The first six months of 2020 was in no way pleasant for Unilever Nigeria Plc and its shareholders, going by the financial statements released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). This was as the firm’s revenue plunged by 40.1 per cent year-on-year (y/y).
The company, which boasts of several popular household items like Lipton tea, Pears baby care goods, Lux soap, Close Up toothpaste and others, recorded the following significant declines in revenue from the Home and Personal Care business (-45.6 per cent) and Food Products (-35.1 per cent) segments, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue decline.
According to the filing, the company recorded a total turnover of N27.3 billion for the period ended June 30, 2020, compared with N42.7 billion recorded in the same period of 2019. Also, in the results, the firm said its cost of sales stood at N21.2 billion in the period under consideration in contrast to N31.3 billion posted in the same time of 2019 while its gross profit went down to N6.2 billion from N11.4 billion. A further analysis showed that the sale and distribution expenses fell slightly to N1.8 billion from N1.9 billion while in the first six months of 2020, the sum of N5.2 billion was used for market and administrative costs, lower than the N5.4 billion expended in the first six months of 2019.