From office to factory: The story of Chuks Okorie, the sachet water maker

Chuks Samuel Okorie is the CEO of Camnzee Water, a company that produces sachet water popularly known as ‘pure water’.
Chuks ventured into water business after working in a company for 25 years. He wanted to be self-reliant, independent, and achieve things on his own. He set up this business two years and believes that he can go places.
“We are in the era when people think of what they can give back to the society, not just what the government can give to the people. There is no amount of money anyone will pay you that will be enough. I worked for 25 years in a company, but I thought that if I could invest my time in my own business, I would be very much independent. No one can manage my business the way I will, so I felt that the best thing was to make myself available to run the business,” he explained.

The entrepreneur said that his start-up capital was 15million, which is huge, but raising it was just God’s doing.
“I was able to raise money from my savings when I was working. My wife owns a school so she assisted me. I also got assistance from my relatives. The business is just two years; Rome was not built in a day, and the business is yet to be on hill. We started with one vehicle and now we have two vehicles,” he said.
According to him, starting this business required him being ready not just to produce water but to manufacture a product that is tasteless, odourless and colourless.

Chuks knows full well that there are many water companies ready to bring down their prices just to win over their competitors. But he believes that taste is what differentiates his company from any other.
He also believes that he must be patient to grow into a reputable water company.

“A lay man coming into the business cares less about the price he meets but is ready to bring down his price just to win over his competitors,” he said.

“Our government should look into the materials we use in making sachet water. The Indians are taking advantage of our economy. The materials come from crude oil, which we export, but they refine and then bring back to us at very high prices,” he stated.

“In business, we will continue to employ until we get the best workers with the right skills. The skill to do the job is 20 percent and attitude to the job is 80 percent,” he said.

He pointed out that inexperience and dishonesty of some of the Nigerian staff members are pulling down start-ups and SMEs.

“If a manager has no experience or skill, there will be leakages, which will result in so much loss. Secondly, there is no way the machines can give account of the number of bags produced, which is just a disadvantage,” Samuel said.

He said he supplies sachet water to major markets and that marketers to his factory come with their buses.

He pointed out that the environment one cites one’s business plays a key role in improving or decreasing sales.

“If the business is located in a modernised environment, sales will increase because they know the value of drinking odourless, colourless and tasteless clean water,” he stated.
“If the water is too cheap, then it must have issues, because it is costly to maintain good water,” he cautioned.

Chuks said the company uses modern machines called the dangling machine, because the old machines make too much noise.

He said his major challenge is power.

“We have been running on generator for the past two weeks so what we do is that we work at night most times because the light stays longer at night,” he explained.

“NAFDAC has approved our sachet and bottled water, so our focus and plan now is to set up the bottled water. We are also working towards having branches not only in Lagos but In Delta, our neighbouring states, and Benin Republic,” he disclosed.

Samuel’s advice to the youth is to be creative.

“I have a problem with the youth of nowadays. Many of them are looking for immediate gratification, which doesn’t just come. The first priority is education, and they should be creative. Nigerians are intelligent people but many are not annexing it to the right direction. The youth must take hard work seriously,” he concluded.

ANGEL JAMES