The management of Nigerian Breweries has for the third year in a row proposed a 100 per cent pay out of its profits as dividend to its shareholders.
This amounts to a total of N33 billion and N4.13 per share, a 100 percent earning on every 50k share held and the highest ever declared by the company to its shareholders.
The proposed dividend is inclusive of interim dividend of N8 billion, which is N1 per share earlier paid by the company in Nov. 2017.
The profit for the year declared by Nigerian Breweries grew by 16 per cent from N28.4 billion in 2016 to N33 billion while revenue grew by 10 per cent from N313 billion to N344 billion.
Speaking at the company’s Pre-AGM in Lagos on Wednesday, Jordi Borrut Bel, newly appointed MD/CEO of Nigerian Breweries, attributed the success story of 72 year old iconic brand to the strength of its personnel and the Nigerian people.
He said the critical challenge towards continuous performance improvement remains the capability and speed of response to changes in the business environment through people development.
Jordi noted that employee development is imperative for sustainable superior company performance.
According to statistics from the company’s books, Nigerian breweries has a workforce of around 4,000 with a value added per job of N27 million which is 65 times the GDP per Nigerian worker.
In addition to winning the brewery industry with its people, Nigerian breweries explained it’s long term sustainable goal of improving the environmental impacts of its operations, empowering it’s host communities and impacting positively on the role of beer in the society.
As a way of ensuring efficiency and positively impacting Nigerians,the brewing firm said it has reduced water consumption for production by 28 percent in the last ten years, source 100 percent of its packaging materials from Nigeria while 47 per cent of agricultural raw materials are now sourced within Nigeria. Franco Maggi, the marketing manager of the company, further noted that C02 emissions from production have dropped 7 per cent, while the company has 47 per cent less of non-recycled industrial waste compared to 2008.
The marketing strategy of the company evident in its rich portfolio of brands ensured that the unique needs of Nigerian Breweries customers were met.With over 19 brands, 40SKUs and notable foot prints spread across the major regions of Nigeria to ensure consumer proximity, the marketing manager of the company, Franco Maggi explained that “a portfolio as rich as ours made revenue grow in spite of a general reduction in consumer purchasing power”
Report courtesy Afolabi Adesola, a contributor to businessamlive.com
