Honeywell Flour Mills repositions board, lifts expectation

Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (HFM), Nigeria’s leading manufacturer of flour and a range of flour-based products, has lifted the expectations of shareholders by re-positioning its board with the appointments of five new members.

The new members that will add value to the Fast Moving Consumable Goods giants are Zate Raymond Zoukpo (Ivorian), Wonuola  Adetayo, Alan Palmer (British),  Teddy Ngu (Cameroonian) and Andrew Smith-Maxwell (British).

In a news release to announce the development, the company stated that these appointments are in furtherance of the company’s vision to become one of Africa’s leading food companies, with a diverse portfolio of leading products and brands, preferred by its consumers.

The company is unrelenting in penetrating the Nigeria market, as it recently unveiled its multi billion naira world class flour mills in Lagos , built at a the cost of N10 billion. Also,  Honeywell’s automated warehouse, which has a capacity to hold about 100,000 bags of 50kg flour is the only one of its kind in Sub Saharan Africa.

It likewise has  wheat storage capacity of about 42,500 metric tonnes, with a monthly usage of about 40,000 metric tonnes. “The state-of-art facility has upgraded our production capacity by 63 percent.  HFM plan to build a 66-hectare Flour-gate Estate in Ogun State which will house new factories for the production flour and pasta”, the statement said. It further said the project is part of the company’s expansion strategy.

  For the first six months ended September 2014, the company’s profit after tax increased by 8.95 percent to N1.09 billion from N1 billion the same period of the corresponding year (Q3) 2013. Earnings per share EPS increased by 8.91 percent to 13.81K, as against 12.61K the preceding year.

Due to the volatility in exchange rate that  culminated in  upsurge in price of wheat at the international market and squeeze in consumer wallet, the company’s revenue dropped slightly by 3.51 percent to N26.87 billion, compared with N27.85 billion the preceding year.

Read also: Macroeconomic strain hit Honeywell Flour Mills as profits falter

“We are clear about our vision to become the most admired African foods company, operating across the food value chain from farm to fork,” said  Oba Otudeko, chairman of the board, while speaking on the appointments of the newly appointed board members.

“We believe that the natural resources in Nigeria, as well as the population base of the country, gives us a natural advantage for the achievement of our vision, he added.

According to the company’s statements, the appointment of these qualified, savvy and astute individuals, underscores the company’s commitment to corporate governance.

Analysts say the company has positioned itself to tap into  Nigeria’s rising population and burgeoning middle class that crave for consumption. “However, the unrest in the northern  part of the country hinders companies I the FMCG sector from pushing their products to the crisis region.”

Honeywell’s share price closed at N3 on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) while market capitalisation was N23.80 billion.

“We recognize the importance of having the right quality of people across all levels of the organisation, including on the board,  and therefore our new board members were appointed because of their collective wealth of diverse experience from some of Africa’s and the world’s leading organisations.  We believe that the unique blend of their knowledge, insight and independent perspective will be of immense benefit to the company.” said Otudeko.