May & Baker Nigeria Plc, the pharmaceuticals and beverage manufacturer, achieved a 25 percent year on year growth in its total revenue to N8.1 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the company has disclosed. Revenue for the same period last year stood at N6.4 billion.
From the nine months’ revenue generated, profit before taxation rose by as much as 30 percent to N1.3 billion, up from the N1 billion reported in the same period in 2020.
Patrick Ajah, managing director, May and Baker, explained that the significant growth recorded was as a result of measures put in place to scale growth for the year 2021, noting that the company made effective use of improved production capacity and increasingly efficient cost management to mitigate the tough operating environment.
According to him, “As mentioned by my predecessor last year, we have completed our state-of-the-art herbal/nutraceutical products facility within our pharmacentre. This facility will significantly increase our capacity in the manufacture and commercialization of our herbal medicine for the management of sickle cell anaemia; Niclovix. This is a product of research from the Nigerian Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), which we partnered with them to commercialize.
“More importantly, this facility will enable collaborations with other research institutes and professionals in Nigeria to have their products brought to the limelight as we still have enough capacity for possibly five more of these herbal products, with enough support for research and development as might be needed,” he said.
Also speaking on the challenges encountered by the company, Ajah said, “The challenges of the economy are daunting. From the increase in petroleum products prices, shortage of foreign exchange (forex), the consequential high exchange rates, and, of course, let’s not forget the lingering global social disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. This has significantly impacted every aspect of our operations. With huge increases in the cost of raw materials; some more than 100 percent, significant delays and high costs of shipment and even custom duties, a seemingly worsening security situation of the country that has made many locations inaccessible, managing business in Nigeria this year has been a herculean task.”
Projecting into the company’s outlook for the final quarter of 2021 and the coming year, Ajah expressed confidence that May and Baker would cross the N10 billion revenue mark for the first time and possibly achieve a profit before tax higher than they have done in recent times.
“We are optimistic to close the year with final figures not so far from the trends seen in the last three quarters. The preliminary figures at the end of November also point in that direction,” he said, stating that the business plan for 2022 points to the vision of bringing to bear some of the initiatives that would lay the foundation for the achievement of that vision.
