Improved Operating Efficiency Bolsters Our Performance in Q2 2020, Says Lafarge

Lafarge Africa plc has said its strong second-quarter performance was due to improved operating efficiency and strategic implementation of the company’s health, cash and cost initiative.

The Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Africa, Mr. Khaled El Dokani, disclosed this at the company’s virtual Facts Behind Figure presentation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The company grew profit before tax by 29.7 percent to N21.7 billion in the second quarter of 2020, up from N16.33 billion posted in the same period of 2019.

Also, the company’s net profit rose by 60 percent from N9.54 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2019 to N15.26 billion in the second quarter of 2020.

While its net sales declined by 5.1 percent to N56.85 billion from N59.87 billion in Q2’19, El Dokani said it was due to the COVID-19 negative effect that impacted businesses.

El Dokani said: “The proactive measures we have put in place as a business have been instrumental to the positive results we have seen. Our route-to-market strategy has proven to be effective, particularly, our expanded distribution network which proved very valuable during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down.

“We have steadily expanded our retail footprint in our core markets. The recent re-launch of our Supaset brand has continued to gain traction with our customers, especially with the block makers.

“The implementation of our Health, Cash and Cost initiative has and would remain in focus to deliver improvement in our performance.”

He assured that Lafarge Africa would continue to focus on business resilience to ensure a healthy balance sheet while making the health of ‘our people, communities and other stakeholders priority.’