Dipo Olowookere
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Guinness Nigeria Plc has announced a hike in its revenue by 6 percent for the first quarter of its financial year ended 30 September 2016.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the company noted that this revenue increase was driven in part by contributions from its new mainstream and international premium spirits business as well as the continuing growth of its value brands.
The financial statements released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over the weekend also showed that the company had a Loss After Tax position of N2.2 billion in the period.
Managing Director/CEO of Guinness Nigeria, Mr Peter Ndegwa, said the revenue growth was in spite of continuing challenges in the operating environment.
“The environment remains tough but we have seen contributions from our mainstream and international premium spirits brands as well as continuing growth of Satzenbrau. These were the key drivers of the 6 percent revenue growth recorded for the quarter.
“Our cost of sales was impacted by the high inflationary environment and continuing currency devaluation leading to a reduction in operating profit. The higher finance cost in the quarter is due to the impact of unrealized foreign exchange losses as a result of the currency devaluation,” he was quoted to have said in the statement.
Mr Ndegwa said further that, “Going forward, innovation will continue to be a big part of our strategy us as we look to deepen our participation in the mainstream and value segments.”
“We will also continue to invest behind our brands with a key focus on building the right portfolio for future growth and re-shaping our organization to take advantage of what is likely to continue to be a challenging market in the short to medium term,” he added.
Citing long term commitment to the Nigerian market as a key driver, Guinness Nigeria recently announced a further GBP12M of investments into Nigeria as it plans to commission a new spirits manufacturing line in its Benin plant in the coming weeks.
This investment will give a big boost to the company’s ambition to source 75% of its production raw materials locally in the next two years. Additionally, at the beginning of October, Guinness Nigeria commissioned a new water project in a community in Benue State as part of its Water of Life programme, which in turn is one pillar within the company’s broader community investment agenda.
