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Odulate joins International Breweries’ board as non-executive director

Macro headwind holds back beer makers’ growth

The Board of International Breweries Plc has ratified the appointment of Olutoyin Odulate as independent non-executive director of the company.

This was disclosed in a release the beer maker filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday May, 14.

Odulate is a seasoned consumer goods expert with over 16 years of corporate experience in retail management & distribution, supply chain optimization, strategic development, operational planning, risk management and product development among others.

The consumer goods guru also sits in similar position on the Board of Lagos-based Afrinvest Securities, and has held past senior managerial role at MTN Nigeria, L’Oriel, Accenture and most recently Danone ELN, where she was the Regional Director Anglophone West Africa.

She is the founder of Olori Enterprises Limited, an African multi-brand cosmetic manufacturing start-up situated in Lagos. The firm was among the Companies to Inspire Africa 2019 report by the London Stock Exchange Group.

The beer maker is yet to file its 2018 earnings full year scorecards at the Lagos bourse. However, snapshot its financials for last year’s first-nine months revealed that company incurred N7.1 billion losses triggered by elevated finance cost. The company took N153.8 billion long-term loan within the period.

Finance cost, which indicates the cost, interest and other charges involved in the borrowing of money to fund business activities, soared some 61 percent year-on-year to N11.2 billion as at September, 2018.  A significant slice of this cost, which equates 87 percent or N9.8 billion, was expended on interest charges, and N1.4 billion on exchange loss.

Top-line of International Breweries grew 128 percent to N83.3 billion in the review period, but failed to keep pace with production cost which soared 170 percent to N54.6 billion, thereby weakening gross margin by 1000 basis points.

The beer maker was able to retain N35 from every hundred earned as revenue before settling indirect costs, tax expense compared with N45 a year before. Operating margin equally shed 8 percent points to 3 percent due to higher operational expenses. Marketing expenses and administrative expenses grew 29 percent and 173 percent respectively to N6.7 billion and N19.1 billion.

The core business model of the company encompasses brewing, packaging & marketing of beer, alcoholic flavoured/non-alcoholic beverages and soft drink. It was enlisted on the Lagos Exchange twenty-five years back.

 

Israel Odubola