Harsh Business Environment: Unilever Stops Production In Nigeria

<h4>Harsh Business Environment<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Unilever Nigeria says it has stopped production and sales of home care and skin cleansing products — 10 months after the company announced plans to exit both markets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The company disclosed this in its unaudited interim financial statements for the year ended December 31&comma; 2023&comma; published on the Nigerian Exchange Limited &lpar;NGX&rpar; on Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On March 17&comma; 2023&comma; Unilever Nigeria revealed its intention to discontinue production of its homecare and skin-cleansing brands&comma; which include Omo&comma; Sunlight and Lux&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a statement in the company’s earnings report&comma; Unilever Nigeria said production and sales &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ceased in December 2023”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unilever said the factory used to produce the home care and skin cleansing products has been leased out to a third party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Subsequent to the company’s exit from the Home Care and Skin Cleansing categories&comma; the factory buildings have been leased to a third party for a duration of 10 years&comma; with annual rental payments&comma;” the company said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unilever Nigeria’s exit from the homecare and skin-cleansing markets leaves the company with just the foods&comma; beauty and wellbeing&comma; as well as personal care products&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prior to Unilever Nigeria’s exit from both markets&comma; the company reported a decline in revenue and an increase in losses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Revenue fell by 45&period;1 percent year-on-year to N16&comma;48 billion in 2023&comma; from N23&comma;92 billion grossed between January to December 2022&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Also&comma; loss increased to N3&period;72 billion last year&comma; compared to the previous year’s N1&period;49 billion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">Notably&comma; many manufacturing companies have halted their operations in Nigeria in the last 10 years over worsening macroeconomic challenges<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lingering foreign exchange scarcity&comma; poor power supply&comma; port congestion&comma; multiple taxation&comma; insecurity&comma; and poor infrastructure&comma; among others have taken a toll on many businesses in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>High energy costs&comma; a slowdown in industrial output&comma; and a sluggish demand for products are also among the issues debilitating manufacturing activities in Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;