The company reported a 40% decline in profits for the nine months to the end of February, blamed on weak consumer demand, which saw sales fall by 13% to N55bn from N63bn in the previous year. The company said that profits fell to N807m from N1.3bn in the same period in 2018 despite the company’s best effort to manage costs.
It reported a nearly 40% drop in administrative expenses and a 102% decline in net finance cost.
PZ Cussons’ revenue has come under pressure in recent years due to weak consumer demand following the recession of 2014 to 2017. The British parent company, PZ Cussons Plc issued a profit warning in early December noting that prices, volumes and margins in Nigeria remained under pressure, prompting it to focus on optimizing price points and pack sizes across key brands in its portfolio.
The firm makes a wide range of consumer products which includes electricals, personal and homecare products, and dairy brands under the Nutricima business line which includes Nunu, Olympic and Coast milk brands as well as drinking yoghurt “Yo!”