The CEO of GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, has attributed the success of the state-owned company to teamwork.

According to Mr Jumah, under his leadership, GIHOC does not discriminate against the staff.

He noted that every staff is important and treated with respect to the extent that one cannot differentiate between the MD and the labourer when a customer visits the facility.

Speaking on Anopa Dwabre Mu on CTV on Tuesday, 9 March 2021, Mr Jumah told show host Nana Yaw Adwenpa that every staff of GIHOC matters under his leadership.   

He said: “The success of GIHOC is not [due to] my wisdom but teamwork”.

“I follow sports and you see Maradonna and Messi winning the best player award but in Argentina, they cannot win the world cup because the Argentines don’t work as a team. But when they work as a team, they will be able to grow [and win the World Cup].

“So, the big secret is teamwork. When you enter GIHOC, you shouldn’t be able to tell who is the managing director and who is a labourer. We are all playing our role and everybody’s role is critical, so, we respect each other and value each other’s role to be too important, so, teamwork is the success story of GIHOC.”

Mr Jumah continued further: “A lot of our staff came in without any experience. The procurement officer had not done procurement before, the one doing marketing had no experience but through teamwork, we share ideas and it’s not because Maxwell Kofi Jumah is a genius, it’s because I’ve been able to put together a system where we work as a team and we respect each other.”

GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited was the first modern distillery to be established in West Africa. It was established by the pre-independence Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in 1958 as the State Distilleries Corporation for the manufacture of alcoholic beverages.

The company became a division of the then Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) in 1968.

In 1980, the distillery together with 15 other divisions of GIHOC was reregistered and incorporated as a Limited Liability Company and wholly-owned subsidiary of GIHOC, under Ghana’s Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179). 

Following the closure of GIHOC, and subsequently the repeal of the statute incorporating it in 1993, GIHOC Distilleries became and has since remained a limited liability company, wholly owned by the Government of Ghana.

GDCL has since then performed creditably and established itself as a commercially sustainable enterprise in the alcoholic beverage industry in Ghana. It has over the years perfected the art of distillation, refinery, blending and manufacture of various types of alcoholic beverages for the local market and beyond and is now recognised as a market leader.