Mukono- At least 18 people have walked a way with various prizes in the African Queen’s Bic Stock & Win annual promotion at the office headquarters in Kiwanga-Namanve in Mukono district.
The promotion is a reward program that aims to thank their loyal wholesalers for their continued support to African Queen as well as Bic.
The prizes won include 1 car, 12 boxer Bajaj, 5 49 inch TV screens in addition to free BIC stock.
Richard Kule Mugenyi BIC’s Associate Sales Manager said that the promotion that was supposed to be held at the beginning of the year however, it was affected by the novel covid 19.
“We have an offer for our wholesalers every year encouraging them to stock our products and win prizes. Today one wholesaler has walked away with a car, 12 have walked away with motorcycles and 5 with flat screen TVs.” He said
To stand a chance to win the prizes one has to be a wholesaler for the company.
Edward Mbabazi a trader in Kikuubo who won the car says he was excited when he was called and told he was a lucky winner of a car in the promotion.
Mbabazi then noted that his business was greatly affected by the pandemic in the the country.
“When the first case of corona was registered in the country and a lockdown was enforced, his business was one of the affected as schools and businesses were closed.” He said
Mbabazi also noted that other companies have promotions but the procedures to win their prizes is very hard.
Yuda Museme another beneficiary from Iganga urged other youths to start their small businesses and not to despise jobs as they could bring go benefits in the future.
“With this motorcycle I intend to use it to bring in extra money from the boda boda business I will revamp my business that was affected by the Corona Virus and supplement my income.” He said
“People especially youths should not reject jobs for white color jobs, cause they may never come.” He added
Following the shutting of arcades and schools during the COVID-19 lockdown, many traders are still struggling to clear their outstanding rent arrears which has caused the company to return low sales for the year.
Moses Ssenkubuge Head of Supply Chain and Logistics said that covid came without warnings which affected the company.
“Due to the effects of the pandemic, We expected the government to be flexible with businesses but this is not the case.
Because of this disruption, our markets were closed especially our biggest market in Kikuubo who were closed for 5 months affecting our revenue.” He said
He said: “Our revenue ambitions for year has been hit by over 50% because we have lost 2 key trading periods for the year especially in terms of back to school like May and September back to school which are our key trading cycles in our business.”
“ When our clients came back to work they had to meet their rent arrears instead of clearing with us first.
Like other economies government should be more flexible with tax obligations taxes. They should have a more flexible payment plan for the business community.” He added
African Queen is Uganda’s leading distributer speacilazing in importing and distributing fast moving consumer good and BIC’s sole distributor in Uganda is announcing the winner of Bic stock and win promotion campaign in Uganda
aimed at bringing simplicity and joy to consumers.