Flour Mills Promises Operational Efficiency for Profitability

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Group Managing Director of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Mr Paul Gbededo, has assured shareholders of the company that his team will continue to work harder to deliver value for their investments.

Mr Gbededo gave this assurance while reacting to the company’s performance in the full year, which ended on March 31, 2020.

According to him, the management hopes to further implement the cost-reduction strategy, which has delivered positive results so far.

“We will remain focused on increasing operational efficiency within the group as we continue to implement our accelerated cost optimisation plans across all businesses to ensure profitability in the new operating environment,” he said.

The Flour Mills chief described the 2019/20 financial year as remarkable, saying he was pleased with the significant growth in the pre and post-tax profits. While the profit before tax rose to N17.5 billion, the net profit jumped to N11.4 billion from N4.0 billion.

“This is partly attributable to the improved performance of our agro-allied business and in line with our strategy to continue to grow the wealth of our shareholders,” Mr Gbededo added.

In the financial year under review, Flour Mills increased its revenue by 9 per cent to N574 billion from N527 billion. This was despite the prevailing economic headwinds and the difficult operating terrain of Apapa, Lagos.

In line with the management’s strategy to continue to stimulate organic growth in all segments of the business, its agro-allied division achieved profitability behind the consistent and focused investments that have been made in this locally sourced segment of the last few years.

The agro-allied segment saw a strong profit growth in oils/fats and proteins with gross profits more than doubling in both segments on an annual basis.

The food business recorded accelerated growths within the business-to-consumer (B2C) segments in line with projections as the company’s focus to improve customer experience saw the introduction of a range of new products and its strategic marketing and promotional activities to win over new market segments yield the desired result.