The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Honeywell

  • Honeywell Flour Mills’ profit drops by 39% in three months

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc suffered a slowdown in the first quarter of this year as the flour-milling company struggled with sluggish sales and high operating expenses.

    Key extracts of the interim report and accounts of the company for the three-month period ended June 30, 2015 showed that sales dropped by 3.03 per cent while pre and post-tax profits declined by 32.6 per cent and 38.7 per cent respectively.

    Turnover dropped to N12.9 billion by June 2015 as against N13.2 billion recorded in comparable period of 2014. Operating profit declined by 12.8 per cent from N743 million to N648 million. While finance cost dropped considerably from N725 million to N311 million, increase in selling and distribution expenses from N1.57 billion to N1.73 billion further undermined the bottom-line.

    Profit before tax thus dropped from N585 million to N394 million. Profit after tax also declined from N462 million to N283 million. Earnings per share dropped from 5.83 kobo to 3.57 kobo. The company’s total assets dropped slightly from N67.94 billion to N67.9 billion. However, shareholders’ funds increased marginally from N20.3 billion to N20.6 billion.

    The first quarter report further highlighted the declining performance of the company. The audited report and accounts of Honeywell Flour Mills for year ended March 31, 2015 had shown that turnover dropped from N N55.08 billion in 2014 to N49.06 billion in 2015. Gross profit dropped from N10.46 billion to N7.5 billion. Profit before tax slumped to N1.43 billion in 2015 as against N4.24 billion in 2014 while profit after tax declined to N1.12 billion in 2015 compared with N3.35 billion in 2014.

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc plans to leverage on increased local inputs to reduce exposure to foreign exchange volatility, improve its logistics and consolidate its market share as part of comprehensive growth plan to drive the performance of the company in the years ahead and minimize external influences on earnings.

    Managing Director, Honeywell Flour Mills, Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola, had blamed the company’s low performance on unfavourable extraneous factors that have proven more challenging and less controllable and adversely impacted the results.

    The company noted that the pressure experienced in the top-line reflected the intense competition around price war going on in the industry and the falling Naira.

    The company attributed the latest performance to several factors including the Apapa traffic gridlock and declining infrastructure around the ports.

    “Roads leading to and from Apapa have effectively become car parks. Truck parking facilities around the ports that should have been completed years ago seem to have become abandoned projects. These problems have compromised our logistics efficiency by frustrating the prompt loading of products resulting in longer loading turnaround times and reduced stock turnover,” the company said.

    Jaiyeola lamented the economic loss arising from the falling Naira, the perennial chaotic traffic and debilitating condition of the roads leading in and out of Apapa.

    According to him, the company’s customers, suppliers, haulage partners and staff demonstrated great courage, loyalty and commitment during these challenging times.

     

    “It takes, on an average, eight hours for customers to access or exit the factory. Added to these, is a rise in dollar denominated input costs.  Costs of wheat and spare parts have been rising because of the falling Naira to forex rates. These challenges coupled with weakening macro-economics of the country, means it takes much longer to factor such cost increments into product prices,” Jaiyeola said.

    He however noted that the company plans to build on some successes recorded in the last financial year, including the wide acceptance of its new flour brand: Honeywell Composite Flour (HCF) which contains 10 per cent High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF).

    According to him, the company will continue to evaluate opportunities to increase use of local inputs in its portfolio that helps it to reduce its exposure to forex volatility.

    He outlined that the management has been implementing new initiatives to improve outbound logistics and service delivery including the operation of off-site warehouses and optimization of its 24-hour loading programme.

    Jaiyeola said Honeywell Flour Mills is also taking a leading role in the engagement with the Federal Government, Lagos State Government, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other stakeholders to find immediate and long term solutions to the traffic problems in Apapa.

    He added that the company is also focusing increasing penetration to the retail segment, energizing its loyal customers and activating new consumers, stressing that the company is constantly seeking out innovative and cost efficient best practices in manufacturing to improve performance.

     

     

     

     

  • Honeywell to entrepreneurs: ensure quality control

    Honeywell to entrepreneurs: ensure quality control

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc has stress the need for entrepreneurs to embrace quality control in their businesses.

    Managing Director, Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola who stated this on Friday, in Lagos, at the 27th  Certificate Award Ceremony of the Honeywell Baking School, noted that business owners stand to gain a lot by emphasising quality in their processes, as this will impact positively in their bottom-line.

