Lucky Fibres Plc / Nobel Carpets

Background
Lucky Fibres Plc (Lucky Fibres) is a member of Tolaram Group of Companies, an international group with diversified activities ranging from its core business of manufacturing of consumer products and textiles to the trading of various end products, financial services and real estate business.

Lucky Fibres was incorporated as a Private Limited Company in 1986. It started its manufacturing activities in 1990 as a producer and supplier of Polypropylene yarn, to carpet manufacturers in Nigeria. Lucky Fibres stepped into carpet manufacturing with installations of woven carpet machines in 1996 and tufted carpet machines in 1999. Over the years, Lucky Fibres has augmented its production capacities to 1.2 million sq meters of carpet per month. This has helped Lucky Fibres to become a dominant player in the carpet industry of the country (with an estimated market share of 70%). The Company is presently engaged in manufacturing of bulk continuous filament yarn (PP yarn), tufted carpets and printed carpets. The company has recently commissioned a state of the art factory for producing printed carpets and rugs. All facilities of the company are located in its sprawling factory compound at Ikorodu, Lagos. In 2008, Lucky Fibres converted into a public limited company in its pursuit to tap capital markets.

Lucky Fibres sells it’s products under the brand name of ‘Nobel Carpets & Rugs’ with the mission of beautifying the homes and offices of its customers and bringing joy to their lives.

Technology
The greatest competitive strength of Lucky Fibres comes from its continuous investment in state of the art technology.

Yarn Division
The Company has state-of-art Plant & Machinery from world renowned manufacturers in Europe and other parts of the world. The Bulk Continuous Filament (BCF) Yarn plant was installed in 1990 with a capacity of 150 MT/month. This was supplied by Barmag, Germany a member of Saurer Group.

In the year 2004, the company installed state-of-art Yarn Plant of 200 MT/month capacities from Neumag, Germany - a member of Saurer Group. This yarn plant was the first to be installed in West Africa involving an investment of N 550 million to produce mono color and tricolor yarns of international quality standards.

Tufted Carpet Division
The company has 9 carpet tufting machines with an aggregate capacity to tuft 1,200,000 square metres/month. The nine machines comprises of 5 cutpile machines and 4 looppile machines.





Printed Carpet Division
The company undertook massive expansion program in 2007-08 with a cash outlay of N 1.5 billion. The company constructed a new factory shed for housing two new machines. Lucky Fibres is the first company in Sub Saharan Africa to commission a printed carpet machine. The machine commenced commercial production in March 2008. The printing machine was purchased from Zimmer of Austria, who are a monopoly supplier of printed carpet technology in the world. The printing machine is digitally controlled which enables reproduction of any design which can be conceived by human mind. This enables Lucky Fibres to provide its customers a variety of designs ranging from floral to natural scenery, company logos, etc.


Product profile
Lucky Fibres is in the business of providing beauty, comfort and elegance to the homes and offices of its consumers. In order to achieve that objective, it produces a range of soft floor coverings:

Tufted carpets: These are wall to wall carpets which are produced through the process of tufting the yarn on the synthetic backing. Tufting is a mechanical process which involves creation of geometrical designs using different colored yarns. Majority of the products available in the Nigerian market are tufted carpets made from PP yarn.

Printed carpets: Printed carpets are wall to wall carpets which are produced through the chemical process of printing digitally created designs on white tufted carpets. Printed carpets are primarily made from nylon yarns.

Woven carpets: Woven carpets are produced through weaving, which differs from the tufting in the way the yarn is tied on the backing. Weving allows for creation of non geometrical floral and oriental designs. Lucky Fibres ventured into carpet production by putting two woven carpet machines in 1996. However, the same were discoutinued in 1999 due to obsolescence of machines and introduction of tufted carpets. The company intends to re-introduce woven carpets in Nigeria by putting up two state of art weaving machines by 2009.

Rugs: Rug refers to smaller size soft floor coverings which enable the users to beautify a part of their floor area. Rugs can be produced under any of the above mentioned product category. Although rugs can be produced in any dimension the most commonly available rug sizes are 1.7 mts x 2.4 mts and 2.0 mts x 3.0 mts.

Sales & Distribution
The company has about 210 dealers (dealer network) all over the country and 4 regional offices in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt. Dealer networks comprise of both exclusive and non exclusive dealers. The dealers provide the outlets for sale of Lucky Fibres’ carpets. From each of these dealers, the carpet reach the final consumers through numerous sub dealers or contractors.

Lucky Fibres has 4 showrooms across Nigeria. These showroom helps the company to showcase its product range to its customers. Lucky Fibres also operates a Contract Division which is responsible for direct sale to high end corporate and institutional clients. This anvenue allows the company to have a more direct and personal approach to consumers by customizing products to suit their needs.

In an effort to expand the product category, Lucky Fibres plans to establish additional 7 world class showrooms across the country. It has also partnered with 25 of its key dealers to convert their shops into exclusive showrooms.

Lucky Fibres runs two warehouses which controls the logistics for its entire operations; these warehouses are located at Ikorodu, Lagos and Kano (North Nigeria). The company has 4 regional sales offices at Kano (North Region), Abuja (Central Region), Lagos (South West Region) and Portharcourt (East Region).

Competitive advantage of Lucky Fibres

Quality
Focus on ‘Quality’ has been the most important differentiator between Lucky Fibres others in the Nigerian carpet industry. Lucky Fibre is an example of product excellence achieved through timely investment in right technology and continuous up gradation of its highly skilled human resources. The company has a strong quality assurance team which acts as custodians of quality of product leaving the factory premises.

ISO 9001 Certification:
In the year 1997, it had the distinction of being granted coveted ISO 9001:1994 certification for its Nobel Carpets & Rugs from the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON). The Company has made substantial investments to upgrade its procedures and quality systems to comply and exceed the international standards. The quality systems have since been upgraded to ISO-9001:2000 standards. All products are NIS (Nigerian Industrial Standards) certified making it the first carpet manufacturers in Nigeria to receive such accolade or distinction.


Environment Friendly
The Company has demonstrated a very high level of environmental commitment. Its premises housing the manufacturing facilities has been beautifully landscaped, well drained and decorated with the greenery all around it. The process of manufacturing is also environmental friendly and does not involve any kind of wastes.

Lucky Fibres is committed to environmentally sound and sustainable business practices, taking into consideration compliance with relevant National, State, Local laws and regulations. It has given highest priority to the health and safety of employees, customers and other associates and ensures conducive and beautiful environment.

The company’s factory situated at Ikorodu is environment friendly and was adjudged the “Best Kept Industrial Premise” in 2007 by Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.

Lucky Fibres was the first company to introduce flame retardant carpets in the country. Keeping this in mind, Nigerian Institute of Architects conferred the ward of Best Environment Friendly Product in the year 2006 at the Archibuilt 2006.

Recently, the company has embarked upon ISO 14001 certification programs for environment management system demonstrating its commitment to the environment it operates.

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