Nigerian Breweries Appoints Doyer Interim MD/CEO

The Board of Directors of Nigerian Breweries Plc has announced the appointment of Mr. Johan Antonie Doyer as the company’s new Managing Director/CEO. Doyer will succeed Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde, who will be leaving Nigeria Breweries to assume a new position as the MD of Heineken Asia Pacific Region.

In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, the company said Doyer’s appointment takes effect on the 16th of June, 2017 on an interim basis pending the appointment of a substantive MD/CEO.

According to Nigeria Breweries, Doyer joined Heineken Netherlands in 1978 as Product Manager and subsequently held increasingly senior Marketing management positions in different regions. He became the General Manager in Vietnam followed by La Reunion, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile and the Sedibeng Brewery in South Africa.

“Doyer retired from Heineken in July 2015 as the MD of Heiken Ethiopia. While in Ethiopia, he was responsible for building the new company, integrating two acquired breweries, building a new brewery, launching new brands and overseeing the tripling of that company’s volume. He set the stage for the growth Heineken Ethiopia has recorded. The Board is confident that Doyer’s wealth of experience stands him in a very good position to help the Company continue its twin strategy of Cost Leadership and Market Leadership towards sustaining the company’s leadership position in the market and its philosophy of winning with Nigeria,” the company said.

Nigerian Breweries Plc recorded a revenue of N313.743 billion for the 2016 financial year, up from N293.9 billion in 2015. Profit before tax stood at N39.675 billion, down from N54.514 billion in 2015 while profit after tax was N28.416 billion as against N38.05 billion in 2015.

The directors recommended a final dividend of N20.457 billion, which translate to N2.58 per share, bringing the total dividend to N28.386 billion or N3.58 per share.

The Chairman of the company, Chief Kola Jamodu told the shareholders last week that the operating environment in 2016 was very challenging especially from an input cost, foreign exchange and purchasing power perspectives.

“Our volume growth was in the mid-single digit region, coupled with the price increases that we implemented positively impacted our revenue growth. The positive results we achieved in 2016 were helped in no small measure by our Cost Leadership Agenda through which we focused on being better with revenue management, optimising costs and a continuous process of consumer value engineering,” he said.