International Breweries Woes Deepen, Declares N4bn Loss

By Dipo Olowookere

The excise duty and situation in the country, which has affected the brewery sector in Nigeria, further had negative effect on International Breweries, plunging the brewery firm into another loss in the first quarter of 2019.

The company, which released its results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today, recorded a 78.04 percent year-on-year loss in Q1 2019 despite the 35.17 percent year-on-year growth in the revenue generated in the period under review.

A brief analysis of the results by Business Post showed that in Q1 2019, International Breweries closed with a loss after tax of N3.99 billion, higher than the loss after tax of N2.24 billion in Q1 2018. Also, the loss before tax in the period under review was N5.09 billion against loss before tax of N2.56 billion.

During the period under consideration, the company raked N35.10 billion as revenue, higher than N25.97 billion generated in the same period of 2018.

The company further said cost of sales gulped N22.61 billion in Q1 2019, more than N15.86 billion in Q1 2018, while administrative expenses went up to N4.70 billion from N4.10 billion, with finance cost taking the sum of N5.09 billion in Q1 2019 in contrast to N3.60 billion in Q1 2018.

In addition, marketing and promotion expenses took N7.66 billion from the purse of the company in the period under review compared with N4.68 billion spent for the same purpose in Q1 2018.

In the unaudited interim financial statements, International Breweries said its gross profit in the first three months of this year was N12.49 billion against N10.11 billion in the first three months of last year.

Under the other income, the company recorded N2.93 million compared with N15.41 million a year earlier, while the finance income was about N511,000, higher than about N308,000 in Q1 2018.

Business Post reports that last year, International Breweries commissioned a new factory in Sagamu, Ogun State. The plant was built to ensure the company boost its earnings and return it to profitability.

International Breweries, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev), a multinational drink and brewing holdings company based in Leuven, Belgium, faces stiff competition in Nigeria with other leading brewery companies like Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria and others.

View the full results HERE