Edmund Onuzo, chairman, board of directors, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria plc, said the company achieved sustainable performance on its entire healthcare portfolio in 2019 despite challenges faced by manufacturers in the country last year.
Speaking at the 49thAnnual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos recently, Onuzo said the healthcare company delivered a good performance in 2019 with growth in sales, earnings and strong cash generation.
“GSK delivered a good performance in 2019 with growth in sales, earnings and strong cash generation. We also made excellent progress in our three long-term priorities: Innovation, performance and trust, strengthening our consumer healthcare portfolio, improving operational execution and reshaping the company,” he said.
GSK Nigeria declared a profit after tax (PAT) of N917 million, with shareholders receiving 55 kobo per share as dividend—a total of N657.7m for the year ended December 2019.
The company’s annual turnover increased from N18.41 billion in 2018 to N20.76 billion in 2019, representing a 13 percent growth while PAT rose from N617.62 million to N917.10 million, a 48.4 percent increase.
Onuzo further said that the task before the company in the new financial year was to drive its strategic objectives that would not only keep the business afloat but make its portfolio more efficient and profitable.
He explained that achieving these objectives might be challenging, most especially with the current realities of COVID-19, which had resulted in major shifts in the stock market and a global economic slowdown.
Onuzo further said that the company was currently at the forefront of global research aimed at discovering a vaccine or drug for the treatment of the coronavirus.
“At GSK, we remain hopeful that very soon, we will all return to our normal ways of living. To this end, we are more committed than ever before to our mandate of driving innovations that would enable people to do more, feel better and live longer,” he added.
Kunle Oyelana, managing director,GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria, expressed confidence in the economic outlook for 2020, expressing appreciation for the immense support from all stakeholders.
“We are pleased with the result for 2019, despite it being a very challenging year. We were able to deliver significant top-line and profit growth. These results are a testament of the incredible effort put in by the team and all our partners – internal and external. Although 2020 has began with a subdued economic outlook driven majorly by current pandemic, we remain confident of achieving our strategic objectives for the new year,” he said.
GSK Consumer Nigeria is one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.
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