Cadbury Nigeria Plc drew on its internal efficiency and top-line cost management to grow first-quarter profit by 26 per cent in spite of the 8 per cent decline in sales.
Cadbury Nigeria report for Q1 2020 ended March 31, 2020, released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that net profit rose by 26 per cent to N638.94 million in first quarter 2020 as against N506.75 million recorded in the comparable period of last year.
Earnings per share thus increased by 26 per cent from 26.98 kobo in Q1 2019 to 34.02 kobo in Q1 of 2020. Profit before tax had risen by 26 per cent from N723.93 million to N912.77 million.
The following are the details related to the dividend:
| Financial period | FY 31/12/2019 |
| Announcement date | 30/03/2020 |
| Ex-Dividend date | 25/05/2020 |
| Record date | 22/05/2020 |
| Payment date | 25/06/2020 |
| Dividend amount per share | 0.49 NGN |
Turnover, however, declined by eight per cent from N9.28 billion in first-quarter 2019 to N8.55 billion in the first quarter of 2020.
Shareholders will receive a dividend per share of 49 kobo, representing 96 per cent on the payout for the 2018 business year. The company had distributed N471 million to shareholders as cash dividend for the 2018 business year. Shareholders received a dividend per share of 25 kobo for the 2018 business year as against 16 kobo paid for the 2017 business year.
The dividend was one of the highlights of the audited report and accounts of Cadbury Nigeria for the year ended December 31, 2019.
Total turnover rose from N35.97 billion in 2018 to N39.33 billion in 2019. Profit before tax also increased from N1.22 billion to N1.54 billion while profit after tax jumped from N823 million in 2018 to N1.07 billion in 2019.
The 2019 report further strengthened the performance outlook of the food company, after it posted three-digit growths in profitability in 2018. The audited report and accounts of the company for the year ended December 31, 2018, had shown that the company’s full-year profit before tax surged by 242.9 per cent to N1.2 billion in 2018 as against N350 million in 2017. Net profit rose by 174 per cent from N299.9 million in 2017 to N823 million in 2018.
Cadbury Nigeria Plc manufactures and markets a range of chocolate malt drink mixes, sweets, powder beverages and chewing gums in Nigeria.
The company was established in the 1950s to source cocoa beans from Nigeria for the Cadbury Group; it then branched into re-packing imported bulk products and grew rapidly into a fully-fledged manufacturing operation producing a range of popular Cadbury brands. Cadbury Bournvita is the company’s flagship product which is a brand of malted and chocolate malt drink mixes that has the energy and nutritional properties.
Mondelez International has a majority equity-interest of 74.97% in Cadbury Nigeria Plc through its holding in Cadbury Schweppes Overseas Limited. The remaining 25.03% equity-ownership is held by a diverse group of Nigerian individuals and institutional shareholders. Cadbury Nigeria Plc’s head office is in Lagos, Nigeria.
