Guinness Ghana records GH¢8m loss in 2016

Beverage manufacturer, Guinness Ghana Limited has reported a net loss of eight million cedis between July 2015 and March 2016.

According to the company, the high utility prices, rising inflation and high interest rates contributed to its losses for the nine month period.

Industries have been complaining about the high cost of doing business in Ghana. Some have already been forced to undertake huge layoffs while others have completely shut down.

The Finance Director for Guinness Ghana, Stephen Nirenstein disclosed these figures for Guinness Ghana when he addressed a fact behind the figures session of the company,

“Notwithstanding the growth in revenue, the increasing cost of doing business, the cost or availability of utilities; FX devaluation and increase in inflation and interest rates over the last few years have resulted in high cost of debt and lower profitability,

“The 44 million cedis year on year improvement in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), is broadly in line but despite that the interest charges are impacting on our bottom line delivery. As such, in the nine months of 2016, the business incurred a net loss of 8 million cedis,” he stated.

Despite the losses, Guinness Ghana says its revenue increased by 34 percent between 2014 and 2015.

According to Stephen Nirenstein, the steady improvement in revenue was mostly backed by innovation, “Despite the challenging economic environment, revenue grew 79 percent between 2011 and 2015. This growth was spurred by innovation with the introduction of new brands onto the market,” he noted.

Mr. Nirenstein added, “Revenue growth momentum has been maintained in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending the 31st of March 2016 with a 34 % year on year increase, with growth in our core brands and roll-out of our innovation brand.”

The use of local raw material such as cassava by Guinness Ghana has also marginally increased by about 3 percent between 2012 and 2015. This is also reported to have affected the livelihoods of about 7000 small holder farmers.

Meanwhile the company says it is optimistic of a robust performance in the last quarter of 2016 and beyond.

This growth it anticipates will be influenced by; productivity, route to customer, innovation as well as growing core brands.

3:06 PM