Honeywell Flour Mills Invests $63m To Increase Capacity By 62%

Nigerian Stock Exchange listed indigenous miller, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc has announced the completion of its Apapa factory expansion with two additional mills estimated at N10bn ($63 million).

Honeywell had announced early this year that it is currently investing over N10 billion (about $65 million) in a state-of-the art twin mill facility, at its current site in Apapa, Lagos, with combined capacity of 1,000MT/day to enable it meet growing demand for its range of products. 

Company founder and former President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Dr. Oba Otudeko said the project to realise a 1000 metric-tonnes-per-day increase in milling capacity by the company was completed around March 2013, which he said, had taken the milling capacity to 2,610mt/day.

The new mill will fuel the Company’s product diversification strategy that started with the expansion into Noodles and Pasta through HFMP’s wholly owned subsidiary, Honeywell Superfine Foods Plc.

Executive Vice-Chairman of the company, Babatunde Odunayo in a statement released by the company said the expansion had increased its production capacity by about 62 per cent to be able to meet the increasing demand for its products.

Odunayo said the new investment would lead to business growth and more profits for customers; adding that the expansion project also included the completion of a-first-of-its-kind automated warehouse in Nigeria.

At its 4th annual general meeting (AGM) held in September, Honeywell announced a N1.3 billion ($8.2m) dividend recommended by the board of directors which translates to 16 kobo per share.

Its Profit after tax rose from N2.7 billion to N2.84 billion, while shareholders’ funds and total assets increased by nine per cent and 16 per cent to N19 billion and N55 billion respectively.

Its revenue also increased by 20 per cent from N38 billion to N46 billion.