chocolate in 100GM, New Chocodelight chocolate spread in 7 brands, New Alltime Instant Drinking chocolate in 400GM/40GM, Alltime Instant Drinking Chocolate with low sugar in 400GM JAR, Vitaco Instant Drinking Chocolate with coffee in 250GM / 400GM JAR, White Chocolate Couverture, Cocoa Liquor in 2 x 200GM and Cocoa Butter in 2 x 200GM.
Managing Director of CPC, Nana Agyenim Boateng said the new products were as a result of many months of research work.
According to him, the products were done with the customer in mind, saying a number of them are sugar-free.
“Our vision is to become a world-class food cocoa factory and bring its health benefits to consumers world-wide,” he said.
