By Dipo Olowookere
Despite the increasingly difficult terrain and uncertainties, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc has continued to churn out a very strong performance as evident in its first-quarter results.
In the first three months of its current financial year, which ended on June 30, 2020, the flour miller increased its revenue to N154.6 billion from N134.8 billion in the same period of 2019, representing an improvement by 14.7 per cent.
The improvement in the turnover for the period was as a result of the continued contribution of its key business lines to the growth of the company like the food segment, (N91.0 billion versus N81.6 billion in Q1’19), Agro-Allied arm (N33.1 billion versus N25.6 billion in Q1 2019) and the sugar business (N27.0 billion versus N24.1 billion in Q1’19).
In the financial statements filed to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today, the company said its cost of sales rose to N129.0 billion from N118.3 billion, while the gross profits stood at N25.6 billion versus N16.5 billion in Q1 of 2019.
Business Post observed that while the selling and distribution costs remained flat at N2.0 billion over the comparative periods, the administrative expenses slightly increased to N4.9 billion from N4.6 billion, with the impairment loss on trade and intercompany receivables at N33.7 million as against N30.9 million in the first three months of last year.
Flour Mills said it had net operating losses of N7.6 billion as against the gains of N126.2 million in the same period of last year, while the operating profit slightly jumped to N11.0 billion from N9.9 billion.
In addition, there was a rise in the investment income to N328.9 million from N162.4 million, while the finance costs increased to N4.9 billion from N4.6 billion, leaving the company with a profit before tax of N6.5 billion in the period under consideration as against N5.5 billion in the same period of 2019.
For the post-tax profit, Flour Mills closed June 30, 2020, at N5.0 billion versus N4.2 billion as at June 30, 2019, while the earnings per share (EPS) improved to N1.07 from N1.03.
On the balance sheet, Flour Mills increased its total borrowings year-to-date to N133.9 billion from N104.0 billion as a result of a loan from the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the issuance of debt securities.
According to the management of the firm, it is optimistic that with continued efforts in sales and marketing activities geared at boosting its top line, while keeping the cost under control, it should be able to sustain the good performance for the remaining period.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka