In a bid to achieve long-term growth and profitability, Meyer plc has assured shareholders of its commitment to good corporate governance to drive sustainability and efficiency across the Company’s operations.
Addressing shareholders at the 50th Annual General Meeting of the Company, Managing Director, Rotimi Alashe said dividends were not paid in 2021 as a result of the decline in profit compared to 2020, a period when dividend payout amounted to about N700 million owing to the profit of disposal from the old building.
“There are also policies on dividend payment. Sometimes we don’t pay and the returns are plowed back to be able to build up the performance of the company so by the time we are declaring a dividend, we would have something huge to give. We are hoping that next year we should be able to pay dividends,” he added.
Alashe explained that the challenges faced by the company, which led to an increase in the cost of sales to N726 million from N469 million, were a result of the cost of input and purchasing power.
“We struggle with the issue of foreign exchange, as well as the cost of getting the materials. Locally, the purchasing power of customers is another challenge. With the higher cost of input, it is expected that our prices should increase but we can’t because most of the customers cannot buy the products,” Alashe added.
The paint company’s financial statement available on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), shows a breakdown of the cost of sales to which production of paints contributed the bulk to the sum of N713 million, vehicle application of paints amounted to N12 million in the year under review.
The Chairman, Kayode Falowo, said “raw materials have been a challenge in the industry, cost of sales have gone up, and we hope that when things get better in Nigeria and we have stability in the foreign exchange rate, that would positively affect how we are able to carry out our business and we will continue to ensure the quality of our products.”
On performance, the shareholders commended the management on the quality of the product which they concluded was “good and of international standard,” good corporate governance and management.
To this effect, the Managing Director assured the shareholders that a couple of initiatives are being put in place to ensure improvements going forward and that the company has been able to react and develop strategies to curtail the challenges being faced in the industry.
The building materials producer recorded a turnover of N1.1 billion for the financial year ended December 2021.
Meyer Plc is the Manufacturer and Marketer of high-quality Paints, including architectural paints, wood paints, auto refinishes, industrial and marine, road lining paints, Roof coatings, tube coatings, HP coatings, and adhesives.
