The Journey of a Thousand Miles
Our History
THE BIRTH OF AN IDEA
Yemila as she was fondly called was our founder’s grandmother. She was a local processor of palm oil. Engr. C.A. Aladewolu popularly referred to as CE within the TECO group grew up watching his grandmother break her back in the very laborious process of local palm oil processing. From a young age, he knew there had to be a less labour intensive and more hygienic way to achieve the same result. After graduating from University in the early 70s having studied mechanical engineering, he went about researching better palm oil processing methods. A few years later in 1980, he came across Stork Amsterdam B.V., a dutch company that engineered, constructed and installed palm oil processing plants all over the world. A joint venture between the two parties was signed and TECO STORK Nig. Ltd was born
THE JOINT VENTURE
The two parties went all over Nigeria educating plantation owners on the health and financial benefits of mechanized palm oil milling. In 1991, a fully equipped factory for local fabrication of Palm Oil Mills was commissioned in Ondo State while the head office remained in Lagos. They sold many small community mills to the Federal government and mid sized mills to private processors. One of such mills is a 20ton per hour mill commissioned in 1983 and which is still running today, 40 years later. Coincidentally, that mill was run by a Stanford Seed Alumni until it was recently sold.
BUILDING ALONE
Before Stork Amsterdam B.V. sold out of the business in the mid 90s, they had transferred all knowledge, drawings and designs to TECO, allowing TECO to continue the business alone. Since then, TECO has successfully fabricated a number of palm oil mills locally and independently installed and commissioned them.
The journey ahead
Our Future
A BROADER AGRO-ALLIED SPECTRUM
Cassava, Cashew nuts, Corn, Cocoa, Ginger, Garlic, Rice, Soya, Sesame Seeds and Yam are only some of Nigeria’s natural agricultural produce. One thing they all have in common is the possibility of processing them into other forms for numerous uses.
The second thing they have in common is that all processors in Nigeria with mechanized processing plants import their processing machinery either from Europe or from Asia; majorly China. With the ever-volatile foreign exchange rate causing a depreciation of the Naira against world currencies, many processors are looking in-country for alternatives.