Nigeria's independent online newspaper
Nigerian Breweries Plc, Nigeria’s biggest brewer, recorded a strong first quarter raising hopes for a big recovery this year from a deep plunge the company recorded in 2020.
The strength of the upturn in the first quarter is rooted in improving sales revenue. Inability to grow sales revenue has ruled the company’s operations over the past three years. The company pushed up sales revenue a clear 27 percent year-on-year in the first quarter from just 4 percent increase in 2020. This represents a gain of N22.5 billion in sales revenue over the period.The challenge for the company remains the inability to contain rising cost of sales.
Reflecting the slowdown in cost of sales, there is a change of direction for NB from a drop in gross profit last year to an increase in the first quarter. First quarter trading closed with gross profit of roughly N40 billion, which is an increase of 13.7 percent year-on-year. Another major challenge that has remained for NB this year is rising cost of finance. An increasing trend in finance expenses recorded last year continued in the first quarter, growing by 13 percent to N3 billion at the end of the period.