Fan Milk International A/S

Fan Milk PLC was founded in 1963 by Danish merchant and industrialist Erik Emborg with a recombination-plant at Ibadan, a distribution centre in Lagos and less than 30 employees.

The plant produced fresh milk from imported milk powder. Initially, the product range was white milk, chocolate milk, cottage cheese and set yoghurt. The main outlet was bicycle vendors supplied with cold products from a growing number of smaller depots.

In 1970s Fan Milk introduced yoghurt drink, ice lollies, ice cream and new Tetra Pak packaging technology. The new products became very popular in the market and generated the financial strength to set up further depots and, in 1981, a second recombination plant in Kano.

At the outset, the foreign partner owned 96 per cent of Fan Milk Plc, When the government introduced The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree in the late 1970s, Fan Milk Plc increased its capital and invited more Nigerians to invest which created a 60 per cent Nigerian participation in the company.

During 1980s and 1990s, import restrictions, economic difficulties, devaluations and shortages of fuel weakened Fan Milk Plc. In 1998 the foreign partner and the Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries (Denmark) agreed to an infusion of capital which let the company restructure finances, refurbish cold rooms, increase the number of depots and recently introduced a new product FanDango, a fruit drink which became an instant success in the market.

The expansion and rehabilitation programme returned Fan Milk Plc to profitability. Today, Fan Milk Plc directly employs over 800 people, 2 distribution centres and 50 depots doing business with loyal bicycle vendors and agents.

As part of our continuous strive for excellence both in our product offerings and reach to our numerous customer across the length and breadth of the nation, Fan Milk Plc is in the process of introducing an improved distribution system which will see some of our depots converted to mini distribution centres (MDCs) and others turned to franchise outlets. The introduction of MDCs among other things will introduce a new product delivery system called Last Mile Distribution where our customers now have the benefit of having their products delivered to their shops after making the order either via our product order hotline or soon to be introduced customer portal for online product order. The MDCs also introduce the new payment methods aimed to go in line with cashless economy policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria. With this our customer can pay for their product using their ATM cards, bank transfer and other electronic money transfer.


Fan Milk Plc has sister companies in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire. The headquarters of the foreign partners, Fan Milk International are situated in Aalborg, Denmark.