Dangote Flour Mills Plc has explained why its Pasta product is not visible in the market, saying the product is bought off-store before reaching the market place.
Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, Thabo Mabe, at the 2016 Annual General Meeting, said,“before our products hit the right stores they are sold off from the trucks, and that is a big challenge we have.”
According to him, “looking at our top line growth on volume it is sitting on about 65 percent growth volume, it’s sustainable and will be sitting on about 120 percent in the nearest future.”
On tackling the challenges, he said: “What we are doing at the moment is that we are increasing our capacity to meet additional demands. The more we reformulate and improve our product, the more we stimulate the demand and of course get hold of the market.”
The CEO who pointed out that Dangote is not afraid of competition, said: “We are not afraid of competition, we are growing at 120 percent, verify from the stock market and see who is growing at that rate. I focus internally, I don’t focus on competition. I do what the consumer and customer need, I don’t segregate.”
Continuing he stated: “The secret is focusing relentlessly on what you need to do for the consumer and customer, the secret is about improving your core product in terms of quality. In my view the product is the hero in everything. If you are not delivery product at the right time, the right quality, the right services to consumers and customers will have to go to somewhere else.
“What we do is what is right for the customer. The consumer is under huge financial pressure. What we do today is what is right for the customer. The consumer is under huge financial pressure. We have imported rice in the market today which is more expensive and unfortunately our consumers are being ripped off, compare the price of rice to Pasta, compare the ingredients in rice. I think that is one thing we have to consolidate on, pasta today is healthier and cheaper than rice.”
Buttressing Mabe’s point, Chairman of the company, Asue Ighodalo, said that its Pasta division sales volume increased by 41.7 percent, while its revenue rose by 85.5 percent.
He went on to say that the division’s resultant Gross Profit was N2.4 billion, while its profit after tax, PBT, and tax was N367million.
In 2015, the Chairman said comparative performance was N258million Gross profit and a loss before interest and tax of N2.1billion, respectively.
(Brandish)
