Despite growing inflationary pressures, the total sales of six listed food and beverage manufacturers in Nigeria increased by 73.4 percent in the first three months of 2024.
The News Chronicle’s examination of the most recent financial statements from NASCON Allied Industries Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, BUA Foods Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc, and NASCON Allied Industries Plc reveals that the companies’ combined revenue increased to N742.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023 from N428.3 billion.
Subsequent investigation shows that the Q1 increase of 73.4 percent was greater than the Q1 growth of 26.4 percent in 2023.
“Our top and bottom lines improved significantly as a result of a combination of volume and pricing changes. Aggregated sales have remained on an increasing track as our capacity expansion effort continues to produce significant gains,” said Ayodele Abioye, managing director of BUA Foods.
He noted that our first quarter results further demonstrated the tenacity of our business model and the vitality of our market approach, even in the face of heightened pressure on input and output costs and FX volatility.
“We broadened our range of products throughout the quarter to target new markets and satisfy consumer and customer demands,” Abioye stated.
The headline inflation rate in Nigeria increased for 16 consecutive months, from 33.20 percent in March to 33.69 percent in April, as per the latest consumer price index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
NBS claimed that food and non-alcoholic drinks were the main causes of the spike in headline inflation. Inflation on food also increased, reaching 40.53 percent as opposed to 40.01 percent.
Even though the six food producers saw income increases, three of them saw an improvement in their after-tax earnings, while the remaining three saw decreases due to the naira’s continued depreciation.
After-tax profit for BUA Foods increased to N55.82 billion from N40.47 billion, Unilever Nigeria registered a gain of N3.36 billion from N2.67 billion, while NASCON reported a decrease to N1.23 billion from N1.64 billion.
With a profit of N16.21 billion, Nestle Nigeria reported an after-tax loss of N142.7 billion; Dangote Sugar Refinery recorded an after-tax loss of N68.9 billion; and Cadbury reported an after-tax loss of N7.32 billion from a profit of N3.45 billion.
