By Dipo Olowookere
When in March 2019 Cadbury Nigeria Plc announced that Mrs Oyeyimika Adeboye will from April 1, 2019 become its first female Managing Director since its establishment over five decades ago, those who are very close to her knew it was the beginning of good things to come the way of the beverage company, which had before then been battling to remain highly competitive in the industry.
True to expectations, the assumption of Mrs Adeboye, who took over from her predecessor, Mr Amir Shamsi, has resulted into a turnaround of fortunes for Cadbury Nigeria, which has its headquarters in Lagos.
On Friday, the company released its financial statements for the full year ended December 31, 2019 and the numbers were very impressive, with double-digit growth in the bottom-line.
While some companies in the sector are raking losses due to the closure of Nigeria’s land borders since August 2019, Cadbury is recording gains, growing its revenue by 9 percent to N39.3 billion from N36.0 billion in the corresponding period of 2018, with the cost of sales rising to N31.0 billion from N28.0 billion over 2018.
This left the company with a gross profit of N8.3 billion versus N8.0 billion in the same time of 2018.
According to the results, the amount raked from other income improved to N87.1 million from N20.2 million 12 months earlier, while N185.3 million came into the company’s purse through finance income, higher than N116.8 million in the same time of 2018.
The firm further revealed that during the year under review, selling and distribution expenses gulped N5.2 billion compared with N4.7 billion in the 2018 fiscal year, while the sum of N1.8 billion was used on administrative expenses, higher than N1.6 billion in FY2018, while inpairment of receivables gulped N30.6 million, higher than N10.8 million in the same period of 2018.
At the close of business on December 31, 2019, result from operating activities stood at N1.4 billion, lower than N1.7 billion as at December 31, 2018.
An analysis of the bottom-line of the results by Business Post showed that the profit-before tax grew by 26 percent to N1.5 billion from N1.2 billion recorded in the 2018 financial year, while the profit after tax appreciated by 30 percent to N1.1 billion from N823.1 million.
On the balance sheet, the total assets of Cadbury Nigeria as at December 31, 2019 stood at N28.8 billion as against N27.5 billion as at December 31, 2018, while the total liabilities increased to N15.2 billion from N14.8 billion.
Cadbury Nigeria said it closed the year under consideration with retained earnings of N8.8 billion, higher than N8.0 billion of the previous year.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka