Five Years Consecutive Losses That Cage IB Plc’s Dream
Tales of a serial profit loser brewer achieving higher revenue numbers on the back of vastly increasing cost of sales
The move by Anheuser-Busch InBev, a beer giant and the world’s largest brewer, to conquer the Nigeria’s brewery industry and displace the two incumbent players of Nigerian Brewery and Guinness is ,indeed , smacked of a long term planned agenda .The new owner of IB Plc did not hide its ambition . Displaying the fire in its belly , one of its former Managing Directors , Mr. Hugo Dias Rocha restated this more clearly as IB Plc’s corporate strategic intent last year : “Our dream of achieving market leadership of the beer industry in Nigeria remains unshaken as we are confident in our abilities and commitment as a team.” . This declaration, no doubt, sent jitters down the spines of the incumbent market leaders in the industry as well .
IB Plc had acquired SAB Miller Nigeria, former owner of International Breweries, Pabod Breweries and Intafact Breweries in 2016 ; later ,it adopted International Breweries Plc , its current corporate name purposely for that .The takeover , no doubt , casts for the then IB Limited as it was called before its takeover a shadow bigger than its former size. Observers and analysts, intimidated by the initiative , believed the move might signal the end of the decades of dominance of the brewery industry by the two incumbent players mentioned above .
However , few years after the takeover ,IBPlc has remained a dog barking but cannot bite ; since then ,International Breweries has remained a lame duck and its shareholders , observers and analysts of the company thoroughly disenchanted .
Although its intent is on challenging the industry status quo but IB Plc has remained more a rule-taker than a rule-maker within its industry with more efforts focused on catching up with competitors and less percentage of its effort have been on advantage-building ; its competitors “headlights” ,no doubt , remain shining farther out than its , its rivals more influential in setting the new rules of competition within its industry , regularly defining new ways of doing business, building new capabilities, and setting new standards of customer satisfaction than it . IB Plc is just at the treadmill delivering threshold values to its shareholders in terms of returns on their investments .
The case of IB Plc may not be far seek. The company is yet to overcome the task of regenerating core strategies while it is battling with the task of re engineering core processes . From its operations , it is evidently clear that the company is currently under a serious competitive pressure . Consequently, the fear instilled by its arrival to Nigeria brewery industry and its ambitious declaration has disappeared due to its failure to translate its dream to realty .
Even its future picture is equally increasingly gloomy for the company is now known to be a mere serial losers ; it has turned itself to an albatross for its shareholders ,creating more fears than dreams on their faces . .
Perhaps, due to the restlessness of its owners, the company has removed or redeployed about four CEOs within a space of five years . At the Annual General Meeting of the Company which was held on 30 May, 2018, shareholders ratified and approved the appointment of a new Managing Director, Annabelle Degroot to replace the first ceo appointed in 2017 . In January 2020 Hugo Dias Rocha replaced Annabelle Degroot who left as the end of 2019 as Managing Director while Carlos Coutino , the current CEO came in 2022 as its new managing director following the resignation of Hugo Rocha.
SERIAL LOSSES IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS
The company’s financial figures tell the agony of the new owners of the company better . The company’s latest results came to a loss of N2.3 billion in the first quarters of 2023 . From profit & loss figures, International Breweries announced N218.65 billion revenue in 2022 from N182.3 billion in 2021 but the beer maker witnessed 29 per cent per cent increase in its cost of sales and N10.68billion finance cost in 2022 from N4.8billion in 2021. However , its 2022 FY Audited Financial Statement, revealed a loss before tax of N26.84billion as against N19.84billion loss before tax in 2021 and loss after tax of Loss for the year of N21.6 b as against a loss of N17.66 billion in 2021 .
Before this , the brewer had declared bottom line loss for three consecutive years since 2018, posting a loss of N3.93 billion. In 2019, the loss declared spiraled by an overwhelming 607% to N27.79 billion ; its loss ,however ,declined in 2020 to N16.08 billion.
Ironically , the company grew its revenue by 20% between 2021 and 2022 and over 51% between 2019 and 2021 on the back of inflationary pressures driven by increases in prices of goods and services over the years. This implication is clear : this giant brewer is making money but finds it difficult to translate to net income or bottom line .
