Unilever Nigeria plc., one of Nigeria’s top consumer goods production firms has reported an after – tax profit of N6.57billion for the third quarter of 2024.
This figure represents a major turnaround in the company’s Q3 earnings having recorded a loss of N1.09 billion in September 2023 and a loss of N2.3 billion in September, 2022.
This improved financial performance in Q3, 2024 extends the company’s positive outturn this year after the difficult periods it experienced in the preceding years.
In the first and second quarters of 2024, the multinational recorded N3.35 billion and N1.08 billion in after-tax profit respectively.
Speaking on the company’s positive turnover for the year, the company’s Managing Director, Tim Kleinebenne expressed his utmost pleasure with the positive turnover.
He stated “The consistency in our quarter-on-quarter sustained growth and performance remains a testament that with our Growth Action Plan (GAP), we are committed to serving consumers with our best brands to meet their daily needs of improved health and hygiene.
“Unilever Nigeria is pleased with its performance progress riding on the pillars of operational efficiency, cost optimization, purposeful brands and increasing market share across key categories,” he added.
Reasons for Profits
This increase he revealed was driven by food products amounting to N24 billion from N15.1 billion, personal care up to N12 billion from N8.7 billion and Beauty & well-being amounting to N3.1 billion from N2 billion.
These improvement in Unilever’s profit margins is attributed to increasing sales of food products like Gino tomato paste, pasta, malt, beer etc. Which contributed a whopping 59% (N24 billion) of the company’s revenue in the period under review.
Also, the personal care branch of the company featuring products such as diapers, cosmetics, wipes, body reliefs, body supplements etc generated 33% (N12 billion) of the company’s revenue in the period under review while the beauty product segment represented just 7.4% (N3.1billion) of total revenue.
Local Market Comes up Big
The local market came up with big numbers with local business accounting for majority of the company’s revenue as less than 3% at N3.23 billion was generated through exports to other countries in the period under review.
Future Expectations
The publishing of the company’s Q3 result had no immediate effect on its share price as it remained stable at N19 per share as at the close of trading for Monday. Unilever began the year with a share price of 14.80 NGN and has since gained 28.4% on that price valuation, ranking it 51st on the NGX in terms of year-to-date performance.
In the last one year, the company’s share price has peaked at N21.7k per share on the NGX and moving forward, the company would expect to continue the upward trajectory of its stock price hoping to finish the 2024 trading year on a high.
