12 \ Feature \ January 2013
www.GatewayToAfrica.com
FEATURE:
West Africa’s love affair with “Geisha” brand by Yuko Takeo How the canned mackerel brand, “Geisha” became a household name in Ghana is one of the more unexpected consequences of entrepreneurship in the post-war period. The cans were initially exported to Europe and North America before the second world war by sales representatives from the Japanese trading firm, Kawasho Foods Corporation. At the time, the few recognised Japanese words were “Samurai, Fujiyama, Geisha”. Kawasho Foods representatives picked the still unused “Geisha” as their trademark logo, and the name stuck, eventually finding its way to West Africa by the 1950s. Goichi Fujita, a representative at Kawasho Foods’ Research and Development Group who supervised the export of “Geisha”s in West Africa for over 6 years, refers to those in the company who first expanded the canned goods business to the continent, saying “they would walk around West Africa with these cans in their backpacks, and just sell…The trade we have established today is a product of the efforts of those who came before us”. Shipping approximately 40 million cans of Geisha per annum to Africa today, according to Fujita, the Kawasho Foods Mackerel brand holds approximately 70 per cent of the mackerel shares in Nigeria, and 40-50 per cent in Ghana. Although the efforts of previous generations of entrepreneurs combined with local needs have given Kawasho Foods a high percentage of market share in the region, it is now no longer the sole purveyor of mackerels with rising production costs and new competitors. Additional problems with a recognised brand name and a high percentage of market share are repeated appearances of fake “Geisha”s. “In response”, Fujita said, “we would create posters to raise awareness of the difference between real
Geisha cans and fake Geisha cans…at times I would also accompany local police in order to arrest fake Geisha can makers”. One development Kawasho Foods is considering as a result of a rise in production costs is to move their production base, currently in China, to a more local site in Ghana. With the recent opening of their Accra office, Fujita says “engaging in BOP (bottom of pyramid) business is also of importance to us”. If several production bases are established according to plan, it could create up to 500 new jobs for locals. Looking back to earlier days in the immediate post war period, Fujita reflects, “it was back when $1 was ￥350, and production costs were cheap. The quality of the mackerels was high, there were no competitors, and protein was scarce – there was no reason it wouldn’t sell”. Now however, establishing an advantage in production costs over competitors has become more difficult, and Fujita feels the need for quicker responses on the ground for Japanese companies, especially with
added pressure from South Korean and Chinese businesses. In terms of success, however, he says “it’s important to treat the comments of local people carefully… because ways of thinking are different, what we [as Japanese] may consider ‘natural’ is not necessarily the same thing for Ghanaians… this has impact on business.”