Guinness Nigeria Plc released its 2015 Q1 results for the period ended September 30th 2015 showing pre-tax profits dropped a whopping 73% drop in pretax profits to N517 million. This was one of the worst first quarters in recent times. The CEO Peter Ndegwa issued a press release explaining why the results was this bad. See below;
“In the period under review, sales continued to grow despite a challenging trading environment, being 3% ahead of the same quarter last year. Despite the sales growth, gross profit declined by 12% versus the same period last year due to the impact of exchange rate devaluation, inflation, an increased share of value brands, together with the phasing of costs. Marketing, distribution, administrative and other expenses at N8bn were 2% ahead of the prior year. Reported operating profit at N1.4bn is 50% below the previous year but is significantly impacted by the phasing of costs which is expected to reverse during the rest of the year.”
Nairametrics will be publishing an analysis of this result on Monday and will as usual offer a fresh perspective and insight.