    While listing empowering of bakers as part of efforts by the company to ensure adherence to quality control and success of small businesses, he said Honeywell Flour Mills recognises that Nigerian bakers need a broad mix of skills, as close to a decade, the company has committed resources to the training of over 360 Master Bakers from different parts of the country in a total of 27 Regular Courses and One Executive Course.

    Jaiyeola said the company’s vision has always been to equip bakers and bakery owners with the most important resource of knowledge and skills required to run profitable operations and build enduring businesses. The vision, according to him, is driven by understanding of the impacts SMEs could have as engine of job creation and enablers of wealth distribution of which the baking industry represents, being one of the largest SMEs in terms of numbers and size in the country.

    “In an increasingly competitive world, we believe improved quality of thinking usually provide the necessary competitive edge, an idea that opens new doors to success, a technique that solves a problem, or an insight that simply makes a sense of it all by being at the fore-front in the training of bakers in Nigeria,” he said.

    He also urged the graduands to apply knowledge gained to distinguish themselves from the pack, saying, “let your distributors/vendors and consumers know you for quality and give them the confidence that you use Honeywell Superfine flour and Honeywell Composite flour, the best quality types of flour in the market.”

  • Honeywell Flour Mills outlines growth plan

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc plans to leverage on increased local input to reduce exposure to foreign exchange volatility, improve its logistics and consolidate its market share as part of comprehensive growth plan to drive the performance of the company in the years ahead and minimize external influences on earnings.

    Managing Director, Honeywell Flour Mills, Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola, said the company plans to build on some successes recorded in the last financial year, including the wide acceptance of its new flour brand: Honeywell Composite Flour (HCF) which contains 10 per cent High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF).

    According to him, the company will continue to evaluate opportunities to increase use of local inputs in its portfolio that helps it to reduce its exposure to forex volatility.

    He outlined that the management has been implementing new initiatives to improve outbound logistics and service delivery including the operation of off-site warehouses and optimization of its 24-hour loading programme.

    Jaiyeola said Honeywell Flour Mills is also taking a leading role in the engagement with the Federal Government, Lagos State Government, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other stakeholders to find immediate and long term solutions to the traffic problems in Apapa.

    He added that te company is also focusing increasing penetration to the retail segment, energizing its loyal customers and activating new consumers, stressing that the company is constantly seeking out innovative and cost efficient best practices in manufacturing to improve performance.

    “This year’s unfavourable extraneous factors have proven more challenging and less controllable and adversely impacted our results. We remain optimistic that lost volumes will be recovered in the near term and that we will be back on the growth trajectory. Thankfully, we have begun to see signs of recovery in the key markets in the North East following the successes recorded by the Federal Government in the war against the insurgency,” Jaiyeola said.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of Honeywell Flour Mills for year ended March 31, 2015 showed that turnover dropped from N N55.08 billion in 2014 to N49.06 billion in 2015. Gross profit dropped from N10.46 billion to N7.5 billion. Profit before tax slumped to N1.43 billion in 2015 as against N4.24 billion in 2014 while profit after tax declined to N1.12 billion in 2015 compared with N3.35 billion in 2014.

    The company noted that the pressure experienced in the top-line reflected the intense competition around price war going on in the industry and the falling Naira.

    The company attributed the latest performance to several factors including the Apapa traffic gridlock and declining infrastructure around the ports.

    “Roads leading to and from Apapa have effectively become car parks. Truck parking facilities around the ports that should have been completed years ago seem to have become abandoned projects. These problems have compromised our logistics efficiency by frustrating the prompt loading of products resulting in longer loading turnaround times and reduced stock turnover,” the company stated.

    Jaiyeola lamented the economic loss arising from the falling Naira, the perennial chaotic traffic and debilitating condition of the roads leading in and out of Apapa.

    According to him, the company’s customers, suppliers, haulage partners and staff demonstrated great courage, loyalty and commitment during these challenging times.

    “It takes, on an average, eight hours for customers to access or exit the factory. Added to these, is a rise in dollar denominated input costs.  Costs of wheat and spare parts have been rising because of the falling Naira to forex rates. These challenges coupled with weakening macro-economics of the country, means it takes much longer to factor such cost increments into product prices,” Jaiyeola added.

  • Honeywell to increase production to 1000 metric tons

    Honeywell to increase production to 1000 metric tons

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc has hinted of plans to embark on expansion project that would increase its production capacity from the current 210 metric tons per day to about 1000 metric tons.

    The Managing Director of the company, Lanre Jaiyeola who stated this during the 2015 Annual Customers’ Forum in Lagos, at the weekend, said the company has since acquired a 68 hectare of land at Shagamu area of the Ogun State for smooth take off of the project.

