STAFF WRITER
DELTA Corporation says revenue jumped 33 percent for the second quarter ending September 30 2018 and 37 percent for the half year driven by the volume growth in the beer businesses.
In a trading update for the second quarter, Delta said that lager beer recorded a spike in demand with the volume growing by 52 percent over prior year for the quarter and is up 54 percent for the six months.
“Consumer demand has been firm due to increased economic activity in mining and agriculture, expansionary fiscal and monetary policies and the election -related spending,” the company said.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s second biggest counter by market capitalisation said the growth in revenue has positively impacted on profitability and cash flows.
The business has responded well to the surge in demand, with volume out-turn surpassing historical peaks. There are some frictional shortages of brands and packs occasioned by the limited production capacity and raw material supply issues.
Sorghum beer volume in Zimbabwe grew by 9 percent above prior year for the quarter and 2 percent for the six months.
There was an improvement in the supply of packaging materials for Chibuku Super.
The production capacity for Chibuku Super is now fully extended while that for standard Chibuku is limited by the shortages of Scud bottles.It said National Breweries Plc – Zambia (Natbrew Plc) recorded a volume growth of 13percent, in response to the volume recovery initiatives which focus on packs and competitive pricing. The Sparkling GDP GDP per capital *Angola $100 billion $3 722 Botswana $17.6 billion $8 051 *Ethiopia $80.6 billion $884 *Mozambique $11 billion $382 Zambia $26.9 billion $1 563 South Africa $355 billion $6 281 Nigeria $376 billion $1 995 *2016 figures MedTech returns to profitability in H1 beverages volume declined by 14 percent compared to prior year for the quarter and grew by 3percent for the six months.
“The category was adversely affected by the challenges in securing imported raw materials, leading to extended periods of production stoppages and out of stock situation,” Delta said.
The Delta board declared an interim dividend of 2.5 cents per share or $31.4 million payable to shareholders registered at the close of business on October 26 2018.
