By Simon Adewale
Eternit Limited, manufacturers of building materials, said it was yet to fully recover from the effects of the January 2012 subsidy strike that paralysed business activities in the country.
Managing Director, Eternit Limited, Mr. Dirk Modderman, a Dutch, disclosed this in a meeting with its distributors in Sapele area of Delta State. “Unusual New Year present by the federal government when an astronomical increase in price of fuel was announced and the economy was brought literary to its knees followed by weeks of organised labour and civil societies strike, forced the prices of products and services up, which affected disposable income, shrinking the volume of the company’s available cash which affected our output for the year,” he said.
Modderman said the company recently laid off many of its workforce as a result of harsh business conditions, occasioned by the hike in fuel price and effect of strike by organised labour and the civil society.
He said, “the company recorded an all time low performance of 50 percent of our budget in fibre – cement products, 60 percent in Duratile and Ultraspan and we could only make about 50 percent of what we made last year, making it necessary for us to painfully right-size our staff capacity,” he stated.
The Eternit boss also pointed out that there was strong competition in the building materials manufacturing industries, which he however said ought to make the company stronger as the competition only show the level of weakness in the company.
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