In the 2021 financial year, the glitters of hope surfaced in the first quarter . International Breweries Plc in its first quarter ended March 31, 2022 reported stronger growth in revenue backed by consumer demand for its brands to migrate into impressive earnings and positioned itself to deliver enhanced profits in 2022 financial year. The volume growth that drove revenue by 48 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 was ahead of industry expectations and contributed to the company’s migration from loss to positive results in the first quarter of 2022 . The unaudited first quarter, 2022 financial result and accounts of International Breweries showed N57.52 billion revenue from N38.96 billion reported in Q1 2021.
But this hope dramatically fizzled out in the second and third quarters signaling another doom in 2022 .Although , International Breweries Plc ,makers of “Hero” Lager , reported a Profit After Tax of N336.20m for the half year period ended 30 June, 2022, a 102.2% upward push from the N13.88bn loss it reported for the same period in 2021,it was on the strength of the first quarter result .This is because in three months ,between April and June , it recorded another loss of N384.97m . This loss ,however , could not be covered again in the third quarter; its loss for the period for that period was N3.15b and for the nine months was N2.81b in 2022 as against N2.22b in 2021 respectively .
Its shareholders have been at the receiving end of the above miserable scenario with neither dividend nor any appreciable capital gain and they are thoroughly disenchanted .
CRITICAL CHALLENGES BEFORE IB PLC
Is this not a misadventure for the new owner of IB Plc ? That is the question yet unanswered. The miserable financial position of IB Plc has continued to generate mixed reactions. What is the problem with the International Breweries? is its resources inadequate or the resource deployment capability of its leadership failed to generate adequate competencies or its strategies and product values failed to live up to its critical success factors ?
For the management of IB Plc , the above uninspiring performances over its five years operations could simply be traced or attributed to institutional factors. Late last year ,perhaps getting jittery over another disastrous performance on the horizon , the top management in a recent press release titled : “International Breweries Reports Third Quarter and Nine Months 2022 Results’’ , while trying hard to defend itself and assuage its disenchanted stakeholders attributed another loss in the third quarter 2022 results to the prevailing macro-economic headwinds.
The company blamed the challenging quarter on the industry contraction and supply chain constraints as the single-digit top-line growth recorded by it was knocked out by elevated cost pressures.“Following a strong first half of the year, our volumes declined in the third quarter of 2022 due to a soft industry and ongoing supply chain constraints. The last three months have been characterized by elevated inflationary pressure which has had an impact on consumer disposable income. The period experienced especially severe weather with a longer rainy season and floods in key markets.”
The company blamed the decline in its gross profit and margins on elevated costs largely due to higher energy prices, FX illiquidity, commodity costs headwinds, severe weather, and overall inflationary pressures.
Surprisingly , Rocha, its former CEO , however , still put up some spirited efforts , to commend the management led by him. “Despite the difficult third quarter, we remain focused on our winning commercial strategy. Year-to-date, our brands remain resilient and continue to deliver Net Revenue growth. We remain committed to returning to profitability and creating value for our stakeholders consist.” .
“We remained resilient during the period led by our core brands, premium portfolio and innovation. As part of our “Beyond Beer” strategy, we launched Flying Fish during the quarter to address incremental occasions and consumer needs. This has been well received and continues to gain acceptance in the market ” ,its CEO further noted .
He explained that the company’s top-line which grew by mid-single single digits (5.6%) was driven by the revenue management initiatives put in place by the company . According to him ,the company’s EBITDA ,which was positive, was driven on the back of prudent resource allocation and cost management . “We remain positive on the industry’s outlook and remain confident in the future growth of our business and will continue to invest and strengthen our brand portfolio across all segments.”
His explanations on the company’s less inspiring financial health position may not be farfetched to . Monetary and fiscal policy, exchange and inflation rates , trade and industrial policy and other macro economic factors are ,indeed , critical to the fortune or misfortune of any corporate entity ; external environment creates both opportunities and threats which consequently influence strategic development. No doubt , the current inclement environment is setting up entrepreneurship for failure than ever in Nigeria ; it is now survival of the fittest among the players in this industry .
However , the problems of IB Plc captured by its former CEO are not limited to those above ;definitely , it is disingenuous to restrict the poor financial health of IBPlc to the macroeconomic headwinds mentioned above . In the last few financial years , though the competitive space in the brewing industry was paved with macroeconomic obstacles, intense competition that is setting up the industry for failure is another critical factor and this is the major headache for IB Plc .
