By Dipo Olowookere
The appointment of Mrs Oyeyimika Adeboye as the first female managing director of Cadbury Nigeria Plc since its establishment in 1965 may be paying off at last.
This is because the leading beverages company, which has been struggling with poor performances, has returned to profitability; going by the financial statements of the firm released on Friday for the period ended June 30, 2019.
A brief look into the company’s books for the first half of this year showed that both the topline and bottomline of Cadbury Nigeria improved significantly.
For instance, the revenue generated in the period under review grew by 11 percent to N19.5 billion from N17.6 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
However, the cost of sales rose marginally by 4 percent to N15.3 billion from N14.7 billion, as well as the selling and distribution expenses, which jumped to N2.5 billion from N2.2 billion.
The administrative expenses moved up to N775.6 million in H1 2019 from N771.1 million, while the other income/expense increased to N49.7 million from N25.4 million.
The gross profit recorded by the firm improved to N4.1 billion from N2.8 billion, while the finance income reduced to N68.3 million from N73.1 million.
In the period under consideration, the company posted N888.8 million from results from operating activities against the N105.6 million loss achieved in the same period of 2018.
According to the financial statements, the profit before tax in H1 2019 was N957.1 million compared with the loss before tax of N423.8 million in H1 2018, indicating an improvement by 326 percent year-on-year.
Similarly, the firm closed 2019 half year with a profit after tax of N669.9 million in contrast to the loss after tax of N423.8 million in 2018 half year, amounting to 258 percent improvement.
Adedapo Adesanya