Cafca pushes volumes but profit down

Cable manufacturer Cafca today reported a 15 percent decline in net profit to $1.7 million in the full year to September as the company sacrificed margins to push local sales and export volumes.

Volumes grew by 39 percent while revenue increased by 24 percent to $29.3 million compared to the previous year.

Operating profit for the year dropped 11 percent to $2.4 million.

“The strategy for the year was to push volumes and turnover and take the company from a 200-tonne a month company to a 300-tonne a month company. This was achieved by cutting margins and vigorously exporting,” company secretary Caroline Kangara said in statement accompanying company results.

Apart from supplying the local market, the company exports its product to South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia.

“The outlook for the immediate future is a reduction in the company sales and the consequential production output to 200 tonnes a month whilst we clear the stock and debtors build up and get cash back in the bank,” she said.

Kangara said the company would revert to the 300-tonne capacity should the economic activity improve locally or in the export markets which are under pressure from low commodity prices and fluctuating currencies.

No dividend was declared.-The Source

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