Cervejas de Moçambique, SARL, Abridged Annual Report
17 May 2006
Activities
The Company’s principal activities are the brewing, packaging, distribution and sales of malt beer in Mozambique. It operates Breweries in Maputo and Beira and distributes its products through a network of Depots and independent Distributors throughout the country.
Review of the business
The financial year ending March 2006 has delivered continued sales volume growth, up on the prior year by 8.7%, which, together with enhanced margin and productivity improvements, resulted in shareholder earnings reflecting a significant increase.
The key drivers of our result can be summarised as follows:
- Sales volume growth from increased levels of stock availability on a national basis as well as increasing the depot footprint with the opening of the Maxixe depot.
- Improved brand health, as measured by independent research, as a result of ongoing investment in our local and imported brands at a level consistent with market requirements.
- Quality and productivity improvements flowing from the recent upgrade of the Maputo packaging facility, particularly the 550ml returnable production line.
- Successful restructuring of the company debt profile away from foreign denominated borrowings.
- Additional investment and further improvement of management information systems and controls.
- Effective staff training and skills acquisition programs run through the year.
We are expecting that the organic growth over the past few years in the clear beer market will continue, albeit at a slightly reduced pace, and this will place us in a favourable position to continue to generate improved shareholder earning.
Dividends and transfers to reserves
A final dividend for the financial year ended 31 March 2006 of MT 2,744.70 will be proposed for approval at the Annual General Assembly of the Shareholders to be held at 3.00pm on 27 July 2006, at the Hotel/P> VIP in Maputo. An amount of MT 23,429,982 thousand was transferred to the Legal Reserve as required by Mozambican Company law.