Menu

Guinness Nigeria said on Friday that its pre-tax profit for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 dropped by 83 percent year-on-year due to the slowdown in Nigeria’s economy.

The company said pre-tax profit fell to N1.2 billion in the nine months to March 2016 compared with N7.13 billion reported in a corresponding period of last year.

Revenues also declined 18 percent to N69.62 billion in the period under review compared with N84.75 billion recorded in a similar period of last year.

“Third quarter sales were impacted by a tough operating environment and the lapping of a very strong quarter in the previous year – particularly with distribution gains for the Orijin brand,” said Peter Ndegwa, Guinness Nigeria’s Managing Director/CEO. “The economic slowdown and rise in inflation continue to cause a shift towards lower margin value products. However, we are starting to make progress in the broadening of our portfolio and also seeing resilience in our core brands. We are also focused on driving efficiency throughout our operations to address the continuing pressure on margins.”

Guinness Nigeria is the second largest brewer in Nigeria (controlling about 25 percent market share) behind Heineken’s Nigerian Breweries, which controls about 70 percent market share.

The company’s stock price fell 1.84 percent to close at N98 per share on Friday. The stock is down 42 percent since the start of 2015, compared with 28 percent for the Nigerian All Share Index, according to Bloomberg.