Gladys Amoah, MD, Unilever Ghana
UNILEVER GHANA
Limited (UGL) says it has decided to reset its levels of stock held by
distributors over the coming months.
According to the
company, in its disclosure on the outlook for the second half of this year,
signed by Gladys Amoah, managing director, the economic climate in the country
has seen a slow-down – especially in trading conditions particularly – after
the banking sector reforms which began in the last quarter of last year.
“This, in conjunction
with a more subdued consumer demand, has resulted in many distributors finding
it increasingly difficult trading. This has resulted in unusually high
inventory levels in Unilever Ghana Limited (UGL)’s extended distribution
network.”
It added “Consequently,
UGL has decided to reset the levels of stock held by distributors over the
coming months. This will impact business performance in the third quarter of
2019 and will mean that full year turnover for 2019 will be considerably lower
than planned and also in comparison with the prior year. We expect the impact
on performance to be short term.”
For the 2018
financial year, the company recorded revenue of GH¢632 million compared to
GH¢575 million in the preceding year, representing a revenue growth of 10 per
cent.
Board Chairman of
Unilever, Edward Effah, during the company’s 45th Annual General
Meeting (AGM) in Accra, attributed the growth in revenue to the increase in the
sale of the company’s products.
He said the
company recorded an operating profit before tax of GH¢250 million, representing
a 283 percentage increase over that of 2017 (GH¢65 million).
“Profit after tax
therefore improved by 296 per cent to GH¢191 million compared to GH¢48 million
in 2017,” he said.
He, therefore,
indicated that a dividend payout of GH¢0.80p per share from the 2018 profits
amounting to a total of GH¢50,000 had been proposed by the board of directors.
Ms Amoah, at that
meeting, said Unilever extended coverage to over 64,000 customers directly
through its partnership with key distributors.
“Over 110 youth
have been employed through the tricycle salesman deployment project in southern
Ghana and an additional 100 women have been empowered economically under the
Shakti programme in the north as well,” she said.
Mrs. Amoah,
however, noted that cash and cash equivalent was in the deficit of GH¢65.5
million in 2018 compared to GH¢53.18 million in 2017.
That, according to her, was largely due to the challenging environment during the period under review.
BY Samuel Boadi