    The event tagged: ‘Winning Together: Be the Best’, attracted major distributors of the company across the federation.

    According to him, when completed it would serve as one location where virtually all the food business of the company group would be concentrated adding it will become the company’s food complex.

    The company, he further noted, is embarking on expansion of 500 per ton flour mill and increasing noodles and pasta at various locations in the country.

    Jaiyeola said the company  will continue to support its customers in every area possible recognising the fact that they are a critical part of the business meaning they needed all the support they could get from the company to put its products in every nook and cranny of the country

    The development plan of the company is primarily to become the national food provider, he noted adding, “We do not only want to play in the space of producing food for human but also producing for the animals.”

    On the government directive on cassava policy, the Honeywell boss said the level of compliance exhibited by the company is encouraging.

    Jaiyeola recalled that when the new policy regime on cassava flour was mooted, the company embraced it wholeheartedly and demonstrated it by investing massively in various equipments.

    Specifically, he said the company invested close to N1billion in various equipments in the existing mills in the Lagos state.

    “Today, the government has said we should include between three-five percent by the end of this financial year.  Today, we are going between 3-4 percent and we hope to take this up to five percent by December this year.”

    He said the last financial year was very challenging with many issues that confronted the nation’s economy including the crash in crude oil prices in the international market which he said led to the devaluation of the of the naira.

    This, coupled with other operational and infrastructural challenges he said made it difficult for the company to achieve its budget for last financial year.

    He however informed that the company has line up lots of exciting marketing and trade marketing activities to help drive increased demand for the products by retailers and customers saying we are running these promotions so that more volume of our products could be sold.

    Echoing similar sentiments, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, Alan Palmer, said the company is committed to building the Nigerian economy and appealed to the government to put adequate infrastructure in place to drive economic development.

  • Honeywell to integrate cassava flour in production

    The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Honeywell Flour Mills  Mr. Olarewaju Jaiyeola has said  the company is ready to integrate the 10 per cent high  cassava yield flour  in its production process  in order to key into the Federal Government’s policy on cassava bread.

    Jaiyeola who spoke shortly after a media facility tour of the company in Lagos, said the policy has brought the Ministry of Agriculture closer to flour mailers in the country in a collaborative effort that has yielded  more economic benefits for the country at large especially in the area of employment generation.

    According to him, the government, for the first time, was able to support the policy with a holistic approach in terms of collaborative efforts with the private sector in the value laden chain that include the cassava farmers, the processors, the flour mailers and the master bakers which has been producing a wonderful result.

    The CEO noted that Honeywell Flour Mill has started with 2.5 per cent  cassava  flour inclusion in production with a view to increasing it to 10 per cent next year, adding that the gradual process is necessary in order to have a solid back up plan for greater performance in not too distance a future

    He said: “We believe so much in the policy and admired the bold step taken by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina by interacting with all the stakeholders in the industry with a clear vision and focus that it can no longer be business as usual syndrome that has crippled well intended policies in the past.”

    Jaiyeola who said though there were some challenges especially in the area of sourcing for raw materials, he noted that by the time all the value chains are operational such a problem will become a thing of the past.

    “As long as people are convinced about the policy and could see the turn over for those people that venture into it, more investors will come in and the multiplier effect will solve the problem of unemployment,” he said.

    He gave kudos to Dr Adesina for his doggedness, consistence, creativity and commitment despite bureaucratic bottleneck and other man-made challenges which will soon fizzle out with time as soon as all things are in place

    “Today we have a minister who sit on a table with us and ready to take the first step by providing 500 hectares of land in all the six processing machine states which has been allocated to flour mailers as a back up in order to solve the problem of raw material,” he said.

     

     

  • Honeywell boosts youths’ cooking skills

    Honeywell boosts youths’ cooking skills

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc has reiterated its desire to make Nigerian youths rediscover themselves and be useful to the society through skills development. The company listed its regular Wheat meal cooking competition among youth corps members as one of the ways it is achieving this objective.

    Executive Director, Marketing, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr. Benson Evbuomwan, who stated this on Thursday at the Cooking Competition held at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Lagos State camp, Iyana Ipaja said Honeywell will continue to promote cooking talents among the youths, as such will bring out their unique skills with a view to equipping them for future challenges. It will also endear them early enough to the company’s products by making them Honeywell Ambassadors.

