The management of food, household and personal care products manufacturing and marketing giant- Unilever Nigeria on Thursday presented its financials for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 with profit before and after tax rising faster than sales revenue.
Revenue for the period increased by 16.44% from N22.172bn in the 2017Q1 to N25.817bn; with cost of sales growing by 17.62% to N18.676bn from the previous N15.879bn; just as gross profit therefore increased from N6.293bn to N7.141bn, representing a growth of 17.62%.
Selling and distribution expenses increased by 21.85% to N1.153bn from N947.04m; marketing and distribution expenses increased b 5.27% from N2.596bn to N2.459bn, boosted by the N1.622bn spent on overhead costs, down from N2.069bn in 2017; while brand and marketing cost dropped significantly from N908.262m in 2017, to 402.628m; and service fees from N376.307m to N434.47m.
Unilever Nigeria did not record any other income, as against N5.024bn; following which operating profit stood at N3.527bn from N2.754bn, a 28.06% rise.
A breakdown of the figure showed that home care and personal care products segment contributed a total of N13.644bn; up from N11.681bn; while food products yielded N12.172bn from N10.49bn.
The bulk of the sales turnover was derived from Nigeria, which contributed N25.088bn, compared to N21.649bn in 2017; while N728.666m came from outside, up from N522.848m.
Finance income for the period grew by N494.126m, 529.74% better than the previous year’s N78.465m, mainly driven by the N440.141m interest on call deposits and bank accounts, which rose from N75.194m; just as finance costs fell significantly to N98.519m, 84.92% down from the prior first quarter’s N653.181m.
Profit before tax stood at N3.923bn, 79.97% better than the N2.18bn reported in the preceding first quarter; tax jumped 77.5% up to N1.024bn from N576.952m; resulting in profit after tax of N2.899bn, 80.85% better than the N1.603bn reported in 2017.
The net profit of Unilever Nigeria for the period translated to Earnings Per Share of 50 kobo, almost double previous first quarter’s 28 kobo.