Honeywell Flour Mills Plc has paid 6kobo dividend per share to its shareholders following their approval at the company’s just concluded 8th Annual General Meeting held last Friday in Lagos.
The company reported a 291 percent increase in profit before taxation (PBT) to N5.47billion in its audited financial results for the full year ended March 31, 2017 from a loss position in 2016.
Honeywell also recorded a significant 191 per cent increase in gross profit from N4.36bn to N12.71bn in the financial year under review. It also grew total revenue from N50.88bn in 2016 to N53.23bn in 2017, representing a five per cent increase year-on-year.
Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator Emeritus, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) who commended the company for its efforts at ensuring that it remained on the path of growth urged them to continue to focus on lower cost sourcing for raw materials.
Speaking at the annual general meeting, Oba Otudeko, chairman, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc said the company’s current performance indicated a leap from the results of the financial year 2016, and attributed the improved earnings and profits to its relentless focus on lower cost sourcing for raw materials and foreign exchange and increased efficiency in manufacturing.
“In 2017 financial year, we reaped the benefits of a well-executed input cost management strategy,” Otudeko stated, adding that “Our results show continued growth and a substantial step-up in profitability despite the volatile economic environment. It was achieved largely through improved efficiency. Our manufacturing function drove further efficiencies through continuous improvement projects that enhanced engineering and plant maintenance processes and ensured higher levels of production efficiency.”
Honeywell Flour Mills ultra-modern factory to be commissioned by the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 would increase the firm’s total installation capacity by 150 percent, its management said on the sideline of the annual meeting.
“On the new factory, we have in place four paster lines with total install capacity of 125,000 metric tones and over our current capacity of 48, this is about 150 per cent increment,” said the Managing Director of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Lanre Jaiyeola, at the AGM. He noted that the company was making significant changes to its business in order to lay a better platform for the years ahead.
Jaiyeola said, “In 2018 and on the heels of an improving economic environment, we expect to record further improvements in performance, reigniting our growth agenda and extracting increased efficiency and cost reduction through a recently launched company-wide transformation and continuous improvement programme.”
