WorldStage Newsonline– Unilever Nigeria has reported its Q1 2018 results which showed that sales grew by 16% to N25.8bn compared with same quarter last year while profit before tax (PBT) and profit after tax (PAT) grew faster by 80-81%.
Although gross margin contracted by -72bps to 27.7%, this was not enough to offset the sales growth and a positive swing on the net interest line to N396m from a net finance charge of –N575m in the corresponding quarter of 2017, leading to the stronger bottom line.
For the last three quarters, gross margins were above 30%; we attribute this to the improved macro environment and more particularly, the CBN’s intervention in the fx market through the NAFEX window.
Management said that Unilever was working on attaining 100% sourcing of its packaging materials locally by 2019 and has begun engaging local farmers to reduce importation
