The acting Group Managing Director, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, Mr. Taiwo Adeniyi, on Monday told stakeholders in the capital market, including investors in the company, that company was in a position to achieve sustained growth.
Adeniyi said this in Lagos during a ‘Facts behind the figures’ presentation by the company at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He attributed the positive performance of the manufacturer of flexible, reconstituted and rigid foam products to six major factors, including strong brand equity as its leadership advantage.
According to him, the company’s success over the years is due to its critical success factors and a mix of unique indices such as the development of strong human capital and the timely execution of strategic plans.
The acting Vitfoam Nigeria GMD assured stockbrokers and investors at the event that the company would continue to sustain its culture of ensuring shareholder value.
Adeniyi, who said that Vitafoam Nigeria had the largest foam manufacturing and distribution network in the country, which facilitates the speedy delivery of its products throughout the West African sub-region, stressed that the company was not particularly immune to the economic challenges in the country.
According to him, manufacturers in Nigeria are contending with persistent terrorist activities in the North, unpredictable political environment, high cost of financing operations, unstable government policies, lack basic infrastructure, products adulteration and volatile and increasing cost of chemicals.
He, however, explained that despite the challenging operating environment, the company was able to grow its gross profit by 5.4 per cent to N5.4bn in the 2014 financial year with its profit after tax jumping by 11.8 per cent year-on-year – to N435m.
Following the release of the results, he said the company’s Board of Directors proposed a gross dividend of N246m and bonus of one share for every five shares held. The proposal is subject to the approval of the company’s shareholders at its Annual General Meeting, which is scheduled to take place later this month.
The ability of the company to overcome the economic challenges, which saw several companies witness declines in profit, according to him, is attributable to its professional and dedicated employees, processes, internal efficiencies, operational innovation, among other things.
He said he was optimistic that the company would remain competitive and maintain its leadership position in the industry as a result of its strong assets base, national spread of sales channels, excellent operational facilities, economies of scale, and pioneer advantage.
He added that the establishment of Vitapur, an insulation product manufacturing company, and other subsidiaries had helped Vitafoam Nigeria to achieve sustained growth and given it a pacesetter advantage in the industry.
Adeniyi assured the Nigerian Stock Exchange and stockbrokers that the company would continue to maintain a good corporate governance culture and provide information to market operators and investors in line with the Exchange’s post-listing requirements.
Stockbrokers, who spoke at the event, commended the company for its performance and advised the management continue to ensure shareholder value as that was important to its growth.
Earlier, the management of the company had held talks with the the management of the Exchange on key issues, while Adeniyi performed the closing gong ceremony on the floor of the Exchange.
The Punch