    Explaining the rationale for the competition, Evbuomwan said the company, Nigeria’s premier producer of wheat based products, is utilizing the opportunity provided by the unique change point of the youth corps members who are basically future mothers and fathers by introducing to them the company’s products so as to appreciate them with a view to shaping their choice of food items in future.

    “We are looking beyond today. Our expectation is in the long run. These are prospective mothers and fathers who will be opinion molders in their respective families.  They will virtually be Honeywell Ambassadors as they have affinity with the products already. Besides, we are doing this to also lift the social activities in the camp so that the corpers’ stay will not remain boring”, he said.

    The company, which produces Superfine Flour, Whole Wheat Meal, Semolina, Brown Flour, Honeywell Noodles, Spaghetti and Macaroni, is currently at advanced stages in the development of a new Pasta plant and an Integrated Animal Feed Mill in Sagamu, Ogun State. Both projects, which are to be completed in year 2016, will create thousands of jobs and support several agriculture value chains in Nigeria, focusing on local raw material inputs.

    The competition, which was also graced by top notch of the Service including NYSC Lagos State Coordinator, Mrs. Adenike Adeyemi, also witnessed various talent shows where various gifts and consolation prizes were won.

  • Growing the top-line is our priority, says Honeywell Flour Mills

    The main objective of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc’s growth strategy is to ensure healthy growth in its sales as it seeks to create headroom for profit margins in a cost-push and tough environment.

    Managing Director, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr Lanre Jaiyeola, in a review of the operations of the company, said the double-digit growth recorded in sales in the immediate past year ended March 31, 2014 showed the commitment of the company to deliver on its top priority.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of Honeywell Flour Mills for the year ended March 31, 2014 showed that sales rose by 21 per cent to N55.08 billion as against N46 billion recorded in the previous year. Profit after tax also rose by 18 per cent from N2.8 billion to N3.5 billion, which translated to similar increase in earnings per share from 35.86 kobo to 42.26 kobo.

    Jaiyeola said the results reflected the company’s increased output capacity and aggressive push to meet rising demand across its product categories.

    According to him, despite the challenge of input cost pressures caused by increase in wheat prices, Honeywell Flour Mills was still able to achieve a 32 per cent increase in gross profit from the N8 billion to N10.4 billion due to deft management of raw material sourcing and efficient control of production cost.

    He noted that the sheer challenge of operating in the Nigerian business environment was evident in the rising profile of Honeywell Flour Mill’s operating expenses as it incurred costs to deepen its trade, marketing and sales activities to further develop hitherto under-served sectors of the Nigerian market.

    “Growing the top line is our number one priority, even as large industry capacity remains a constant threat.  We are committed to the  development of higher margin products and from our results, you can see that investments in brand equity are beginning to yield fruits as sales of our value added products like semolina, wheat meal and noodles contributed more to our portfolio mix than in the past. This is a trend that we plan to sustain and even grow as we embark on a new phase in our corporate existence”, Jaiyeola said.

    He noted that Honeywell Flour Mills is currently at advanced stages in the development of a new pasta plant and an integrated animal feed mill in Sagamu, Ogun State, two projects that are expected to be completed in 2016.

    Jaiyeola said the expansion would create thousands of jobs and support several agriculture value chains in Nigeria by focusing on local raw material inputs.

    Operating from two locations, Apapa and Ikeja, in Lagos, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc. is one of the largest food-focused companies in Nigeria and is a member company of the Honeywell Group. Its products include branded food products like Honeywell Pasta, Honeywell Noodles, Honeywell Wheat Meal and Honeywell Semolina.

    The fiscal year ended with a transition in the leadership of the company; the pioneer chief executive officer, Mr Folaranmi Odunayo, retired after 17 years of service and was succeeded by Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola. Prior to his appointment, Jaiyeola had garnered 20 years experience in the company, working across strategic departments at both managerial and executive management levels.

  • Honeywell donates to orphanage

    Honeywell donates to orphanage

    Honeywell Flour Mills Plc has reiterated its commitment to positively impact on humanity by giving back to the society through effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. Managing Director, Honeywell Flour Mills PLc, Mr Lanre Jaiyeola noted that company would continue to support good cause in the society, especially those that have direct impact on human development.

    He spoke during a visit to some orphanage homes in Lagos where the company donated its products, equipment and cash.  The event also coincided with the Children’s Day celebration where the company sponsored a jolly train ride with children of select schools in Lagos. The train ride, which took off from Ebute Metta Station went through Oshodi, Ikeja, Abule Egba to Ijoko and back to Ebute Metta.

