CPC outlines measure to restore profitability
THE Cocoa Processing Company PLC (CPC) will start the full operation of its new chocolate spread production plant which has been on test run.
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The company believes attaining full operation of that plant would improve its fortunes in the coming years.
Additionally, seven out of its 10 machines for the packing of various sizes of the cocoa and confectionery products would also be fully operationalised.
The Acting Managing Director of the company, Dr Frank Adu Asante, who made this known at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the company in Accra, said the Ghana Cocoa Board had also projected a better crop season for the coming year, which would impact positively on the operations of the company, as there would be enough beans available for processing.
Operational loss
The AGM was to receive, consider, approve and adopt the Financial Statements for the year 2021 and 2022.
The company’s revenue from contract with customers increased to $43.49 million for last year from $41.84 million in 2021, up from the $13.65 million it recorded in 2020.
However, the company’s cost of sales also soared from $16.68 million in 2020 to $46.83 million in 2021 and $47.36 million for last year.
This led to a loss of $18.64 million in 2020, $15.16 million in 2021 and $12.06 million for last year.
Dr Asante acknowledged that the years under review had been very challenging but was quick to add that the year-on-year reduction in operational losses since the 2019/2020 financial year was an indication that the financial restructuring, critical process improvements and cost reduction initiatives put in place by management were yielding results.
Citing reasons for the relatively low production output, the Acting Managing Director of CPC mentioned the unavailability of the variety beans which were more profitable to process, technical setbacks due to delays in procuring parts from external sources for repairing plant and equipment as well as financial constraints affecting timely acquisition of spare parts for machinery.
Dr Asante said CPC’s challenges regarding the technical inefficiencies of the machineries continued to disrupt efforts of the board and management to bring about the needed transformation.
“In all these challenges, we have successfully maintained the highest quality standards throughout the years under review,” he stated.
“All certificates issued by the statutory bodies in Ghana as well as our Hallal, Kosher and ISO 9001:15 which are issued by international authorities were renewed. This is important because your company is a major exporter of its products and meeting these international standards is key to staying in business,” Dr Asante said.
“We are certain that our continued dedication to excellence in this area will surely drive growth and profitability in the future,” he added.
Customers
To ensure that the production was responding to the needs of our customers, the Acting Managing Director said staff of the Sales and Marketing Department of the CPC were supported to develop closer relationships with both local and foreign buyers of semi-finished and confectionary products.
“Depots were also opened in Takoradi and Kasoa to bring GoldenTree products closer to our cherished customers in the Western and Central regions,” he added.
He said with the installation of a new three MT/Hr coarse and fine milling machine and six new MT/Day conche which would increase the GoldenTree chocolate volume, CPC would increase its presence in the newly created geographical regions in the country and also increase sales in the new markets it had developed in the AFCTA member countries.
The Board Chairman of CPC, Kwaku Owusu Baah, who presented the annual report and financial statement of the company over the last two years (September 30, 2021 and September 30, 2022), attributed the difficulty confronting the company to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
He said the pandemic disrupted supply chains which led to labour shortages, transportation bottlenecks and increased costs.
Mr Baah further indicated that cocoa producing countries in West Africa experienced difficulties in harvesting, processing and exporting cocoa beans, pointing out that the development negatively impacted CPC because it limited access to cocoa beans for processing and also disrupted export sales of its products.
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“In view of the operational losses resulting from the challenges faced, the directors of your company are regrettably unable to recommend the payment of dividends for the year 2021/2022 financial years,” Mr Baah added.