COMPANY HISTORY & BACKGROUND
In response to call for private sector’s participation in the development of the manufacturing sector of the economy of Sierra Leone, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc took a bold decision to set-up a foam manufacturing plant in Sierra Leone where mattresses of varied resilience and hardness can be made available nationwide and to neighbouring countries. Vitafoam Sierra Leone Limited was incorporated in August 2008.
Vitafoam Sierra Leone commenced commercial trading in November 2010 with imported products from the parent company in Nigeria thereby introducing high quality products, widely accepted by all but less competitive due to very high cost of transporting light-weight foam products and lack of dedicated vessels to move products across West Africa. Shipped products from Nigeria usually sail through Europe before coming to Sierra Leone with a transit time of not less than five weeks.
In 2012, the Company embarked on Factory construction with funds from Vitafoam Nigeria Plc and International Finance Corporation (IFC). The investment was described as the first IFC’s post-conflict financing in manufacturing project in Sierra Leone since civil war ended in Sierra Leone a decade ago.
Vitafoam Sierra Leone Ltd commenced production operation in July 2014 with the introduction of mattresses of various grades and polyester fibre pillows from its state of the art factory at Old Waterloo Road, Hastings, Sierra Leone.
The goal is to redefine and set standard for foam business in Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries by producing and marketing the ideal foam products and educating the target market on health implications of using imported second-hand mattresses.
The company has established itself in Sierra Leone as a reliable, sleep solutions provider with distributors and trading outlets in all the major cities across the country.
Vitafoam’s admission under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) allows the company to export its products duty free to neighbouring countries. Export to Guinea started in 2016.
Vitafoam is a responsible corporate citizen and it adopts best practices in all its operations. The company’s policy is determined by a competent and dynamic Board, a mix of executive and non-executive directors who are experts in their respective fields.