    Jaiyeola who described the trip as a delightful experience for the children, said Honeywell will continue to seize opportunity to make its impact felt in the society, listing such opportunities to include support provided sporting events, entrepreneurship programs, vulnerable groups, etc. “It is our own way of adding value to the people that we believe should have needs within the society, and our own way to alleviate poverty, suffering in the land”, he said.

    Among beneficiaries of latest gestures are the SOS Village, Isolo, Little Saints Orphanage and Bethesda Home for the Blind.

    Executive Director, Marketing, Mr Benson Evbuomwan said: “Every good organisation should have a corporate social responsibility on its objectives because we cannot do anything without the people we are serving. Everything is not just about buying our products, we should also be seeing to be improving the welfare of the people we are serving. We should be giving back to the community and there are so many ways we have been doing that”.

    At the orphanages visited, the founders and administrators were full of praises to Honeywell commending it for the humanitarian gesture, while also listing their areas of needs that require further attention. Common among their challenges include the need for more funding, renovation and building of new structures as well as more support from the government, individuals and corporate organisations.

  • Lube giants set for motor fair

    The lube giants – Mobil, Total, MRS, Forte Oil, Lubcon, Ascon Oil, Honeywell, V-Gold, Techno oil, and Pepco are set to upstage one another at the forthcoming Ninth Lagos Motor Fair/ Third Auto parts Expo, which will hold between 1 and 7 May.

    The indigenous companies are not left out as all the big names in the lubricant sector have all declared their interest to participate in this year’s event, leveraging on the outstanding success recorded in the 2013 edition.

    The event has been tagged as the ‘gathering of the heavy weights’ in the lube sector.

    The lube giants, while stating their level of preparedness, revealed that they have been working round the clock with the organising committee to ensure a great outing.

    They also highlighted that they will be at the expo with a wide range of products ranging from the Multigrade engine oil for petrol and diesel engines, Semi-Synthetic Multigrade engine oil for petrol and diesel engines, super vehicle performance engine oil, Mineral based Multigrade engine oil for petrol and diesel engines, Mineral based Mono-grade engine oil for petrol engines and other allied products

    Chairman, Organising committee and the Managing Director BKG Exhibitions, Ifeanyi Agwu, noted that exhibiting at shows of such nature provides a significant opportunity to enhance brand visibility, promote new and existing products, generate leads, and drive incremental sales.

    Agwu said: “A whole lot of the brands who started with us and are still with us can testify to this. They have moved to greater heights. That is the beauty of trade shows. They take you to another level by consistently keeping you in the minds of your target audience. And we will not relent in making the dreams of these exhibitors come true because of the faith they have put in us over the years.”

    He reiterated the need for other stakeholders in the industry to utilise the opportunities provided by the platform to further strengthen and promote the automobile and allied sectors which have the capability of contributing more than 10 per cent to the annual National GDP.

     

  • U.S., Honeywell Group sign $514,000 pact on gas project

    U.S., Honeywell Group sign $514,000 pact on gas project

    The United States (U.S.) is ready to support Nigerian entrepreneurs, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy, Ms Maria Brewer, has said.

    Brewer spoke at the grant signing ceremony by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), a U.S. government entity, and Honeywell Group Limited. Both are committing $257,000 (about N39.84m) each to a feasibility study to build a gas-based industrial complex in Nigeria, whose total budget is $514, 000.

    At the ceremony held at the U.S. Consul General’s residence in Ikoyi, Lagos, Brewer explained that in supporting Nigerian entrepreneurs, the goals of the U.S. are to promote economic development and employment across the country, while facilitating trade and investment opportunities between the U.S. and Nigeria.

    Head, Corporate Development & Investment for Honeywell Group,Dr. Teddy Ngu, signed on behalf of his company. Brewer signed for USTDA.

    “We are here today to put these goals into action and thanks to focused funding programmes provided by the USTDA,” Ms Brewer said.

    Brewer said with USTDA assistance, Honeywell Group would be able to complete a study to evaluate the chemical outputs from various types of facilities and identify required capital costs, potential U.S. suppliers, and potential barriers to the project.

    The U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission added: “This project has the potential to be a win-win for both the U.S. and Nigeria. While helping to develop Nigeria’s emerging petrochemical industry and promoting the expansion of a Nigerian based business, the construction and operation of the facility could potentially generate significant U.S. exports of goods and services,” she said.

    Ngu said thousands of employments would be created and youths, especially those in oil bunkering would be brought back into the mainstream. He said work on the gas-based industrial complex would begin within the next three or four years.