NAMIBIA – Namibia Breweries Limited’s (NBL), Namibia’s leading beer maker, has reported a 12% rise in overall sales volumes in the year ended June 2022, resulting in 14.1% jump in net revenue to N$3.021 billion (US$202m).
This growth is attributed to an increase in volume growth and demand from South Africa, specifically for the Windhoek and Heineken brands in the premium segment, registering 60.6% rise in volumes in the country.
However, Namibian beer volumes declined by 1.5% as inflationary pressure across all sectors of the Namibian economy continued to stretch consumers’ disposable income.
COVID-19-related restrictions between July 2021 to December 2021 further impacted volumes in Namibia negatively.
The easing of COVID-19-related restrictions early in 2022 allowed NBL to return to a more normalised trading environment.
NBL Managing Director (MD), Marco Wenk said, “Considering the impact on consumer’s disposable income, a shift in certain consumer trends, as well as cross-category consumption trends, NBL has shown exceptional resilience and an overall great operational and financial performance during its 2022 financial year.”
Beyond Southern Africa, Tanzania remained NBL’s largest export market, although, as with most export markets, significant logistics cost increases negatively impacted export profitability compared to the prior financial year.
The brewer’s operating profit increasing by 8.9% to the prior year, translating into an operating profit margin of 22.1% compared with 23.1% reported for the previous financial year.
Profit attributable to shareholders increased by 45.3% from N$378 million (US$25.3m) in the previous financial year to N$540 million (US$36.2m) in the current year, resulting in the earnings per share increasing to 262.5 cent.
It is important to note that no final dividend was declared, which is in accordance with the conditions of the potential Heineken SA disposal transaction.
Last year, the Dutch brewer announced its interest to takeover NBL and South Africa based Distell to form a new drinks giant in the region.
Looking ahead, NBL has positioned itself to meet a volatile demand curve in production volumes to South Africa, where our Windhoek brand has significant opportunity for growth.
The company will continue to focus on further growing our brands both locally and beyond its borders while innovating into new liquids based on consumer preferences and demand.
“Trade execution, cost management and operational efficiencies will remain a core focus for the future. The next year will see significant investment in upgrading and expanding our production facilities to be ready for future growth and demand.
“We will continue future-proofing our business by upskilling our people and staying ahead of the curve by driving digital transformation in all aspects of the business,” concluded Wenk.
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