The consumer goods subsector is reeling under the pangs of harsh operating environment, just as the earnings of the sectors listed equities remained subdued with negative sentiments due to policy issues.
Also, the industry is grappling with rising production costs mainly due to inadequate or in some places non-existent power supply. Diesel costs are spiralling and coupled with the low level of power supply, are putting a financial burden on the sector. Accordingly, FMN net profit declined by N5.351 billion, Honeywell Flour profit after tax dropped by N2.637 billion, while NNFM posted a loss after tax of N169.659 million for the period under review.
For Honeywell Flour, revenue grew by 0.79 per cent to N55.08 billion from N54.65 billion achieved in 2017, while costs of sales also up by 8.65 per cent to N45.61 billion from N42 billion in 2017. “Despite the devastating effect of the traffic congestion in Apapa on our operations, we are quite positive that we will see improvements across major business segments before the close of the financial year, as we continue to focus on delivering on our promise of quality to our consumers.”
“Others are, high excise duties on some products, inadequate trade facilitation infrastructure, expensive price of natural gas, unfriendly port environment, multiplicity of taxes/levies/fees, exorbitant cost of haulage, congestion at the Lagos seaports arising from the non-functionality of other seaports in the country, high incidence of smuggling and counterfeiting of locally manufactured products, to mention but a few,” Omordion said.
Why would they,when the economy is down as never before.