Nigeria’s leading company listed under the food products sub-sector of the Consumer Goods sector on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) grew their revenue to N1.059 trillion in the first nine months of the year ended September 30, 2022.
The companies are BUA Foods Plc, Dangote Sugar Plc, NASCON Allied Industries Plc, Nestle Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc and Cadbury Nigeria Plc. According to the information contained in the nine months financial statements of these companies, the companies’ revenues rose by 30.39 per cent compared to the same period in 2021.
The revenue growth recorded by the companies is remarkable, considering economic disruptions in the global economy occasioned by the ripple effect on energy, power, and food cost, amongst others, caused by the Russia-Ukraine face-off, the inflationary pressure on the household wallets. weakening purchasing power, legacy structural constraints, lingering insecurity, and crippling trade facilitation issues.
BUA Foods posted revenue of N289.819 billion for the period under review from N241.078 billion in 2021, accounting for an increase of 20.22 per cent despite the rising cost of sales occasioned by inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war. Unilever Nigeria reported an 8.76 per cent growth in revenue for the first nine months of the year 2022 to N63.869 billion as against N58.723 billion in 2021, while Nestle Nigeria reported revenue of N333.472 billion during the period as against N261.591 billion representing a growth of 27.48 per cent.
Cadbury Nigeria leveraged high demands on consumer goods to gain a 41.57 per cent increase in revenue during the review period to N42.540 billion from N30.047 billion in 2021. Dangote Sugar Refinery sustained a positive trajectory, with 47.47 per cent growth in revenue to N288.321 billion compared to N195.500 billion a year ago, while NASCON posted revenue of N40.605 billion in Q3, 2022 from N24.948 billion in 2021, accounting for an increase of 62.76 per cent.
Speaking on the economy, chief executive officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr.Muda Yusuf, said the striking feature of the GDP Q3 report was the contraction of the manufacturing sector which shrunk by 1.91 per cent.
He noted that the development was a reflection of a major setback for the Nigerian manufacturing sector which calls for an emergency response by the government.
“This is the first quarterly contraction of the manufacturing sector since 2020 when the economy slipped into recession. Of greater concern was the slump in the food and beverage sector which contracted by 4.05 per cent. This is the first contraction of the sector since the recession of the second quarter of 2020.
“The food and beverage sector is the flagship of the Nigerian manufacturing sector. for several decades, it was the toast of investors in the stock market. The sector contributed N2.2 trillion to GDP in the third quarter of 2022,” he said.
Yusuf explained that the plunge in the manufacturing sector performance has profound implications for food inflation, food security, and employment adding that the food processing sector has the biggest impact on jobs because of the strong backward integration content and high multiplier effect in the agriculture value chain.
Speaking on the company’s performance, Group managing director, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Ravindra Singhvi attributed the positive results in the nine months to key trade interventions introduced during the year and positive market responses.
He said, “our impressive performance in the period demonstrates our resilience in the face of prevalent challenges, which rightly reflected in strong topline growth shown in the financial results.”
Speaking on the Q3 results, the managing director of BUA Foods, Engr. Ayodele Abioye said, “we continue to navigate the high input cost environment to deliver double digit growth within the period. We grew revenue by 20.2 per cent, profit before tax by 16.9 per cent and earnings per share by 17.2 per cent.”
He stated that “we are making progress with the recommencement of the rice business before year end 2022 to further diversify our revenue base. In addition, we are making progress with the backward integration plans for the sugar business and our capacity expansion plans for the flour, rice, and pasta divisions.”
