Nigerian Breweries Plc posted a net profit of N44.6 billion for the first quarter of 2025, a sharp recovery from a net loss of N52.1 billion in the same period of 2024.
This turnaround was driven by strong revenue growth, reduced cost pressures, and a significant decline in foreign exchange losses.
The company saw a 68.9% year-on-year increase in revenue, reaching N383.6 billion, buoyed by robust volume growth.
This performance helped improve gross margin by 7.4 percentage points to 43.4%. Despite a 49.5% increase in the cost of sales, operating profit margin doubled to 22.2% from 11.1% in Q1 2024.
Nigerian Breweries also benefitted from a dramatic 83.2% reduction in finance costs, with foreign exchange losses dropping to N178 million from N72.9 billion. Profit before tax reached N70.0 billion, reversing a loss of N65.6 billion in Q1 2024.
Analysts noted that the positive performance was supported by process optimisations and reduced FX liabilities, following the 2024 Rights Issue. However, despite the strong top-line results, the company’s cash position weakened due to negative cash flows from operating and investing activities. The overall cash position declined to N93.1 billion from N150.6 billion the previous year.
