Case Study
Nasser Bin Abdullatif Alserkal Est.
FAMILY BUSINESS OVERVIEW
The business established a factory near the village of Rouiba which inspired the brand name. The company specialized in the production of foodstuff and became enormously popular. Surviving years of economic and political instability, NCA-Rouiba has become one of the leading food processing companies in Algeria and neighboring countries. Until 2018, the company was under the leadership of the family’s second generation, and the first member of the third generation joined the same year.
By the Numbers
1928 – 1966
Founding Journey
Following Algerian independence in 1962, the new government began to rebuild the war-ravaged nation. Based on relationships the Othmani family had already established in the country, Salah Othmani was invited by the Algerian authorities to settle there and contribute to its development. Consequently, Salah Othmani and Mohamed Saïd established the Nouvelle Conserverie Algérienne (NCA: New Algerian Cannery) in Algiers on April 8, 1966. Driven by the Algerian authorities’ demand for canned food products, Salah Othmani and his father acquired a warehouse in the suburbs of Algiers near the village of Rouiba from a French family that was leaving the country. Soon enough they had transformed it into a modest food manufacturing plant by adding a number of small machines thereby establishing NCA’s first factory.
1967 – 1990s
Growth and consolidation
NCA’s growth was by no means a linear process due to Algeria’s volatile political and economic climate.
To begin, the years after 1966 proved beneficial for NCA’s growth as Algeria’s postwar market economy boomed which led the company’s sales and production to climb exponentially. Until the early 1970s, Algeria had a liberal open economy—a continuum of the economic system left by the French in 1962. However, in 1973, the government passed a law to nationalize all Algerian companies, which had a significant impact on all the sectors of the economy as few privately-owned companies escaped this process. While Salah Othmani and his father managed to partially avoid the nationalization of their business, the government still intervened in the distribution side by fixing the prices and limiting the delivery schedule of NCA’s goods.
The Business Family
In the 1990s, Salah Othmani’s son, Slim Othmani, returned to Algeria when the country was then on the threshold of a complex era: on one hand a brutal civil war was beginning; on the other the shock induced by the decline of oil and gas revenues was detrimental to the national economy.
NCA-ROUIBA
A BRAND EMBEDDED IN ALGERIAN CULTURE
“That is true that the Rouiba brand tells a story… This brand evokes a certain trust, a certain security. Like some local brands. There are some local brands (that are) fixed in people’s minds. You say: “Give me the water X”, for them this water is associated to a historical brand. (we are) part of these historical Algerian brands, despite the arrival of competitors. Competition can be good because it enables historical brands to adapt and improve.”
Zaher Messaoudi, Site Manager, NCA-Rouiba employee for 31 years.
Progression of NCA-Rouiba’s logo (1966 – 2019)
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