By ETimes
Dairibord, the country’s largest milk processor, says for now it is looking for inexpensive cooperation in the four regional markets that it is exploring before establishing its presence.
This comes as the company’s research and development team is working on innovation, line extension, and the introduction of new products that appeal to the market.
Chief executive Mercy Ndoro told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting that they are exploring regional opportunities for growth, diversification and foreign currency generation.
“The regional opportunities that we are looking at do not speak of physical presence; however, we are looking at low-cost collaborations so that we begin to intensify the visibility of our brands with specific focus at the moment on South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique.
“We will also focus on boosting processing capacity to increase product supply,” she said.
Currently, the company is in a closed period.
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While acknowledging the stability brought by the series of measures instituted by authorities, she said this had an impact on the company’s sales performance.
“We saw policy interventions by authorities coming through mainly in June, which brought some stability into the economy, albeit with a tight ZWL liquidity squeeze,” she said.
Sales volumes for Q1 2023 were 14% higher than they were during the same period last year because of investments made to increase capacity to meet demand.
“Sales numbers did significantly change in June following the depreciation of the ZWL and the policy intervention that came through.”
Volumes sold in US dollars accounted for 58% of overall sales in Q1 2023, up from 39% in the same period the previous year, and grew by 68% to 15.3 million litres.
In historical terms, revenue increased by 534% in Q1 2023, with the export market contributing 6% of the increase.
The operating profit margin grew by 2 percentage points to 6% from 4% in the same quarter last year as a result of operating costs rising by 524%.
The AGM approved $54.96 million paid as directors’ fees as well as the remuneration of US$139,750 paid to Deloitte & Touche Chartered Accountants for the past year’s audit.
Dairibord appeared on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange fallers table today, with its share price losing 12.37% to close at $290.00 – Harare