Electrical engineering firm, Powerspeed says investment in stock and systems has enabled it to make record numbers of line items available in all its stores which has contributed to the increased throughput during the FY21 to September despite supply line disruptions.
In its FY21 financial statement, the company said supply lines have suffered major disruptions in the past year due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Most local suppliers have been unable to meet demand. Besides, local product prices have constantly escalated, in response to domestic inflation and exchange rate distortions,” the company said.
“Many of our foreign suppliers have increased their lead times substantially, and there have been significant increases in US Dollar prices, in line with global price increases. However, the biggest increases have been in the global cost of freight. Increases in transit times at ports of entry, notably Beit Bridge and Forbes border posts, have compounded the situation.”
The company however it managed to grow throughput, and build real balance sheet value, and as a result, shareholder equity grew from $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion, representing a 25.67 percentage growth in real terms.
Revenue reached $ 8.660 billion from $ 2.160 billion in 2020 although increased costs couldn’t manage to offset the financials gains.
Operating costs grew to $ 6.808 billion from $ 1.765 billion recorded same period last year.
Gross profit was $ 1.852 billion and consequently, the company managed to post a profit for the year of $ 154.411 million.
Total assets grew to $ 4.344 billion up from $ 2.372 billion previous year.
“Despite the supply line disruptions, investment in stock and systems has enabled us to once again, make recordnumbers of line items available in all our stores. This, undoubtedly, contributed to the increased throughput,” said the company.
The Engineering Division had a reasonable year, during which it increased the volume of products manufactured forand sold by Electrosales, there-by making a modest contribution to Group profitability.
With effect from the end of September 2021, this division was sold to Capital Laser Engineering, a focused engineering entity, which plans to invest in, and grow the business.
Powerspeed successfully delisted from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange on 14 December 2020. Since then, the Group’s shares have been available on an OTC market managed by Imara Edwards Securities, where there has been active trading.
