International Breweries Records N136.8bn Revenue

International Breweries Plc (IB Plc) recently held its 44th Annual General Meeting in Lagos.
The meeting had in attendance stakeholders of IB Plc, comprising the company’s executive and non-executive directors, shareholders, representatives of regulatory agencies, external auditors, and staff.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions placed on mass gatherings by the government, the annual event was streamed live to enable shareholders and other stakeholders who could not attend physically to follow proceedings.

The company’s overall results in 2020 were significantly impacted by the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a statement, despite the challenges, net revenue increased by 3.4 per cent, while gross profit increased by 20.9 per cent with Gross Margin enhancement of more than 320 basis points to 22.3 per cent.

The company expressed gratitude to stakeholders for their support despite the prevailing socio-economic challenges impacting the Nigerian business environment, stating that with the roll out of vaccines and gradual return to full activities, there’s hope for the recovery of the global economy.

“International Breweries Plc will continue to strengthen its market position through diversified development and optimisation of its corporate strategy as it stays committed to achieving a sustainable development and improving product quality to maintain its competitive edge,” it added.

Speaking on IB Plc’s overall performance, The Managing Director, Mr. Hugo Dias Rocha said, “Our dream of achieving market leadership of the beer industry in Nigeria remains unshaken as we are confident in our abilities and commitment as a team. “Aside from growing our volumes year-on-year, we have also continued to gain market share as we look to becoming even more adaptable to an ever-evolving operational climate.”
He further stated that in the year under review, despite two major economic crisis- COVID-19 and the social unrests, the company hit an all-time record in volume and brand development.

Within the same year under review, International Breweries launched a new brand – Trophy Stout and the company now houses the top two products (Trophy and Hero) in the country, the statement added.
Responding to shareholders’ questions, the Finance Director of the company, Mr. Bruno Zambrano, stated that, “the rights issue which was concluded in January 2020 (the largest in Nigeria’s history) was targeted successfully at deleveraging the company’s balance sheet.

“All the proceeds of the rights issue were used to reduce our overall debt. As a result, total borrowings reduced from N263.6 billion as at December 31, 2019, to N110.7 billion as at December 31, 2020,” he added.