Increased competition driven and worsened by the fall in consumers purchasing power remains the critical challenge confronting beverage companies currently .This is because breweries are playing in a market where consumers have a lower purchasing power and are looking to affordability, consequently , the risk to these companies is the shrinking market .The only way out is to cut prices .Another challenge is that price cannot be cut forever, thus productivity improvements to reduce costs will be the differentiator. Sequel to this , it is now the survival of the fittest .
But the above scenario is not unnatural . Every operating environment of any corporate entity is usually paved with diverse threats and opportunities . While these define the strategic position of every player differently , what define each player’s survival and success remains its ability to respond to the competing pressures and the changes in the business environment .
No doubt , Anheuser-Busch InBev, the new owner of IB Plc , has been boxed to a tight corner. Although ,immense opportunity in the brewery sub sector of Nigerian economy was the rationale behind its acquisition of the above mentioned three brewers , both the macroeconomic headwinds and tough competition from the market have continued to frustrate its goal which is to displace and gain leadership by giving the incumbent leaders including Guinness Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Breweries . Consequently , it has not been easy for it as its rivals which had dominated the industry for decades, have continued to do the same .
Despite a good fight from IB Plc , both Guinness and Nigerian Breweries remain a hard nut for IB Plc to break . The issue is that the new owner of IB Plc seemed to have underrated the both the forces from both the external and industry environment relative to its strategic capabilities .
Before its arrival , Nigerian Breweries was leading the market with about 65% market share while Guinness Nigeria follows with about 25%. They both enjoyed economies of scale and had good return on their investment ; the industry produces 22 brands of lager and 4 brands of stout besides other non-alcoholic drinks, Nigerian Breweries dominated the market in the larger (Star) segment while Guinness had to itself the stout (Guinness) segment .The industry is at the maturity stage of its life cycle ,though still remains one of the thriving industries in the Nigerian manufacturing sector.
However , IB Plc is not the only player experiencing the tough time from the environmental forces ,its rivals are equally feeling the heat from both the external and internal environments . But the only disturbing issue is the consistent failure of IB Plc to make profit for its owner and its entire shareholders .
IB PLc STATEGIC CHOICES
What is IB Plc doing to realize its dream ? ; is the prospect of gaining industry leadership, the strategic intent of IB Plc not gloomy ? These are the questions waiting for answers Despite its tales of woes as captured above , IB Plc still remains unrelenting . After all ,every environment is littered with opportunities and threats , and the fortune or misfortune of every organization is a function of its strategic capability as well as its strategic directions and methods employed .
A detailed analysis of this company’s responses to the competing pressures and dynamic environmental challenges remain the decisive factors dictating its fate in the last few years and might do the same in the near future .
For its survival and success IBPlc is deploying every relevant weapon in its arsenal to respond to the above competing pressures brought about by the changing business environment . What, however, determines its fate is how its strategic capabilities could combat the challenges of its strategic position . To effectively compete, every company needs to adjust its internal strengths to the environmental opportunities .So, managers need to identify, combine, re-combine, and manage their resources, competencies and capability to explore their potential and perform better than the competitors on the customer needs, preferences ,and desires satisfaction.
The above is because the advantage of an organization consists in identification of the internal core competences, mainly based on knowledge assets and intellectual capital, that align with the key success factors of the market that ultimately gives it competitive advantage, better performance and better market position.
The leadership of IB Plc has been striving and plotting the company’s long term direction and scope ,configuring its resources within a dynamic environment to achieve advantage for the company and to fulfill its stakeholders expectations .
No doubt ,IB Plc has been proactive in its efforts to live up to the above expectations . A look at the book of IB Plc shows its management is exploring every opportunity within and around the industry just as it is tackling certain threats stated above . To gain advantages for the company , the management has been busy configuring its resources within the changing environment to fulfill the stakeholders expectations with its strategic directions and methods targeted at achieving strategic intent of capturing the industry leadership ; it is competing more on the basis of cost rather than differentiation to gain competitive advantage possible ; the company is equally being more flexible and fleet-of-foot .
By producing low cost beer for a segment of the market that could not afford the premium brands of the existing market ,this strategy is expected at gaining large or disproportionate portion of the market share . This is one of the two strategies usually employed by corporate players to compete in the market and to outperform their competitors . .
