‘Bigger sales’ Vitafoam nine-month profit leaps one-third to N4.5 billion

Foam products and furniture maker Vitafoam saw its profit for the nine months to June quicken by about 33 per cent on the back of higher income from its home market Nigeria, which provided 99.99 per cent of sales for the period, according to its newly issued earnings report.

Revenue totalled N35.7 billion up from N26.8 billion, the document seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed.

But spikes in inflation of Africa’s biggest economy in the period meant cost of sales, at N23.5 billion, would gnaw away at the bulk of that sum, having surged by 35.9 per cent.

At N673.3 million, the firm realised well over times the cash it earned through finance income a year ago, while N218 million came from ‘other gains and losses,’ negligible higher than the figure from the same period of last year.

Pre-tax profit climbed by N1.8 billion to N6.5 billion, while the profit for the period rose round about one-third to N4.5 billion.

Vitafoam came to life in Nigeria in 1962 after Manchester-based Vita forged a partnership with local distributor G.B Ollivant, itself a unit of the defunct UAC of Nigeria Limited.

A strategic partnership with ailing rival Vono Products eased the path for Vitafoam to procure a 25 per cent interest in 2011, leading up to outright takeover years later.

Vono now operates as the furniture division of the company, other subsidiaries being Vitapur Nigeria, Vitablom Nigeria, Vitavisco Nigeria, Vitaparts and Vitafoam Sierra Leone.

Total assets in the period under review stood at N36.1 billion, improving by 13.6 per cent. The increase in asset valuation found its spur in cash and balances, according to the financial report, after that balance sheet item increased by nearly a quarter.

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