Cadbury Nigeria Plc via the Nigerian Stock exchange recently declared a 73.5% year-to-year fall in earnings before tax to N408.1 million for the 2020 financial year.
The company also announced a dividend of 18 kobo; lower than the 49 kobo total dividend announced in 2019.
Cadbury’s revenue declined by 2.78% YoY to N35.41 billion amid disruption occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic which impacted the trade channel and the company’s domestic and export sales during the year.
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- Amid this disruption, domestic sales declined by a single digit 6.5% to N32.3 billion.
- The company’s export sales declined significantly by 36.24% to N3.1 billion.
Gross margin contracted by 4.51 ppts (percentage points) to 16.66%, which points to the escalation of input costs despite cost-containment measures to place profit on the path of sustainable growth.
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In line with this, Cadbury’s gross profit declined by 29.15% to N5.9 billion; lower than the N8.33 billion realised in 2019.
Despite all these, the company’s liquidity position improved this year driven by an 86.1% increase in net cash generated from operating activities, which rose sharply to N4.25 billion from N2.29 billion.
What you should know
The operation of Cadbury Nigeria Plc dates back to the 1950s when the business was founded to source cocoa beans from Nigeria.
Since then, the company has grown to become one of the leading players in the industry, providing consumers with many well-known and patronised brands.
- Mondelez International has a majority equity-interest of 74.97% in Cadbury Nigeria via its stakes in Cadbury Schweppes Overseas Limited (CSOL).
- The remaining 25.03% equity-ownership is held by a diverse group of Nigerian individuals and institutional shareholders.
- Cadbury’s market capitalization at today’s market open price of N8.25 is put at N15.5 billion.
