Sep 17 (Lagos) - Flourmills of Nigeria Plc (
FLOURMILL ) has announced that it has appointed Mrs. Juliet Annamah as a board member. The Company said this will help them adapt to the changing consumer landscape in the food business.
Juliet Annamah led Jumia Nigeria as their CEO when Jumia Technologies was listed on the New York Stock Exchange becoming the first African tech company ever to be listed in USA.
Although shares of Jumia Technologies crashed after an initial spike and its founding she deserves credit for the speed of the company's brand building efforts in Nigeria which is the main consumer market in Africa and represents major chunk of Jumia's business on the continent.
So what is the reason for
FLOURMILL to appoint a tech professional on its board. The Company says it wants to adapt to the changing landscape of consumers in the Country. But what does that mean since their products along with products of other food manufacturing Companies are already available for purchase on Jumia and other smaller e-commerce companies.
Could this be a new model where consumers can buy directly from Companies and get products delivered to their homes. This is something that is waiting to be done in Nigeria as most food manufacturing Companies have not yet explored this. There are various models that can be combined with e-commerce and technology to get food to consumers in a more efficient manner.
This development will set alarm bells ringing for other food manufacturers like
UACN ,
HONYFLOUR &
MAYBAKER who have failed to innovate in this space.
Shares of FMN are currently trading at N 19.80 per unit right about the levels where they were at four years ago before their increase and decrease brought them back here. Company also pays a small dividend (Last N 1.40) to its shareholders perhaps for their patience and not dumping their shares for lack of return.
Another major issue with this Company is the sheer number of rights issues that they keep announcing and constantly diluting their shareholders.
The price action shows that shareholders of
FLOURMILL are not excited by what the company has to offer because for so long they have failed to innovate and are only copying other successful food manufacturers that are not listed on the exchange.
This move could change that perception.
reporting for easykobo.com on Friday, Sep 18 2020 from Lagos, Nigeria