THE management of Nigerian Breweries Plc has said that the company’s decision to deploy 10 percent of its annual media budget to responsible drinking campaign, is to emphasise the need for responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages in Nigeria.
The company’s Managing Director, Mr. Hans Essaadi gave the explanation at the company’s 2023 Pre-AGM media event, held in Lagos, recently.
He stated that despite being a brew company, NB Plc remains unwavering in its commitment at ensuring that its products, especially its alcoholic beverages, are not abused.
The NB Plc boss added that one of the company’s ways of walking the talk is to dedicate a significant chunk of 10 percent of the company’s annual marketing budget to the responsible drinking campaign, as a way of encouraging responsible consumption of alcohol.
Describing Year 2020 as a challenging one for businesses, Hans identified the energy crisis, induced by the Ukraine-Russia war and other socio-economic challenges, as some of the factors, responsible for difficulties experienced in the year.
“For the manufacturing sector, it was challenging to import critical materials and meet payment obligations to overseas partners.
“The liquidity issue made it difficult for foreign investors to repatriate the proceeds of their investments and also created a wide disparity between official exchange rate and the autonomous market rate, with huge cost implications for businesses,” he stated.
According to him, the resurgence witnessed in the nation’s brewed product market in 2021, and which continued in first five months of 2022, was reversed as a result of the headwinds, resulting in the total market ending with a medium to high single digit volume decline.
But, despite its operations being negatively impacted by those challenges, the company, he stated, was still able to grow its revenue by 26 percent in the year, weather the storm and maintain its leadership position in the sector by leveraging data and other digital tools, and using brand mix improvements and strong pricing, to enhance its route to market.
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