Larry Ettah, GMD/CEO, UAC of Nigeria Plc |
The Group Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer of UAC Nigeria Plc, Mr.
Larry Ettah, has charged the management and staff of the conglomerate not
to allow widespread predictions of a gloomy end of year in Nigeria to dampen
their zeal to enjoy the Yuletide. He gave the charge in his 2016 Christmas
Message to staff, wherein he enjoined them to be guided by the conduct of Jesus
Christ whose life epitomised love, humility, steadfastness and grace.
He said: “In times past, Christmas was another barometer for gauging
the economy. Whatever may be the situation in which we mirror our current
situation and gauge the mood of our polity, we cannot deny the significance of
the season; we cannot afford to surrender to hopelessness. Christmas will not
and should not lose its essence because some of us will not be merry; the
season speaks more to our spirituality than to our physicality.”
He urged the
staff to reflect on their contributions to the Group’s performance in the
outgoing year, and resolve to do more to ensure increased customer engagement
and continuing relevance of the business and its brands. He said it was only by
looking at the bright side that the staff can inspire and elevate one another
to push UAC to achieve more at a time that other players in the economy are
narrowly focused on doomsday predictions.
Ettah
explained that the group’s third quarter results, which had been released much
earlier for the nine months ended 30 September, 2016 demonstrated the
resilience of UAC’s business and the effectiveness of its strategy in a very
difficult operating environment.
The Group
Financial Highlights showed that turnover was up from N55 billion in September
2015 to N57.7 billion in September 2016, representing five per cent year on
year top line growth. Other highlights of the nine-month performance in 2016
showed that the company, in comparative terms with 2015, recorded a Gross
Profit of N12.5 billion, up two per cent from N12.2 billion in September 2015;
other Income of N1.8 billion, up 92 per cent from N933 million September 2015
and Profit Before Tax (PBT) hit N6.3 billion, up 27 per cent from N4.95 billion
in September 2015.
“To
maintain the tempo and ensure that the progress is not unhinged in the
challenging circumstances ahead, we must innovate, we must experiment and we
must stamp out waste from our systems and processes. UAC of Nigeria Plc should
be among the pioneers to explore new pockets of ‘blue oceans’ for business
growth and sustainability in these hard times,” Ettah
said.
Whilst
enjoining the management and staff of UAC to have a merry Christmas and
prosperous 2017, the Group Managing Director charged them to maintain a firm
grip on the plough of business.
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