By Theodore Opara

THE Founder of Elizade Nigeria Limited, Chief Michael Ade Ojo has described the new automobile brand addition to the Elizade Group, the JAC brand, as “the diamond in the rough today that Toyota was over 40 years ago.”

Chief Ade Ojo who was speaking recently at the official launch and opening of the multi-million naira head office of the JAC brand in Lagos, said that history was about to repeat itself this time around through JAC brand. Comparing JAC to Toyota brand, when he took and nurtured the Japanese brand in the ’70s, Chief Ade-Ojo said: “Toyota, you can say, was like a diamond in the rough back in the 70’s. But today, everybody know that the rough is totally removed and the diamond is now etched in perfection.”

Continuing, he said, JAC reminded him of how Toyota started long ago, making cars that were affordable and cheaper than the rest, but without sacrificing good performance.

The Elizade boss, who used the opportunity to tell his success story with Toyota, said that he would work together with JAC to remove the rough and etch the diamond until it is perfected and the brilliance is there for all to see to the satisfaction of the customers.

Promising to bring the reputation he had built for Elizade brand to bear on the JAC brand, Chief Ade-Ojo explained that his company has in the last two years, carefully evaluated the JAC brand.

He said: “With such a solid reputation in the market, the last thing that I would do is to disappoint my customers who have come to rely on us and trust that we would offer them nothing but good vehicles and a reliable service that can keep them happy and contented.”

With this in mind, the founder said: “We examined the performance, ruggedness and durability of these vehicles for two years because we wanted to satisfy our conscience that the brand can indeed perform up to the level of expectation of what our customers know us for.” He explained that their customer have such level of confidence in them to the extent that if a customer should buy even bread from Elizade, he would believe that they were buying something of superior value not to talk of buying another brand of car from them since this is what had earned them such a strong reputation in the first place.

To this end, he noted that the introducing JAC into the Nigerian market, therefore, was a very serious matter that warranted them to do everything possible to satisfy their customers.

He therefore noted that he was looking forward to the day the JAC brand will be ranked at the top alongside with brands like Toyota.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Managing Director of Elizade Nigeria Limited, Mr. Demola Ade-Ojo disclosed that the company had invested two million dollars in the brand and intends to further develop more facilities across the country with the aim of positioning the brand in the Nigeria market.

Reiterating the founders remark about the JAC brand, Mr. Ade Ojo said that the company introduced the JAC brand to provide the most cost effective solution to the auto needs of their numerous customers. Mr. Ade-Ojo noted that the reason behind the delay in launching the JAC brand into the Nigerian market was that they wanted to be sure of the quality of the product before unveiling it to Nigerians.

“We needed to be absolutely convinced that the JAC vehicle brand will not be a disappointment to Nigerians willing to use it for their everyday vehicular needs,” he said.