In this guide, I will show you how to start toilet roll or toilet paper production business in Nigeria. Here you will find the raw maetrials and production procedure as well as marketing strategies.
Making use of toilet roll or toilet paper is increasing by the wide population who put it to various uses.Production is still largely not meeting up with the demand,as more foreign brands still abound in the Nigerian economy.
Some of the uses of toilet includes for personal or individual uses,for social purposes like parties and celebrations amd various functions, for commercial purposes like restaurants, bars, etc where customers make use of toilet papers that come in different sizes, colours, designs and at different prices.
A toilet roll of small size costs around N60 while bigger sizes and shapes go for more expensive rates.A lot of high class hotels in the country today patronise more of the foreign brands,rather than the local ones since they cant introduce such things as strong sweet fragrance, exquisite packaging and the likes and there is a dearth of toilet roll manufacturers in the land. Making toilet roll today is relatively easy and the raw materials needed for it is relatively available and accessible by anyone who intends to go into this venture.
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How to Start Toilet Roll or Toilet Paper Production Business in Nigeria
The toilet paper we use today is usually made from trees,especially the hemp plant. A combination of softwood and hardwood to the proportion of 30% for the former and 70% for the latter. Other materials to be used includes water ,chemicals and bleaches.Toilet paper can be manufactured in two ways:
(1) from chipped wood
(2) from recycled paper
-The chipped wood: To be able to manufacture toilet rolls through the chips from wood,the followinh steps will be followed:
(A) Prepare the tree by stripping the combination of softwood and hardwood of their barks.
(B) A debarking machine should be carefully used so that much wood will be retained.This process can be commonly found done at all sawmills in every nook and cranny all over the nation.The machine will remove the bark covering leaving you with the log for further processing.
(C) Wood chips will then be made and put into batches for onward processing.
(D) The wood chips will be put into a large pressure cooker with other chemicals for around four hours. The wood moisture will evaporate during this process,and it becomes reduced to cellulose fibers,lignin and other materials.The resultant effect is what is called pulp.
(E) The pulp will be washed clean of the lignin and other chemicals mixed with it.
(F) The washed pulp will be bleached,till all foreign colours are totally removed.The lignin must be completely removed or the paper will change colours over time.
(G) A lot of water is mixed with the washed pulp to produce paper stock in the proportion 99.5% water and 0.5% fiber.After this,the stock will be sprayed onto a mesh that will drain the water.
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(H) The paper will be pressed and dried to final moisture.
(I) Finally,the paper will be scrapped off with metal blades and wound unto ready made rolls . After this,the paper will be moved to the machines that will cut it into long strips and perforate it into squares.
The paper will then be cut into rolls and wrapped with nylons or whatever desired packaging methods of the producer.
– The recycled paper method: here,the imdividual will need to gather recycled paper together.After this is done,they will be mixed,washed and de-inked.we then pulverize the mixture and reform it into very thin and soft paper.
During the recycling ,things like oxygen, ozone, peroxide or sodium period should be used to whiten the paper.At the end of the process,toilet paper is already formed which is then perforated,scented,embossed and coloured to desired specification. It is thereafter packaged into wrapped packages.
It can thus be seen that the major materials needed for toilet roll production in Nigeria are trees,access to water,chemicals for fiber extraction and bleaches like chlorine dioxide.
We can also see from the analysis above that the recycled paper to produce toilet rolls in Nigeria is far easier than using the chipped wood.Let us further access some of the bottlenecks anyone who intends to manufacture toilet roll might face using the 2 methods as well as facing them generally,then go on to profer solutions as appropriate.
For the individual who intends to use chipped wood from trees,some of the pitfalls will be accessing where to get trees that will be cut,getting acces to machines that will debark the trees which is quite expensive,constant electricity to power these machines.
This can be easily solved by working an arrangement with a sawmill for your sourced trees to be transported first to them,they will help you debark the trees,ans make them into smaller chips but for a fee between the producer and the sawmill equipment owner.The chips made can be transported to the factory for onward use.
The pitfall that can be faced by anyone who intends to use the recycled papers to make toilet rolls is getting huge recycled papers.This is solvable by going to meet organisations who use tonnes of this,having an arrangement with them whereby it will be kept in some store or at some pick up location on a continuous basis.
The general challenge posed by both methods includes not being able to meet up customer demands,customer order and non introduction of innovations into the production. To solve this, we can see that anyone who intends to produce toilet rolls in Nigeria must have some small funds to get the equipment needed,as well as the raw materials and employ a minimum of about 5 people to start the venture.
In addition to this,anyone who intends to embark on this venture should register with their local banks,,or better still the bank of Industry.Reason for this is not far fetched,once orders increases,producers can access funds to be able to expand,meet up and grow continuously.some other innovations such as introducing fragrances into the toilet rolls is one of the attractions largely underutilised by the few local makers of toilet roll in Nigeria.
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Making toilet roll is very profitable both in the medium and long term because more and more people are making use of it and continually put it to a wide range of uses.Once a lot more local producers in the country increases,demand for foreign toilet rolls will decrease until they are driven completely out of the economy.
That is a welcome development in the reality of the Nigerian economy today which requires producing more local goods.
Finally,any individual who decides to embark on this venture will find it rewarding,but interest in this line of business is what is paramount.Only then will fulfillment come while producing toilet roll in Nigeria