eBusiness Weekly
Kudakwashe Mhundwa
Brick making concern, Willdale Limited says production capacity for the first 5 months from October 2018 to February 2019 has increased by about 70 percent on the back of strategies that were implemented by the firm during the period.
Addressing shareholders at the company`s annual general meeting, Willdale chief executive officer Nyasha Matonda said despite challenges in the operating environment the brick making concern`s profitability remained well ahead of target.
“The first five months of our financial year (October to February) we witnessed a fair share of challenges emanating from the difficult economic environment.
In the first quarter we experienced serious diesel shortages which led us to stopping operations earlier than planned because we traditionally stop operations at the onset of the rain seasons and use that time for repairs and maintenance of our machines.
“The runaway inflation has impacted on our sales and costing structures. Our sales volumes for the five months were 22 percent and 18 percent below prior year end budget. This is largely because of a mismatch between disposable income of clients and preselling price match.
“However, despite this dip in volumes, profitability is way ahead of target due to mainly cost containment and pricing. In terms of cost containment, if you look at our cost of sales mainly up just under 10 percent compared to the prior period.”
“This year we started production one month earlier compared to last time, therefore we expect our production to surpass last year`s production and even the set targets, fire production is already 18 percent compared to the production of last year. The production capacity has gone up by 68 percent for the five months,” said Matonda.
He also highlighted that the firm has stockpiled critical row materials which will be critical in ensuring that it maintains efficiency and boost competitiveness.
“In the midst of the turmoil of the past five months we have managed to stock pile critical row materials such as coal and machine ware parts and this will help in keeping our production efficiencies high and boost our competitiveness. Availability of diesel and a stable electricity supply will be critical in meeting our production targets,” he said.
