Every time you sip from a bottle of cold soft drink or wine, do you ever wonder where the bottle comes from? Let’s agree this is something we seldom do. After all, the interest is in the drink itself and not the container. Moreover, it is easy to assume that drinks manufacturers also make their own bottles. But the truth is that there are companies whose preoccupation is all about manufacturing the bottles which contain the drinks you take. In Nigeria, one of them is Beta Glass Plc. Ironically, this company’s products are used daily by Nigerians, many of whom do not even know of its existence.
As is the tradition on Nairametrics’ weekly company focus, we will be letting you in on everything you need to know about this NSE-listed company. And just in case you already know about the company, then get to know more about its business model, its products and services, its ownership structure, board members, competitors, financial standing, investment opportunities and more.
A corporate overview of Beta Glass Plc: history, business model, share price, market cap
Incorporated on June 2nd, 1974, Beta Glass Plc is a Nigerian industrial goods company whose business model entails the production and merchandising of glassware. Specifically, the company produces glass bottles for wines, soda drinks, and hard liquor. It also makes glass containers that are used for the packaging of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products.
The company is headquartered in Lagos but has production plants in the Agbara industrial hub of Ogun State, as well as Ughelli which is located in the Southern Nigerian state of Delta.
According to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Beta Glass Plc has a market capitalisation of N34.1 billion. Its shares were listed on main board of the NSE on the 2nd of July 1986, exactly twelve years after its incorporation. Important to note is the fact that Beta Glass’ share price has been one of the best performing on the Nigerian bourse over the past five years, having risen from N19 in 2014 to N68 today. Now, how nice is that!
About the company’s ownership structure
Beta Glass Plc is a subsidiary of Frigoglass Industries Nigeria Limited, which holds a 61.9% stake in Beta. Frigoglass is itself a subsidiary of the Greek company, Frigoglass S.A.I.C, which is a major player in the global Ice Cold Merchandisers (ICM) market. Consequently, it is the Athens-based Frigoglass S.A.I.C that owns the controlling share in Nigeria’s Beta Glass Plc.
Other notable shareholders include:
- Frigoinvest Holdings B. V: 8.17%
- Stanbic IBTC Nominees Nigeria Limited: 7.91%
- Delta State Ministry of Finance Incorporated: 4.45%
The company’s target market
As stated earlier, the 44-year old company manufactures glass bottles and other containers for brewers, soft drink makers, pharmaceutical companies, and cosmetics manufacturers. Therefore, examples of companies that it targets include the likes of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries, SevenUp Bottling Company, and International Breweries.
Due to the fact that Beta Glass Plc manufactures an uncountable number of bottles, it also sells its industrial goods to breweries outside Nigeria, exporting mainly to West African countries. These include neighbouring Ghana, Cameroun, Benin Republic, Togo, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Others are Gambia, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Senegal, and Rwanda.
A look at the company’s board of directors
According to information contained in Beta Glass’ full-year 2017 financial report, there are currently nine members on the company’s board of directors. One of them is the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Darren Bennett-Voci. Mr Bennett-Voci became the company’s CEO in early 2016.
The Briton is said to have nearly twenty years of experience in the global glass container business. He joined Frigoglass Group in June 2012 as a Commercial Director of Glass and has since served several executive positions in the company. He is an alumnus of Collège d’Europe in Warsaw, where he bagged a Master’s in Advanced European Studies.
Other members of the company’s board include:
- Mr Abimbola Ogunbanjo
- Dr Zulikat Wuraola Abimbola
- Ms Olufunmilayo Adefope
- Chief Chris Avielele
- Haralambos (Harry) G David
- Nikolaos Mamoulis
- John Mastoroudes
- Oluwaseun Abimisola
The company’s competition
At the moment, Beta Glass Plc’s main competition stems from companies that are specialised in the manufacturing of pet bottles. This is because the beverage industry has over time, refocused its packaging strategy, with growing use of plastic bottles as against regular glass bottles. What this means is that Beta Glass Plc has to compete with pet bottle manufacturers such as Geeta Plastic Products Limited, Poly Products Nigeria Limited, and others. In the meantime, the company still competes with other smaller bottle makers such as Glass Force Limited.
A look at the company’s recent financial performance
Beta Glass Plc recently released its third quarter financial result which showed a considerable improvement, compared to an equally positive result recorded in Q3 2017. According to the unaudited result, revenue increased from N14.8 billion in Q3 2017 to N19.1 billion in Q3 2018. In the same vein, profit after tax for the 2018 third quarter period stood at N3.5 billion, compared to N2.2 billion during the same period last year.
Note that this company has consistently recorded impressive growth over the past five years. Revenue grew from N14 billion to N22 billion between 2013 and 2017, even as profit after tax grew from N1.4 billion to N4.1 billion during the same period.
In conclusion, it is expected that by the end of this year, Beta Glass Plc will outperform its 2017 financials. This is bearing in mind its performance so far this year. And what is even better is that fact that shareholders can be guaranteed of a dividend payment, seeing as the company has been consistent with that over the years.
With all the profit all they can pay their workers is 30k monthly. Too bad