Managing Director of Unilever Ghana Limited, George Owusu-Ansah
The Managing Director of Unilever Ghana Limited, George Owusu-Ansah, has said that the company is on a recovery path after restructuring its operations to ensure a significant reduction of the losses recorded in 2019.
Results from the 2019 Annual reports showed Unilever Ghana recorded a revenue drop of 47 percent, from GHȼ632million in 2018 to GHȼ333million in 2019.
According to the company’s financial statement on its earnings, the current results reflect difficult trading conditions in 2019 as well as a decision by management to slow down on sales in order to reset the levels of stock in trade.
But the business has shown some positive results in 2020; revenue in 2020 grew by 36.9 percent. This growth was mainly volume-led, as it came on the back of improvements from the order to cash process, route to market operation and investments.
The loss of GHȼ50.3million for 2020 is a GHȼ110million improvement against the loss recorded in 2019 of GHȼ160million. On the Ghana Stock Exchange where it is listed, the company realised some improvement in its financial positions; the loss per share of 80 pesewas in 2020 is a huge improvement over the GHȼ2.56 recorded in 2019.
Speaking to the Media, Managing Director of Unilever Ghana Limited, George Owusu-Ansah said: “Business is like life, it is full of ups and downs; I think what is important is what you do with your challenges, and I think we have learnt a lot from our recent challenges. Many of the lessons learnt we have inculcated into the way we do things, and it is the reason for the improvement we saw last year. We have learnt more about and improved our systems, processes, controls and the way we do business.
“Again, we have confidence in the market. We believe that in spite of the improvement last year, we have not reached our full potential in terms of service to this market.”
He added that the company is backed by a heritage that will hold it up firmly in turbulent times.
“We also come from the heritage of multinationals – that everywhere in the world has a lot more products on the market than we have in Ghana. The main thing for me is improving our systems and processes to become more efficient in the way we operate.
Mr. Owusu-Ansah is optimistic the company’s operations will be stable as new initiatives are deployed.
“We also have to aim at serving every Ghanaian their needs with the product we have in our stable in affordable ways. That is what gives us confidence. We are a marketing company so we believe we know how to market, and we are returning to our roots as a marketing company.”
