Unifreight in the red
BUSINESS REPORTER
Unifreight Africa Limited, swung into a loss of ZWL$76.2m in the 12 months to December 31, 2020 from a profit of ZWL$16.9m achieved in the prior year as the Covid-19 induced lockdown affected the listed transport logistics firm.
In a trading update, Unifreight chairman Peter Annesley said the company experienced headwinds in the year 2020 which was exacerbated by the volatility of the reporting currency which made the interpretation of the 2020 results a challenge.
“The board opted to measure performance by way of volume which reveals that Unifreight’s tonnage dropped 14% on the previous year.
“This being against a backdrop of a number of Unifreight customers being completely shut down while others operated at less than 50% of normal volumes for extended periods of time,” Annesley said.
However, revenue grew 94% to ZWL$1.5bn in the reviewed period from ZWL$1.3bn in 2019.
Operation costs increased to ZWL$1.2bn from ZWL$1bn.
EBITDA increased 8% to ZWL$367m from prior year.
Total assets for the group dropped 4% to ZWL$1.93bn during the period under review against ZWL$2.01bn reported during 2019.
Annesley said the group key performance indicators are moving in the right direction through improving yields and improved fuel consumption levels attributed to investment in the new fleet.
He said the company has embarked on a careful management of labour cost per tonne and an overall improvement in cost controls gives the board confidence that management is on a sustainable trajectory.
Annesley said the stark reality of an uncertain economic outlook nationally and globally were concerning.
He said, going forward, the management are focusing on what can be controlled, working hard to maintain a positive attitude and keep searching for pockets of opportunity that have been created whilst being extremely cognisant of protecting shareholder value.
