Forget the PR stunts and media magic, Guinness Nigeria Plc is still not finding things easy. As a matter of fact, the beverage company has been moving from one trouble to another – and this, our investigation revealed, has been on for quite some time.
The latest is their 9-month profit results which declined from N5.2 billion in March 2015 to N864 million in March 2016!
The company’s share price also fell by N1.84 k to close at N98, its lowest in the month, days back.
Again, there was a drop in sales from N45 billion netted in 2015 to N39 billion in 2016.
Those who should know told YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine that Guinness’ troubles began years ago. ‘I think it was one of the things that led to the exit of their former MD, Seni Adetu. The coming of Peter Ndegwa, his successor, unfortunately, hasn’t done so much so far.
‘Remember that it was under Ndegwa that the messy issue between Guinness and NAFDAC happened. The former accused the latter of having some expired stuff in their warehouse and later fined them heavily for that.
‘And still smarting from the attendant unpleasant news that characterized that, we now have this new issue of and about declining revenue and profit, which expectedly has been giving both shareholders and stakeholders serious concern’.
Guinness is one of Nigeria’s leading alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages companies. Among their popular brands are Guinness Stout, Malta Guinness, Harp Lager Beer, Smirnoff and Orijin. But for sometime now, things have not been moving smoothly for them.