Builders are not the only ones going crazy about the unprecedented discounts that Emilinks is offering on all its products. Homeowners, furnishing companies, and young entrepreneurs are extremely excited, too.
Take Omowale Omole, for instance. Until recently, he was an executive at an up and coming advertising agency in Lagos, but his dream of being an entrepreneur was fast-tracked by the Emilinks bonanza, which began in February 2016. On each door, wardrobe and kitchen furniture, Emilinks is slashing prices by as much as 65 percent. This is incredible, gushes 32-year-old Omole who thinks the promotion is a perfect investment opportunity for anyone who needs to grow a new business very fast.
“Even if I offer my doors at 20 percent below market rates, I’ll still make sensible profits,” Omole says.
This potential for incredible margins, perhaps, is why the phones have been ringing off the hook at the Emilinks head office in Lagos. Calls continue to pour in from buyers all over the country.
In what Emilinks is now calling its Name Your Price plan, it is selling its 900mm x 2.1m hand-finished wooden door for between N150,000 and N120,000. Ordinarily, this door retails for about N350,000.
The bestselling solid wood flush door that is used in thousands of new homes across the country is down from N110,000 to only N50,000, and the Economic Flush Door now sells for N30,000 instead of N60,000.
Also, Emilinks is slicing 50% off the price of its made-in-Italy fire-rated door, for a new price of N120,000.
The Emilinks Historic Armour Door was normally valued at N3m; now it is only N1m. This is remarkable because the Armour Door is made with galvanised steel and pure forest wood. Similarly, all security doors—non-corroding and non-rusting—that used to be sold at 370,000 per unit are now available at N150,000 each.
For good measure, Emilinks states in its announcement, every door comes complete with frames, lock, cylinder, handles, and keys.
Ultimately, the company will be giving away 1 billion naira in total discounts.
So far, they say they are happy that the programme has been making the expected impression on many people. “Our warehouses were fully stocked with the solid wood premium doors that we are known for and I am happy that Nigerians have been taking us up on the offer,” says Solomon Emeka Nwadiogbu, managing director of Emilinks. “Every day, I hear encouraging stories of how we have changed somebody’s life. For me, that’s what it’s all about.”
But why would a Nigerian company give away one billion naira at a time when the cost of doing business has continued to rise? “We’re not doing this despite these hard times,” says Nwadiogbu. “We’re actually doing it because of these hard times. Because our company operates in 82 countries, we can bring unprecedented savings to Nigerians at the most crucial time.”
Aside from that, he explains that the concept of this promo did not arrive overnight. “We had this plan long ago to make a difference in the country by creating high value products that people can buy at the lowest prices possible and incidentally, our plan came to maturity at this time when what Emilinks is offering is the best palliative for everyone trying to build their houses.”
It turns out that Emilinks can afford such drastic cuts in the price of its goods because it runs and end-to-end production system. From farms, which it owns in Europe, 35 to 50-year-old trees are harvested and trucked into plants where the company then processes the logs into choice doors, wardrobes, and kitchen cabinets that are not only in high demand in Nigeria but also highly regarded in Europe.
Nwadiogbu promises that as long as the company can keep making the doors, the discounts will keep coming.
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