Bidco targets KES 100b Turnover, 200,000 new jobs by the year 2021.

KEPSA chairman Nick Nesbitt (centre) receiving copies of Bidco's Code of Conduct from Group Chairman Vimal Shah during the launch on Monday. Looking on is  Group CEO Thiagarajan Ramamurthy (extreme left), founder Bhimji Depar Shah and Tarun B Shah, an Executive Director.

Thika-based consumer goods manufacturer Bidco Africa has set itself a KES. 100 billion revenue target over the next five (5) years in its trajectory and investment plans.

Revealing this very ambitious target during the company’s launch of its Code of Ethics, Group Chairman Vimal Shah said that they would, by the end of this year commission 4 new plants in their first phase of their initial KES. 5 billion investment near TATU City in Ruiru Sub-County.

The second phase will comprise of an additional KES. 15 billion, housing the other 6 factories to be spread over the next four years. He said that they were targeting to create 2,000 new jobs directly within the park and about 200,000 others within their eco-system.

“We are entering a high growth phase where we are going to construct a state-of-the-art Bidco Industrial Park. This facility will house 10 new factories and will create about 200,000 new jobs from these activities,” said Vimal.

Vimal said as a company, their objective was to create more and more entrepreneurs through the products they are going to present to the market.

He blamed the problem of high cost of living to a wrong supply-demand equation in the market. He added that it was high time the country invested in cold-stores to ensure that throughout the year, the people had enough supply of foodstuff. He also called on producers to be competitive and in line with the world market in order to survive the market.

“Agri-business has a huge potential in Kenya. We should be actually increasing supply all over to force the prices of goods down. Why can’t we have one or two cold stores in every town or village across the country so that everything we harvest, the produce goes to these cold-chains and we take them out as we need it,” he said.

He called on the government to zero-rate VAT on all food products and harvest water during the rainy seasons and make use of it to produce more food for the country.

In their new Code of Conduct signed by all their 1,700 employees and 500 suppliers, Bidco has vowed to live by it SAY NO to bribery and corruption.

Vimal explained that the code will affect it over 70,000 people within their ecosystem who would have to abide by this code.

“Being the first company in Kenya to institutionalise integrity into their operations, Bidco wants to set pace for other companies to abide to the new Anti-Corruption and Bribery Act. We want to command respect for who we are by doing the right things and create a world-class culture of integrity,” said the CEO.

Chief guest Nick Nesbitt, who is the KEPSA chairman, echoed these sentiments by adding that companies attracted loyal customers because of trust and their ethics.

He called on the people of Kenya to change the world’s perception of a country glued in corruption by embracing ethics and integrity in all they did.

“With integrity comes respect and then trust follows. For instance, the 106 years of success in IBM where I work, has been as a result of its ethos. The only reason why our customers spend over a billion shillings weekly on us is because they trust us. We always do what we say,” said Nick.