By Stanley Onyeka, Lagos
Despite posting operating e losses of about N144.34billion, due to challenging macroeconomic environment, Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc, revealed that it invested over N2.75billion on sustainability programmes in the 2024 financial year.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Breweries, Hans Essadi, traced these macroeconomic challenges to the continued scarcity and volatility in foreign exchange, rising food inflation, high cost of energy especially, petrol, diesel and electricity and the continued erosion of consumers’ disposable income on account of these.
Even as the brewery giant is now worth over N1trillion in market valuation, he told journalists yesterday at the Pre-Annual General Meeting Media Briefing 2025 in Lagos that NB is unable to pay shareholders dividend for 2024 on account of losses suffered as a result of these macroeconomic headwinds.
But he equally assured that the worst is over and that the company hopes to pay dividend in the years ahead.
The Financial Director, NB Plc, Bernardus Boer, put NB Plc operating losses in 2024 at N144.34billion, a 36.5% increase compared to N105.77 billion lost in 2023, due to the harsh economic environment experienced during the year.
NB Plc was therefore unable to declare a dividend in 2024 for its shareholders, who had earned N10.58billion despite the losses in 2023.
This even as the company’s net revenue grew year-on-year to over N1.074trillion in 2024 from N559.51billion in 2023, a 79.3% jump.
Despite all of these, Mr. Boer said the brewer was able to offset its foreign exchange debt and significantly reduced its local debt to N200billion from over N600billion year-on-year.
Our 2024 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Report highlights the progress and initiatives undertaken across the three pillars of our long-term sustainability strategy, Brew a Better World.
Responsibility and sustainability
Regarding the sustainability programmes in the year under review, the Corporate Affair Director NB Plc, Sade Morgan, explained that the investments are a demonstration of the company’s commitment to environmentally friendly operations as stipulated under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Breaking the investments down, Ms Morgan said about N2.5billion went into the Environmental ecosystem, through the adoption of green energy and the decarbonisation of the company’s operations with the inauguration of solar systems in its Ibadan, Oyo State, and Aba, Abia State, plants respectively.
One of the milestones in the area of green energy in 2024, was the inauguration of the ‘Dedicated’ Biogas Boiler at Ama brewery in October. This is HEINEKEN AME region’s first-ever dedicated biogas boiler.
“This 2MW superheated water boiler enables us to utilize all available biogas—a renewable fuel generated from the anaerobic biological treatment of wastewater at our flagship Ama Brewery.
“The biogas now supplies over 10% of the thermal energy required to meet the brewery’s heating needs,” the company said in its Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Report, as contained in its 2024 Annual Report and Accounts.
Furthermore, Ms. Morgan disclosed that about N168 million went into NB’s social ecosystem in its fair working and living standard programmes for employee and non-employees, including the skill acquisition centres and cassava milling plants in Kaduna and Awo-Omama, Imo state, respectively.
Also, about N84 million was invested in public campaigns and social awareness to address moderation in alcohol intake.
Additionally, NB Plc in its 20924 Financial Report said: “Our 2024 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Report highlights the progress and initiatives undertaken across the three pillars of our long-term sustainability strategy, Brew a Better World.
“These pillars—Environmental, Social and Responsible—are further defined by nine ambitions: Net Zero, Circularity, Water & Nature, Diversity, Fair and Safe, Community Impact, Always a Choice, Moderation, and Address Harmful Use.
“Together, these efforts align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring that we protect the environment, promote equity and inclusivity and positively impact society.”
Also, NB Plc continued its circularity programmes within and outside the company.
The Sustainability Report said: “On circularity, we achieved full-year zero-waste-to-landfill in six of our seven brewery locations currently in operation.
“By December 2024, we were already on track to extend this achievement to all seven locations. Additionally, through our collaboration with the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA), we continued to facilitate the recovery of recyclable waste, setting up more waste collection centers and ramping up collection and recycling efforts nationwide.
“Since its inception, FBRA has collected over 94,000 MT of recyclables across nine waste streams, driving greater impact in waste recovery and circularity.”
Other operations
Regarding other operations in the year on review, Digital &Technology Director, Philomena Aneke, said NB Plc is always driving business performance through digital solutions, being the first to have an E-commerce platform i.e. digital route to its customers.
To retain the integrity of the platform, she said that the company constantly trains its employees to eliminate and reduce cyber threats and prevent data compromise.
For the Marketing Director, Emmanuel Oriakhi, NB Plc brand continues to boast of one of the most impressive product portfolios globally, to meet the needs of the different demographics, and indeed has over 500,000 sales outlets spread across Nigeria.
Similarly, the Company Secretary and Legal Director, Uaboi Agbebaku revealed that NB was able to navigate the rough terrain to enter the trillion-Naira value company in 2024 through deliberate business recovery plans initiated on account of the losses suffered in 2023. These include:
- Optimizing their production footprint by pricing to mitigate inflation and high input cost
- Re-introduction of Affordable brands
- Restoring the profit and loss account
Restoring balance sheet health by cleaning up FX -denominated debt and reducing local debt; Right issue/public offer described as the biggest ever in the market, which led to a jump in share price to N33/share in December 2024, from N26.5 a year
