Cadbury, a listed food and beverage maker on the Nigerian stock exchange, grew profit by 31 percent in the first nine months of the year, its biggest since 2018 despite revenue plunging in the period.
The food maker made N854 million profit in the first nine months, up from N648 million recorded in the same period last year.
The consumer goods firm saw revenue plunge 11 percent to N25.7 billion in 9M’20 compared to N28.9 billion in the same period of 2019.
Cost of sales was down by 10.8 percecadbuyrnt to N20.5 billion from N23 billion in the same period last year.
Despite the drop in cost of sales, gross profit dipped 9.7 percent to N5.28 billion compared to N5.85 billion in the first nine month of 2019, squeezed by the revenue plunge.
Cadbury’s share price closed 4.92 percent higher at N9.60, Wednesday.
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For the third quarter of 2020 (June to September), Cadbury turned the corner to post a profit of N377 million from a loss of N21.9 million in the third quarter of 2019 .
In the nine months period, Cadbury’s operating income surged 53.9 percent to N89.7 million from N58.4 million the previous year.
Net finance income plunged 24.9 percent to N85.3 million compared to N113.8 million in the same period last year as interest income on bank deposits declined.
The consumer goods firm saw its selling and distribution expenses decline by 13 percent to N3.29 billion in 9M’20 compared N3.78 billion in the same period last year
Administrative expenses also dropped to N935 million to N1.31 billion in the periods under review.
Income tax expense rose 32 percent to N366 million in 9M’20 from N277 million in the same period a year ago.
Earnings per share fell 22 percent to N35 per share from N45 per share in the same period last year.
In Q3’20, revenue grew 4 percent during the period to N9.8 billion from N9.4 billion the previous year.
Cost of sales was up 2.5 percent to N7.9 billion in Q3’20 from N7.7 billion in Q3’19.
This resulted in an 11 percent rise in gross profit to N1.9 billion in Q3’20 from N1.7 billion in the same period in the previous year.
Cadbury Nigeria Plc manufactures intermediate products, such as cocoa butter, liquor, cake and powder. The company also exports cocoa butter, cake and liquor to international customers, and cocoa powder locally.
