GHANA Breweries Limited (GBL) for the first half of this year, recorded a turnover of ?60.4 billion as compared to ?55.5 billion in the 2001 half-year results. This represents an eight per cent increase.
Profit before exchange losses and financial charges rose from ?1 billion for the same period to ?2.2 billion representing 3.6 per cent of turnover compared with 1.9 per cent in 2001.
The Managing Director of the company Mr Segun Adebanji made this known at a meeting with a cross-section of the media in Accra yesterday.
The meeting was to present the half-year performance of the company to the media.
GBL, however, recorded a net loss of ?9.6 billion during the first half of the year as compared to ?3.5 billion over the same period in 2001.
This was mainly due to exchange losses as a result of the depreciation of 20 per cent of the cedi to the euro, as well as an increase in interest charges from ?4.6 billion to ?5.1 billion representing 10.6 per cent.
The company made significant improvements in underlying profitability of its business. These were, however, eroded by the massive provision of ?6.7 billion made for exchange losses as well as interest charges.
The rationalisation of the cost base and the product portfolio combined with the continued focus on revamping the business process to increase productivity and efficiency, and this contributed to 104 per cent increase in operating profit before exchange losses and financial charges.
The company in March, last year, implemented the first of its restructuring plan which resulted in reduction of non-unionised staff by 45 employees. The second phase of the restructuring which ended last month saw a further reduction of staff by 78.
Mr Adebanji said the company intends to continue to restructure the capital base of the business as well as rationalisation of its products.
To this end, he said, a proposal of the capital restructuring has been sent to the Heineken International BV, a majority shareholder of GBL.
If approved, the proposal will help reduce the currency risks and dependence on short-term borrowings. It will also help to assist the company to rectify its weak capital structure.
Mr Adebanji was optimistic that although the beer market will not grow significantly this year, the improvement in operating profit will be sustained during the second half of the year.
