The Managing Director of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Mr. Abdullahi Sule has declared that the company was the most profitable in beverage sector,
The company recorded a profit after tax of N21.4bn on a turnover of N80.6bn and has already declared N17bn as dividend for the 2007 financial year.
Sule said in a statement on Thursday in Lagos that the performance was testimony to the quality of its products and wide acceptance by the public.
He added that the company would continue to take innovative measures geared towards achieving consistent growth.
He pointed out that Dangote Sugar Refinery was the only sugar refinery in West Africa and the second largest in the world – second only to the one in Dubai.
He added, ”Our refinery is equipped with a system called Iron Exchange Resin – a new technology of refining sugar designed by the Tate and Lyle of the United Kingdom, which is a renowned sugar producer worldwide.
We are currently the only refinery in the whole of Africa that has the IER system. With that we are able to refine the best quality of sugar that you can obtain.”
Speaking on the planned expansion drive of the company, He said, ”We are in the process of expanding the sugar refinery to 2.5 million metric tonnes from 1.2 million MT per annum, thereby making us the largest sugar refinery worldwide.
He said that the location of the refinery at the Lagos port was to a huge advantage as the company was making significant savings on logistics costs as well as reductions in wastages and pilfering.
He said, ”We are importing our raw sugar straight from Santos in Brazil to Apapa that only 12 days sailing, which means we save a lot of money. We have dedicated jetties in this sugar refinery. There is no other refinery that is being built today that has dedicated jetties. So, these are all the advantages that we already have.
”More importantly, the Dangote Sugar business started in 1978, so it is a business that is already entrenched; it is a business that is already well established. It is actually going to grow from there, not dwindle.
He revealed that the company was already looking beyond Nigeria in its expansion drive and that thre company was in the process of establishing a one million metric tonne in Algeria, and had started exports to Ghana and Senegal.–punch
