Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Dangote Sugar declares N14.22bn profit

Dangote Sugar declares N14.22bn profit

By on November 7, 2015

Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc made a profit before tax of N14.22bn in the nine months ended September 30, 2015, indicating a 1.8 per cent increase on the N13.97bn it reported in the same period of 2014.

The company’s profit after tax at N9.34bn was two per cent higher than the N9.15bn it posted a year earlier, its financial statements for the period showed.

Also in the review period, Dangote Sugar Refinery grew its gross profit by five per cent from N18.63bn to N18.80bn.

The Deputy Group Managing Director, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Abdullahi Sule, was quoted in a statement by the company as saying that the gridlock at Apapa, Lagos had been an obstacle to the company’s operations in the period under review.

He said, “After a good pick up in the second quarter, we struggled to sustain the pace of improvement in the third quarter as we continued to face challenges getting our sugar out of the Apapa area to our customers and that constrained our overall operations in the quarter.

“We have begun to explore alternate means of product evacuation including the rail and additional warehouses to fulfil the growing demand of our sugar in the Northern parts.”

Despite the challenges faced by the company, he explained that it was able to improve its profit margins, gaining additional market share from the sugar smugglers and competition as the quarter ended.

He said, “We are excited as our ‘Sugar for Nigeria’ project continues to gain momentum and our five-year target to execute the first phase of our backward integration plans – the Savannah rehabilitation and Lau/Tau projects progresses.

“Dangote Sugar is Nigeria’s largest producer of household and commercial sugar with 1.44 million tonnes of refining capacity, with the ability to supply to most parts of the country through an extensive network of distributors.”

According to Sule, the refinery at Apapa imports raw sugar from Brazil and refines it into white, Vitamin A fortified sugar suitable for household and industrial uses, while the Savannah cane sugar factory located near Numan, in Adamawa State has an installed sugar capacity of 50,000 tonnes.

On the company’s plan to boost its operations, he said, “Our strategy is to become a global force in sugar production, working within Nigeria’s National Sugar Master Plan to end importation and sell more than 1.5 million metric tonnes of locally produced sugar in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
[Punch]