Due to the fact that NB currently ontrols over 6 different breweries, the group’s cost of sales has also gone up by +11%. This is NGN 36 billion in Q1 2015 compared to NGN 40 billion in Q1 2016. The company’s marketing and administrative costs still managed to increase by about NGN1 billion to arrive at NGN 13.9 billion in Q1 2016 compared with 12.6 billion in Q1 2015.
NB has in recent times increased its product innovation and or brand extension efforts to react to Guinness Nigeria Plc’s strong competition through new brands and extensions. In the last 15 months, NB with exception to other companies in its group had extended Star lager beer to Star Radler and Star Triplex. The company introduced Strongbrow (an apple cider) and relaunched its Ace roots to fight Guinness’ Orijin.
To fund its expansionary plans, NB raised a N100 billion commercial paper late last year. The next quarter could be better for NB if the company maintains pressure across all the major regions where the group currently has breweries. However, Guinness is bent on fighting it out by extending Orijin, its top performing brand and Guinness Stout. The company is also well spread across key regions in the country.
