Cadbury Nigeria Plc cut down its full-year loss for the 2024 operations from N19 billion in the previous year to N10.4 billion, as the final quarter upturned from a huge loss of N17.4 billion to a net profit of N1.4 billion over the period.
The unaudited full-year financial report of the beverages and confectioneries manufacturers at the end of December 2024 shows that foreign exchange losses remain the loss leader.
The strength to reduce the loss for the year also reflects a drop in net foreign exchange losses from roughly N37 billion in the preceding full year to N15 billion at the end of 2024.
The company finished the year’s operations with quite an improved final quarter free from foreign exchange losses, which raises hopes for better fortunes for the current financial year.
The final quarter delivered close to N40 billion in sales revenue or 30.7 per cent of the full year’s turnover, an impressive growth of 87.4 per cent over the final quarter sales figure of N21 billion in 2023.
The relatively high cost of production remains the company’s headache, keeping margins below the break-even mark. At almost N37 billion, the cost of sales for the closing quarter consumed over 93 per cent of turnover and left a gross profit of N2.7 billion.
The gross profit figure managed to cover operating expenses and left a marginal operating profit of N157 million for the quarter. That is still a big leap from an operating loss of about N1.3 billion the company reported for the same quarter in the preceding year.
The strength of the profit delivery in the closing quarter came from net finance income of N1.9 billion, which sprang to a pre-tax profit of N2 billion and an after-tax profit of N1.4 billion. This is a turning point for Cadbury from a net finance cost of N16 billion for the final quarter in 2023.
The company’s yet-to-be-audited full-year position shows a turnover of N129 billion at the end of December 2024, which is an increase of N48.8 billion or 60.7 per cent for the year.
Cost of production grew at a faster pace than sales at 77 per cent to N111.7 billion and claimed all the increase in sales revenue during the year. That left gross profit flat at N17.5 billion, which was good enough to meet operating expenses and deliver an operating profit of N6.4 billion for the year.
With cost increases, the operating profit for the year is a drop from close to N8 billion in the previous year.
As in the preceding financial year, net finance cost easily gulped operating profit and left the bottom line in deep red.
At N21.3 billion net finance expenses dropped by about 41 per cent in the year, as net foreign exchange losses reduced though remained large.
Net foreign exchange losses went down from N36.9 billion at the end of 2023 to N15 billion at the end of 2024, which with other finance expenses, consumed the operating profit and left a pre-tax loss of nearly N15 billion for the year.
An income tax credit of N4.5 billion reduced the net loss position for Cadbury Nigeria to N10.4 billion at the end of the 2024 financial year. This is a drop from a loss of over N19 billion for the 2023 full year.
Cadbury Nigeria cut its borrowings from over N43 billion at the close of 2023 operations to N32.7 billion at the end of 2024 but interest expenses on borrowings multiplied from less than N1.4 billion to N6 billion over the year.
The company’s loss for the second year jerked up the retained deficit from N11.4 billion in 2023 to over N30 billion at the end of 2024 but fresh equity injection from the conversion of an inter-company loan into equity lifted up the equity base from negative N6.5 billion to positive N1.4 billion over the period.
The company lost N4.57 per share for shareholders in 2024, reducing from a loss of N10.16 per share in 2023.
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