Another option engaged by IB Plc as its strategic direction is wide number of products and markets . International Breweries Plc is a brewery in Nigeria which brews, packages and markets a range of beer and non-alcoholic malt beverages. The company is known for its beer sold under the Trophy brand name and non-alcoholic malt drink sold under the Betamalt brand name, namely Trophy Lager, Trophy Black and Betamalt malt drink. Other brands packaged and marketed by International Breweries Plc include Castle Milk Stout, Castle Lager, Redds, Hero, Grand Malt and Voltic Water. This option indicates a much broader scope and very diversified in terms of both products and markets , creating new products and entering new territories to gain large part of the market share. .
Its broader scope and very diversified orientations are driven by its financial resource advantage enabled by its acquisition of the three brewers in the three key beer drinking geopolitical zones in Nigeria . IB Plc has been embarking on product developments and gaining better market penetration considered to be strategic enough to give it cost advantage via economic of scale and risk reduction . It deployed Trophy lager beer , Hero lager , Life Continental Lager Beer and Tiger lager beer ,trophy stout and positioned them to achieve this goal . Analysts believe ,products like Trophy , Hero ,Lite , Trophy Stout ,Eagle and Budwasher from its stable have better tendency to be competitive in that segment of the market with price advantage .
To achieve the same goal , IB Plc has been constantly innovating to survive by adding new brands and values to its existing brands . This is being helped by its resolve to listen to customers while developing new products and services ; it is equally deploying more funds to its businesses to boost its capability while at the same time building relevant external relationship .
Each of these choices is either pursued independently by organic development, by acquisitions or by strategic alliances with the parent company .
From the above analysis we can see IB Plc strategic choices, or options, potentially available to it for responding to the positioning issues. Three overarching choices are possible and these include how at a business level it positions itself in relation to competitors or how it competes in the market of its choice on the basis of cost or differentiation ; its strategic direction on which products and markets to pursue which is on much broader in scope and very diversified in terms of both products ,markets and new products ; and finally, about methods by which to pursue the strategies which is by organic development, by acquisitions and by strategic alliances with its parent company .
However , while the above choices are conventional , what matters most is how far it could achieve its strategic intent . Since strategic choices relate back to analysis of strategic position , they are expected to take into consideration and address the issues of the macro environment , forces at work in the industry and sector, resources and capabilities, stakeholder expectations to achieve the company’s strategic goals.
WHEN ITS STRATEGIC CHOICES FAILED TO DELIVER
By the calculations of the management of IBPlc , its strategic choices are delivering its corporate objectives . Alluding to the positive impact of those initiatives , the company attributed its resilience to its core brands, premium portfolio and innovation . As part of its “Beyond Beer” strategy, the company said it had launched Flying Fish during third quarter of 2022 to address incremental occasions and consumer needs. And the management claimed this had been well received and continued to gain acceptance in the market.
The management position , no doubt , is difficult to believe . Though its management gave kudos to its strategic initiatives ,the potency of the above strategic choices in tackling the challenges of the company’s strategic position has remained and left much to be desired . Despite the claim by the company on the positive impact of its strategic initiatives on its survival, the fact that it has consistently been making losses in the last five years has been raising questions on success of its strategic choices, at least from the shareholders point of view. The strategic choices employed to achieve its strategic intent could not allow it to outperform its competitors but to survive .
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Ordinarily , to know whether a strategy succeeds or fails to deliver , answers to three questions resting on criteria of a successful strategy are usually employed to unravel these riddles . First, does the strategy address the key opportunities and threats the organization faces ? Since choices have to be made in the context of an organization’s strategic position and strategic choices are what are potentially available to an organization for responding to the positioning issues , it is apposite for the above IB Plc strategic choices to fit its strategic position to achieve its strategic intent .
Two ,does the strategy meet the expectations or the return acceptable? And finally , does the company able to execute the strategic plan effectively in terms of resources, skills, timing, market changes, access to finance and more ?
Evaluating IB Plc strategic choices shows they might fit well the opportunities and threats in the environment. Its move to stay in the low segment ,no doubt , is in line with the conventional wisdom of strategic fit considering its strategic position relative to its rivals . Though there is competition between its two major rivals , since there are no price wars between its major competitors as their products are differentiated and there are insignificant price differences , the only avenue for IB Plc to gain this advantage over their brands is to come up with substitutes at lower prices and gain better market share and revenues .
