Services
The Saranabu S.A. Group: 25 Years in Business
Saranabu Sa Group celebrated 25 years in business in 2008. -Established in 1983 by Ramses R. Najem and Alexander Najem in Cotonou, Benin with a management philosophy based on three pillars:
- Continuous improvement
- Radical innovation
- Discipline and brave strategy in the face of adversity.
Saranabu Sa is a Lebanese family-based business in West Africa with five generations of experience. We have experience in the fields of trading, industry, investment with business relationships, with government, and socio-economic partners spanning across the many countries of the West African Sub Region. With 15 years of experience in the Oils and Fats trade, Saranabu Sa works relentlessly to provide innovative and cost effective solutions to its customers in a region where businesses face precarious challenges in the financial, logistic, and economic laws and regulations that are accompaniments to normal business troubles the rest of the world wakes up to daily.
At the core of Saranabu Sa is the desire to provide better service for its clients and to supply them with reduced prices on packaged products. To this end, the company plans to set up its own filling and packaging plant next year in the Duty Free Zone of Benin to compete with imported packaged oils.
We also plan to further expand to other West African countries in the next 3 years by incorporating a strong portion of its Crude Oil sourcing from neighboring West African countries including Nigeria, Niger, Togo, and Ghana thanks to its established relationships with these countries over the years.
The group has also recently initiated work on an 18,000 Mt Storage Tank Facility to further enhance its Bulk Oil operations and to serve as a central point of distribution to other countries in the sub region.
Twenty five years later, Saranabu Sa has become the largest importer of Bulk Vegetable Oil in the West African sub region with customers across many countries in West And Central Africa. Saranabu has earned its reputation as reliable suppliers to both industries and merchants. By nature, oils and fats are always base products in a range of products and goods used on a regular basis. Thus, it is highly critical to outsource or leave this import to a reliable supplier who can provide the quality, service, logistics, finance, and expertise.
At Saranabu our primary and utmost objective is to reduce cost and increase your profits because we can only make money if you do too. To this end, first we source and purchase the right quality product at the right international price. Secondly, we finance this import and ensure it is delivered to us on time with the necessary quality specifications and the right international documentation. Finally, we store the product, transport and clear the goods through the required Customs and other Government agencies within the specified time at the correct price.
“We are able to compete with imported packaged oils because of our speed to market and diversity of product line” says Ramses R. Najem, one of the directors of the group. To achieve our business goals, we equip ourselves with a number of infrastructures including Tank Farm Depots for receiving and storing edible oils (this allows us to offload the bulk tanker vessels that come into port by pumping directly into the tank farm), our own transport tanker to move the cargo as local trucks are unavailable or unreliable, and finally our own power and water. Electricity and water are supplied intermittently in the region. We also have to maintain inventory as a backup to supplies is required in case of delays.
With more than thirty five full-time employees and a strong regional presence through its established trading partners over twenty five years, the Saranabu Group is the largest importer of bulk vegetable oil and other products such as shortening (bakery fat), stearine, margarine, PFAD (Palm Fatty Acid), and soap noodles.