Dunlop Achieves 90 Per Cent Production Efficiency
Sales revenue goes up by 20 per cent
By Crusoe Osagie
The Chairman of Dunlop Nigeria Plc Mr Gamaliel Onosode has stated that the company has moved up their production efficiency to 90 per cent while moving up sale revenue to 20 per cent in the last one year.
Onosode who spoke during the company's annual general meeting in Lagos explained that the company has continued to increase its volume production and unit sales of tyres in the past year.
"The factory has achieved new records of tyre production output close to 90 per cent and efficiency close to 90 per cent as well as sales revenue of about 20 per cent above last year's figure," he said.
He, however, stated that margins remained at sub-optimal levels which according to him is due to high cost of production, inflationary trends in the macro-economy and the impact of old stocks of illegal imports, predominantly from China.
According to him, the All Steel Radial Trunk (ASRT) project is progressing satisfactorily and the first tyre will be produced by the end of the year. Our estimate remained that this project will double the size of the company and launch it back to decent profit. The existing factory continues to work hard trying to maximise production volume even further with better efficiency. " am also pleased to inform you that the United Kingdom vehicle certification agency (VCA) awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification at the end improve appreciably with greater probity and competence in national economic policy development," he stressed further.
Mr Onosode also said that government/labour relations have been rather fractious of late over the issue of petroleum product prices and deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. He said that it is expected that both parties will eventually put a truce of some sort in place as the realisation sinks in on both sides that extreme positions cannot be sustained, the possibility of further strike actions is expected to diminish in the second half of the year.
Speaking on the recent Central Bank directive that the shareholders' equity of banks be raised to N25 billion by 31st December, 2005, he said it should, with supple implementation and accompanied by complementary measures, be to the benefit of the banking sector and the nation at large. It will certainly lead to better concentration on core banking activities and the raising of the standards of professionalism. "On its own, it may not, however, automatically instill higher standards of probity and corporate governance in the banking sector, let alone predispose banks to providing better support for the real sector. But the take-off of the new Pension Reform Act should bring the possibility of harnessing long-term funds to finance manufacturing much closer to realisation. In the meantime, I do hope that the challenge of the current situation will oblige the banking industries to engage in the essential introspection with a view.
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