The excise duty and situation in the country, which has affected the brewery sector in Nigeria, further had negative effect on International Breweries, plunging the brewery firm into another loss in the first quarter of 2019. The company, which released its results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today, recorded a 78.04% year-on-year loss in Q1 2019 despite the 35.17% year-on-year growth in the revenue generated in the period under review.

A brief analysis of the results by Business Post showed that in Q1 2019, International Breweries closed with a loss after tax of N3.99 billion, higher than the loss after tax of N2.24 billion in Q1 2018. Also, loss before tax in the period under review was N5.09 bn against previous loss before tax of N2.56 bn.

During the period under consideration, the company raked N35.10 bn as revenue, higher than N25.97 bn generated in same period of 2018. The company further said cost of sales gulped N22.61 bn in Q1 2019, more than N15.86 bn in Q1 2018, while admin expenses went up to N4.70 bn from N4.10 bn, with finance cost taking the sum of N5.09 bn in Q1 2019, in contrast to N3.60 bn in Q1 2018.

In addition, marketing and promotion expenses took N7.66 bn from the purse of the company in the period under review compared with N4.68 bn spent for same purpose in Q1 2018. In the unaudited interim financial statements, International Breweries said its gross profit in the first three months of this year was N12.49 bn against N10.11 bn in the first three months of last year. Under other income, the company recorded N2.93 million compared with N15.41 million a year earlier, while the finance income was about N511,000, higher than about N308,000 in Q1 2018.

Business Post reports that last year, International Breweries commissioned a new factory in Sagamu, Ogun State. The plant was built to ensure the company boosts its earnings and returns to profitability.

International Breweries, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev), a multinational drink and brewing holdings company based in Leuven, Belgium, faces stiff competition in Nigeria with other leading brewing companies like Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria and others.

SOURCE: https://businesspost.ng/2019/07/02/international-breweries-woes-deepen-declares-n4bn-loss/amp/