Tokunbo Aromolaran, Managing Director/Chief Executive Office of VON Automobile Nigeria Limited, told EMMA EKE the challenges the company is struggling to overcome.What are the challenges at VON'OUR experience is the same with what every other business. We provide virtually all the infrastructures that are needed to be in business. Those are things that ordinarily would have been in place. So, the structures in the environment are very much limited, starting from water, security, electricity and infrastructure, it has been quite expensive.On the other hand, it is interesting that we have been able to restore a moribund factory that was closed for over 15 years.We purchased the factory from the former owners, which include the Volkswagen of Nigeria, the AG of Germany, the Federal Government of Nigeria, and some Nigerians.On purchase of the company, we were expected to carry on the core business of the factory, which is car manufacturing business. But we then found out that all the machines had broken down as most of them were vandalised and many items left as scrap. So, we really had to start from point zero. The buildings were the only structures that were on ground, otherwise every other thing was not there. So the challenges, basically, derived from the fact that we had to, more or less, start from nothing; in some instance the situation was so bad and got a little more complicated by the fact that there were some facilities were no longer in place.For instance, you have electrical wirings, constituting very huge mass all over the place, which were moribund in such a way that it is better not having any wiring than to have miles of cables.We had to spend so much to put that back to shape. We had a situation where a cable from PHCN was totally uprooted and stolen by thieves. So, for over 10 years, that vandalisation was in place. We had to acquire new installations all the way from PHCN main station to the factory. And I tell you, within a week of installing this facilities the vandals came back and tried to use electric saw to cut down the cables. It cost us more than N105 million, in a place where we share the same neighbourhood with the military and other security agencies.What are some of the inputs you installed in the factory'We have trained some artisans, technicians ' who were ordinarily not knowledgeable in automobile business ' to become useful hands in the factory. Though we are training people, you don't expect that they would work easily in an auto plant the way they would have worked as roadside mechanics, which most of them were used to. So, as we develop along, we have a very strong training attached to our operations, which are meant to bring people to a level to produce quality products. Despite all the challenges, we have been able to put up modern facilities and equipment.Have you started producing at your assembly line'Our operations started effectively in nearly six months ago. If you came here six months ago, there was no factory in the real sense of the word. But we have been able to put the vehicle assembly in place as to enable us roll out our products. When some of our prospective clients started asking what we were trying to do, we said we were trying to make mass transit buses, which as at today are already plying Nigerian roads.In fact, half of BRT buses are the same model of what we assemble here. We undertook to bring in some vehicles to meet their immediate demands with the promise that we would continue to supply them from our assembly plant. So, as a marketing investment to ensure that they continue with the brand, we started working hard to see that we would supply and also provide them with spare parts and maintenance. If we had wasted more time, the clients would have got their request, perhaps, from China. We have started rolling out ours to make sure that we retain our presence in the market.But since going into full production, we have since found out that the buses that we have produced are even of better quality than what is imported.Is it true you use the factory as bonded warehouse for importers'The only way to answer that question is for anybody to take a tour round the factory, so as to know what the factory is being used for. I wouldn't want to go into unnecessary controversies. The issue of bonded warehouse and all that is diversionary. If you have enough capacity to have warehouse in your premises and there is no law that makes that an illegal activity, you are not violating any law. The point being made here is that we are a vehicle assembly plant; we are open to appropriate authorities to verify the fact that we have been keeping to the law of the land.Who are the current and real owners of VON as of today'What is known is that the Federal Government's share in Volkswagen of Nigeria was purchased by a consortium of firms made of two companies: The Nigerian and Foreign partners, which provided the technical partnership. It is on the basis of this that the bid was won. We've tried to avoid personalizing the ownership structure.When will Volkswagen cars roll out of the factory'At the moment, VON is a multi-brand company; having purchased the firm from the AG of Germany, we are at liberty to determine what brand to be in place. And in that wise, it is literally the companies you are able to meet their franchise that will determine what you produce. But we are also in discussion with Volkswagen of Germany, it will reach a point when the investment will be expanded to accommodate that. Volkswagen will still be a part of the place. As it is, the parent company of VON will still hold its franchise, but in the time being, we are assembling the Leyland brand, which we got from the main Leyland Group and we will be combining that with Hyundai Light commercial vehicles, later. And as we develop other facilities, we will migrate to other commercial vehicles.How much has it cost your firm to come so far in turning around the factory'Short of having an audited account of the journey so far, I can quantify the cost, off hand, as being at least at N2 billion in the last five months, that is not all, it is still on going. That is in the area of phase one of the projects. And in terms of the values of this investment, we are in a situation where everything we need is foreign-based.On other aspects, we are already having no fewer than 200 technical staff, not to mention more than other 200-related workers and contractors ' who are not our staff but who still depend on us for survival. A lot of our workforce is locally sourced though with value-added.
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