For three straight years, Nigerian Breweries Plc defied logic. Revenue climbed steadily while profits vanished.
Between 2021 and 2025, the brewer's sales more than tripled, jumping from N437.2 billion to N1.47 trillion. Yet shareholders faced one of the harshest earnings collapses in company memory.
Naira devaluation was the culprit. Foreign currency debts ballooned on the balance sheet, erasing what should have been profitable years.
The 2025 results tell a different story now. They offer shareholders real hope and a blueprint for survival in a volatile currency environment.
In 2021, things looked solid. Revenue hit N437.2 billion, with profit before tax at N23.9 billion and net profit of N12.9 billion.
2022 kept the ship steady. Margins tightened but profits remained positive.
Then 2023 struck hard. Operating profit of N44 billion showed the core business still worked, but a shocking N153.3 billion FX loss destroyed everything else.
The company swung to a N145.2 billion pre-tax loss and N106.3 billion net loss. Nigerians weren't buying less beer.
The exchange rate was killing them.
2024 got worse before it got better. Revenue soared to N1.08 trillion and operating profit reached N69.9 billion, yet losses deepened to N183 billion pre-tax and N145 billion after tax.
The pattern was unmistakable by then. Currency losses were the real enemy, not weak sales.
Shareholders watched closely as 2025 approached. What would management do?
The answer: aggressively pay down debt. At year start, total borrowings were N209.1 billion.
During 2025, the company borrowed N168.5 billion but repaid N317.9 billion. This left borrowings at just N59.7 billion by December—a stunning 71 percent cut in twelve months.
A 2024 rights issue funded the strategy. The money went straight into eliminating foreign currency debt.
Currency exposure numbers prove the math worked. End of 2024 saw 29,042 euros, 1,278 pounds sterling, and 6,680 US dollars owed.
By end of 2025, those had shrunk dramatically. Euros dropped to negative 1,748, pounds fell to 35, and dollars decreased to 5,356.
Net finance charges plummeted 83 percent in the same period.
Here's what mattered most: they didn't sell their way back to profit. They deleveraged their way out.
Nigerian manufacturers across industries faced the same trap. Stable currency years masked a dangerous vulnerability few noticed.
Heavy foreign currency borrowing looked fine when the naira was steady. Then 2023 devaluation exposed the risk.
Operating gains meant nothing if exchange losses consumed them. Nigerian Breweries learned this lesson the hard way, then solved it.
Their solution—cutting foreign currency debt aggressively—now offers a roadmap for other companies still struggling with the aftermath.
