As part of its commitment to encourage responsible drinking
in the country, Guinness Nigeria Plc. has joined hands with four leading
supermarket chains in Lagos to campaign against underage drinking. Guinness Nigeria
expressed this commitment at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with
the four supermarket chains in Lagos as part of the company’s official kick–off
of its Age Verification Programme. The supermarket chains are Addide Stores,
Just Rite Superstores, SPAR Artee Group and Grocery Bazaar Ltd.
According to the brewing giant, the campaign against
underage drinking was borne out of the company’s commitment to reduce access to
alcohol by underage people. In October 2012, Diageo, the parent company of
Guinness Nigeria, was one of the 13 leading global producers of wine, beer and
spirits that launched new commitments to reduce harmful drinking as a means of
supporting member states to implement the World Health Organization’s (WHO)
global strategy of reducing harmful use of alcohol. One of the commitments is
reducing underage drinking.
Speaking at the ceremony, Managing Director/CEO of Guinness
Nigeria Plc., Mr. Soren Lauridsen represented by the Corporate Relations
Director, Guinness Nigeria, Mr Sesan Sobowale, described underage drinking as a
global issue that required concerted efforts to tackle, adding that the company
is already taking proactive steps to combat its occurrence or spread of which
the Age Verification Programme is one.
“The Age Verification Program is to control the sale of
alcohol to minors or underage persons, that is, persons under 18 years of age.
Alcohol is strictly for adults and as we say in our company, children and
alcohol do not mix”, Mr. Sobowale said at the event.
He added: “We recognise that our efforts alone will not be
sufficient to achieve success. So we are enlisting partners such as you (the
supermarket chains) in this effort and would like to thank you for accepting to
partner with us. We have started taking the campaign to retail outlets (bars)
where alcohol is consumed and we are looking at expanding our reach in the near
future through the involvement of more partners at off-trade and at
point-of-consumption outlets. By working together, we can accomplish greater
scale and impact.”
He hoped the initiative would open up new horizons in the
campaign against misuse and abuse of alcohol in general and underage drinking
in particular.
Commenting on the Age Verification initiative, representatives
of the four supermarkets involved expressed satisfaction that Guinness Nigeria
is not only interested in selling its products and generating revenue at all
costs, but is also passionate about responsible drinking in the society.
According to the Head of Purchasing, Grocery Bazaar, Mr Joseph Isa, “The
initiative is a bold one, especially coming from a brewing giant who should
ordinarily be interested in selling its brands. I think Guinness Nigeria has
once again shown itself as a leader in the industry and other brewers should
follow suit.”
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