Honeywell Flour Mills Plc disappointed equity investors following a record N925million loss after tax (LAT) the company reported in its recently released financials for the nine months period ended December 31, 2019.
The record loss when compared to profit after tax (PAT) of N143million in 2018 represents a decline of 747percent.
Despite that the unaudited results for the nine-month period shows revenue growth of 6percent from N55billion to N58.2billion when compared with the same period in 2018, it reported a loss before tax (LBT) of N878million against profit before tax (PBT) of N173million in 2018, which represents 608 percent decline.
The share price at N1.07percent as at close of trading on Thursday, January 30 represents 8.1percent increase in year 2020.
Amid this disappointing outing in the review nine months period, the company said it is confident that its performance in the coming quarter and the new financial year thereafter will record significant improvement.
Meanwhile, the company linked the growth in revenue to corresponding growth in sales volume by 5percent.
‘Lanre Jaiyeola, Managing Director commented: “Despite the challenging operating environment occasioned by rising input costs, reducing spending power of consumers and product evacuation challenges due to the traffic logjam at Apapa, the company grew its 9 months revenue by 6percent to N58.2billion, when compared to revenue of N55billion recorded in the corresponding period of the last financial year. This was driven by sales of our various Flour and Pasta products.
The Managing Director further said, “In line with our objective to continuously improve operational efficiency, the execution of well-embedded operational efficiency initiatives led to 9-month operating profit accelerating at a faster rate than revenue by 19percent from N2.8billion to N3.4billion. We will continue to improve our operational efficiency in order to maximize value to shareholders.”
“We have implemented strategies to maximize the shipment of products to our customers in spite of the Apapa traffic gridlock. We are also well-positioned to substantially increase our capacity utilisation of the Pasta production through continuous flow of input materials to the Pasta factory in Sagamu. We are also working on the introduction of new products tailored towards the preference of our most valued consumers in terms of satisfying their nutritional needs, taste and spending power”, it said in a statement following the released scorecards.
