Shareholders of Cadbury Nigeria Plc on Friday approved N301.51 million as total dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2017.
The shareholders gave the approval at the company’s 53rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos.
The dividend, which will be paid on July 9, translated to 16k per share.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Emmanuel Popoola , a shareholder, commended the company for the dividend declared and return to profitability in spite of the challenging operating environment.
Popoola urged the company to work harder to ensure enhanced dividends in the years ahead.
Mr Taiwo Oderinde, another shareholder, urged the company introduce new products to increase its market share and bottom line.
Oderinde said the company should target products that would address the health issues in the country such as diabetes.
He also called on the company to look for cheaper means of financing its activities to reduce costs of operation.
Oderinde advised the company to work toward floating rights issue in the future to raise fresh capital instead of obtaining bank loans.
Responding, Mr Atedo Peterside, the company’s Chairman, said the company was working on some new products, which would be launched at the appropriate time.
Peterside said the company built its business on four key pillars, such as price competitiveness, aggressive route to market initiatives and sustained consumer-driven activations.
He said the company’s top priorities in the current year were to sustain focus on quality, drive improvements in productivity and reinforce operational efficiency to maximise its competitive advantage.
The chairman added that the company would drive growth ahead of competition to increase market share within its product categories.
The company, during the period under review, recorded a revenue of N33.08 billion compared with N29.98 billion in 2016.
It also benefited from cost savings initiatives, which saw selling and distribution costs as well as administrative costs decline by seven per cent and 23 per cent respectively.
Its profit before tax stood at N350.32 million from a loss before tax of N562. 87 million recorded in the previous year.
Profit for the year stood at N299. 99 million against a loss of N296. 40 million in 2016.
The company said revenue contribution for the 2017 financial year came from 55 per cent refreshment beverages which includes Bournvita and Cadbury 3-in-1 hot chocolate.
It stated that 31 per cent was from confectioneries such as Tom-Tom peppermint and its variants, while 14 per cent of the revenue came from Intermediate Cocoa products comprising cocoa powder, cocoa cake and cocoa butter.
