Diversified industrial conglomerate, Innscor Africa Limited sustained a 16 percent revenue rise to reach ZWL$ 4.268 billion during the Half Year trading period to December 31, 2019 withstanding unrelenting headwinds in the macro-economy.
In the face of hyper-inflation, the Group’s resilience was attributed to diversification which compensated volume falls in most of its product lines.
Combined with strategic pricing and a well-managed cost structure, Innscor managed a ZWL$ 675 404 058 operating profit.
“The Group sustained improvement in product mix reported in the last period, well-priced strategic raw material investments, and a well-controlled overhead structure, combined to give rise to an operating profit of ZWL675.404m for the period under review; this was a growth of 64% over the comparative period,” the Group said in a statement.
The bakery division struggled for much of the period due to unavailability of flour for production condemning loaf volumes to a 45 percent drop against comparative period.
Group subsidiary, National Foods saw its volumes decline 32 percent to 21 000 metric tonnes with other subsidiaries also posting mixed volume performance.
“Profeeds, an associate company of the Group, recorded a 27% decrease in feed volumes and a 33% decrease in day-old chick volumes against the comparative period. The majority of this volume decline was within the retail platform, which serves the small-scale market segment and is a reflection of subdued consumer spending and evolving consumer demand in response to the current market conditions,” the Group added.
At Natpak, volumes were 18% above those recorded in the comparative period driven largely by the increased utilization of the corrugated packaging plant and the newly commissioned rigid packaging operation which operated close to full capacity.
Volumes at Prodairy increased by 25% on the comparative period, and whilst all categories achieved good growth, stand-out performances were recorded in the dairy blend and maheu categories.
Raw milk in-take remained solid and represented around 20% of national production.
Irvine’s recorded a 26% volume growth in table eggs during the period under review, with the volumes achieved being an all-time high for the business.
The Group financial position remained on good footing, with total assets reaching ZWL$ 8.326 billion against total liabilities of ZWL$ 2.187 billion.
The company declared an 8 percent dividend increase of 13.73 cents per share.