Beyond this , since both Nigerian Breweries and Guinness have products that particularly valued by certain groups and look somehow very robust ,to gain entry into those markets and product segments , International Breweries must gain cost leadership too ,sell at lower prices and deliver products of strong quality that another customers group would prefer at its prices and product features that are in line with their expectations
But if a company’s achieves a strategic fit by identifying opportunities in a business environment and adapting resources and competences to take advantage of these opportunities , and yet it fails to deliver a competitive value for money , then something is wrong somewhere . This indicates its strategic choices have failed to exploit its targeted opportunities due to the prevailing environmental threats ; even though it achieved strategic fit
. This is confirmed by its consistent losses , a status from which it is not likely to escape very soon without any dramatic improvement. In a nutshell ,the key message from the above is that a company might achieve strategic fit and yet fail t deliver competitive value for money as in the case of IB Plc in the last few years .
In this case , it is either its resources are not unique or adequate or the resources are not properly deployed to generate relevant and appropriate competences for competitive advantage that are expected to drive its strategic intent of industry leadership. It could also be that its resources are unique or adequate but not properly deployed to generate relevant and appropriate competences for competitive advantage
The question remains , what drives International Breweries’ miserable performances in the past few years or what is wrong despite its supposedly strategic fit ? Is t resources not unique enough or not effectively deployed ?
A detailed analysis of IB Plc resource base, particularly its financial assets , indicates it is highly competitive . AB InBev’s since the acquisition of the three brewers ,no doubt , had beefed up its financial power to gain entry and achieve disproportionate share of the market dominated by both Guinness and Nigerian Breweries , it is not resourceful enough .
After the acquisition , out of the three major brewers in Nigeria , Guinness ,Nigeria Plc has the least financial asset base ; its total assets as at September ,2022 stand at N220.40b while its total equity was N92.93b ; Nigerian Breweries’ total assets amounted to N556.22 against total equity of N184.42b ; International Breweries ,by assets and equity ,follows Nigerian Breweries with total assets of N414.97 b and N13580b respectively .
With this volume of its financial and physical resources relative its competitors ,IB Plc is expected to gain better market share and profitability than Guinness Plc . Though ,other factors are responsible for this ,yet this view may not be misplaced . No doubt, a company’s size could give some advantages to a corporate entity ,at least from economic of scale point of view . This is because having a capacity to match the resources and global distribution of large competitors brings advantages . First , large companies also tend to devote a disproportionate share of their resources to training , advertising and education. Also , it opens the door to many of tomorrow’s mega-opportunities as this requires significant resources.
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However , this has not been the case . IB Plc’s asset size gives a contrary result . For instance , in the third quarter of 2022 ,despite those advantages , the huge asset base of IB Plc has failed to tilt the industry structure to its advantage in terms of market share ,and this is the first proof that something is wrong somewhere . According to our findings, Nigerian Breweries still remains the largest Brewer in Nigeria by market share holding on to 54% of the total revenues of N221.239 billion reported by the three largest brewers in the third quarter of 2022 ;it has held on to the number one spot as indicated by the tracking data since 2013.
Guinness Nigeria Plc ,however , retained its number two position at the end of September 2022 with a market share of 24% of the total revenue while International Breweries despite its enormous resource advantage over Guinness Plc , has failed to justify this in term of market share; it trailed the two with a market share of 22.2% of total revenue . The point is that if its financial, intellectual and physical assets are adequate or competitive , they may not be delivered the expected value for money, if not adequately deployed . This is the case of IB Plc .
The uninspiring performance of IB Plc is not limited to its weaker asset turnover relative to its rivals. Other value creation capabilities related to how the company deploys its resources or strategic capability which are aimed at gaining competitive advantage relative to its rivals confirm its inability to deliver competitive value for money in the past few years .
This manifests vividly in its operations as it positions IB Plc as inefficient company . This is confirmed by its relatively skyrocketing cost of sales and finance cost compared to its rivals since the new owner took over the company .
The negative implications of this are palpable and heavy . Its inability to attain the status of cost leadership which is imperative for delivering its strategy of low price brands put its strategic intent of gaining industry leadership status in disarray .
The reason for this may not be misplaced . Customers do just value product features at any price because price is also an important product features . Sequel to this, an organization must be competent at managing cost , otherwise , it will not be able to meet the customer price expectation and ,or generate sufficient profit and survive financially in the long run . This is a challenge that has become a hard nut for it to break and a key drawback to its profitability .
