billion. The profit figure represents 45 percent of the full year profit of N40 billion the company posted at the end of the 2021 financial year.
At an accelerated increase of 26 percent in turnover to over N110 billion in the first quarter, Nestle can hope for the strongest growth in sales in recent years this year. Sales revenue is gaining speed from the 22.6 percent improvement in 2021 to N352 billion.Profit margin climbed to 16.3 percent in the first quarter – the company’s best performance in six years. Last year, its profit margin went down from close to 14 percent in the preceding financial year to about 11 percent.
Further supporting the gain in profit margin and profit enhancement in the first quarter are cost savings from expense lines that hindered profit improvement in 2021. The change of position from net finance cost to income is the biggest positive move in cost-saving. In the preceding year, net finance expenses had jumped by 173 percent to over N12 billion to consume a significantly increased share of operating profit.
This compares to the preceding year when input cost rose ahead of sales revenue at 31 percent at the end of the year compared to 22.6 percent. Compared to the preceding year, cost of sales claimed a reduced proportion of turnover in the first quarter at 60.8 percent compared to 62.5 percent at the end of last year.