Behind the scenes in Ghana: Eliot takes you through the bamboo pulp factory

Eliot, manager of The Good Roll Factory in Akosombo, will take you on a tour of our factory.

‘’My morning always starts the same way at 7 a.m. I check if the boilers are at the right temperature. Not with power from the grid, but using biomass—bamboo waste from our own production process. Then I walk along the three lines. I look, I listen, I ask questions. Are the right teams scheduled? Do we have enough bamboo in stock for today's orders? Is everyone working safely? The daily stand-up at 8 a.m.

"It is not always easy"

I am Eliot. 27 years old. Manager of The Good Roll's bamboo pulp factory in Akosombo, Ghana. And I’m going to be honest with you: it’s not easy every day. Sometimes a truck gets stuck on a muddy road after a tropical downpour, and the bamboo supply grinds to a halt. We then have to switch gears lightning-fast and fix it: which line can we keep running, which teams do we reshuffle? Sometimes a boiler is harder to fire up than planned, or three things go wrong at once that are manageable individually but together demand the very best from your team. But then I stand by the press lines and see the pulp sheets coming out. Neatly pressed, ready for shipment to Europe. And then I know: we’re doing it. Every day a little bit better.

Impact in the Akosombo region

Our factory currently has 150 colleagues. Each of them supports an average of two family members. What is made here has consequences far beyond these walls. Sander and Melle gave me the opportunity to lead this team, and they are going even further. This year, we are starting the construction of the fourth production line. Next year, two more will be added. More lines mean more bamboo from our farmers, more jobs in the region, more pulp for sustainable toilet paper worldwide. Am I ready for it ?

Day by day, better than yesterday; that is my motto.