A look into its book ,for instance shows , though IB Plc has maintained a positive outlook or modest growth in its revenue in the last few years , it is achieving higher revenue numbers on the back of vastly increasing cost of sales. This again reflects in a negative EPS of-0.47 for IB Plc. This indicates it is willing to incur huge marketing costs to capture market share. This is evident in its relatively excessive cost of sales and finance costs .
COST OF SALES
To sell these liquids of pleasure is not always easy for bottlers and brewers as is the case for all manufacturers. The trend is that the cost for that as represented by the cost of sales on the profit and loss account never goes down. The only direction it travels is northwards. During the period, the cost of sales was valued at N38 billion, a 17 percent high from the N33 billion in the same period last year . However , while IB Plc posted positive revenue in 2020 and 2021 and continued this in 2022 financial years ,the company has been achieving these higher revenue numbers on the back of vastly increasing cost of sales . In 2022 financial year ,to achieve N100 revenue , it cost it N80 ,in 2020 , N78; in 2021 , it was N75 .This is reflected in its consistent negative EPS . This indicates IB Plc is willing to incur huge marketing costs to capture market share .
FINANCING STRATEGY AS A KILLER PILL
Another angle that shed some lights on the company’s performance in the period under review as in the last few years is its financing income relative to its to its financing costs ,a reflection of its capital mix between the debt, which requires interest payments, and equity .In the period under review there is every indication that the company is highly leveraged . This is where the company received the most cataclysmic misfortune . A look at IB Plc Equity multiplier , a leverage ratio that measures the portion of the company’s assets that are financed by equity confirmed this as much . Its high equity multiplier indicates that a significant portion of its assets were financed by debt . As at September 2022, with a total assets of N414.97b and its total equity of N135.80 as against its total assets of N469. 95b and equity of N 135.30b in the corresponding period of 2021, leading to IB Plc equity multiplier of 3.06 in the third quarter of 2022 and debt to assets or debt ratio is 0.67 or 67 %,indicating it financed 67% of the assets by debt .
This funding strategic direction was highly disastrous . Although the positive performance from the finance income or interest received from the company’s prudent investments in the financial market was up by 108 % to N5.17b from N3.00b , however , this was too feeble to cage the finance cost that hit N10. 68b in ,2022 from N4.80b in 2021 . Ultimately, with heavy finance cost which jumped by 122.5 % this resulted in a net finance costs of N5.51 b as against net finance cost of N1.79b in ,2021 . Consequently this messed up the company and led to a tragedy that hit the pretax profit .
The equity multiplier posed a high risk to its creditors. Although the company is confident of its impressive cash flow history , this not notwithstanding , the company incurred high debt service charges this depreciated it heavily within the period under review . Sequel to this, its Net cash inflow from operating activities was down to N20.16 b from N40.61b as its Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period nosedived heavily to N24.85b from N82.38b
To attain a cost efficient status a corporate player is expected to understand the knowledge and competences associated with the cost drivers including the economies of scale ,supply costs ,product design or processes design and experience curve. IB Plc is ether not exploiting these opportunities efficiently or lack the capability to do so .
Apart from the fact that competitive cost management which is indicated by cost efficiency that is imperative to deliver better value for money , if an organization is to be profitable , an ability to operate effectively , meeting customers product features requirements at a given cost is equally a critical success factor ; in other words , the success of an organization also depends on how well it is able to provide product features that are valued at a given price . In addition to being a cost inefficient company , IB Plc is equally not delivering its product features effectively or at a cost that will give it products leadership over its rivals in the segment targeted by it ; it fails to emerge a clear leader in the segment of its choice unlike both Guinness and Nigerian Breweries in the premium segment.
Though the company could be said to deliver values or product features that meet threshold level ,that are essential for it to survive , however , in terms of those product features to outperform competitors, intense competition from the substitutes coming from the former Consolidated Brewery acquired by Nigerian Breweries has continued to hinder its strategic intent of exploiting lower price advantage of the segment in which it operating .
In a nutshell , a herculean task for IB Plc is the fact that its strategic direction of operating in the segment of low price beer consumers is countered by the intense competition from its rivals particularly the Nigerian Breweries with products like Goldberg and 33 . .
Moreover ,while intense competition from other brands operating in the same market segment it targeted is giving it tough time , the dilemma confronting it is that the company is equally finding difficult to penetrate premium segment . segment.
