Leading pharmaceutical manufacturing company, May & Baker Nigeria Plc. is targeting to generate increased turnover results year after year by embracing innovations and churning out quality products for the improvement of wellness in our society, despite the pervading market constraints.
This much was disclosed by the Managing Director, Nnamdi Okafor during the reading of the 2016 Annual reports of the company in Lagos. While the audited reports submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange showed that the operating profit jumped from N 655.80m to N820.87m to score a 22.2 percent increase, the profit before tax leaped from N142.40m (2015) to N345.94m in the current report to record a 142.9 percent growth.
Similarly, sales recorded a double digit rise of 12 percent and the operating profit margin improved from the previous 8.67 percent to 9.69 percent in 2016. Conversely, the distribution and marketing expenses dipped from N 1.28bn to N 1.14bn.
According to Okafor, there is more work to be done, yet the company must be commended especially when you draw parallels with the current forex scarcity in the banks. He stated that, “Our focus is to surpass our targets each year, to lead competition in the sector we play in and to create more wealth and value for our stakeholders. I thank all staff for their hard work thus far.”
Concerning the bumps in the market place, Okafor said, “May and Baker is operating a manufacturing facility in Ota, Ogun State, was built to be a pharmaceutical manufacturing reference facility in West Africa. However, such repugnant encumbrances as foreign exchange crises and its resultant effect of the Naira depreciation against the dollar, access to raw materials, steep taxation system and other macroeconomic challenges have compelled us to operate the facility to only 50% of its installed capacity. This is a huge drawback on our target turnover”
He assured that the May & Baker Nigeria Plc. remains optimistic. In as much as calm returns to the market firmament and the seething market challenges begin to recede, productivity will shoot up positively. And so when the foreign exchange crises ease off to financial stability, the company will surpass the current reports by leaps and bounds.
