PZ Cussons releases Q1 unaudited financial results  

Stanley says:

I am not surprised by the increasing losses incurred by this company. It was fairly obvious to me from the the Jan, 2019 statement by the mother company in the UK that PZ seems to be mis-reading the Nigerian market. Their poor performance in Nigeria is not so much due to economic stagnation as it is due to fierce competition across most of their previously brand strongholds. Imperial leather, premier and morning fresh which used to be household names have been struggling due to change in taste towards soap brands with better fragrance and fancier personality. The universality of the liquid soap technology has created many cheaper alternative brands. Also, their venture into the cooking oil space has not yielded the desired results due to stiff competition from so many other brands by both public and private companies especially over the last five years, hence making it more likely to sacrifice margin in order to sustain sales. I agree with the decision of the company to focus more on their strengths such as cussons baby, haier fridges, etc. But they need to be more innovative and market oriented and driven in order to continue to drive their leading brands, awaken weak brands and to know when the market craves for a complete overhaul of a product’s characteristics or personality or needs a new product entirely.