Eveready East Africa has cut its half-year losses to Sh8.4 million for the year ended March 31, amid increased sales and reduced expenses.
This is against Sh25.9 million loss posted in a similar period the previous year.
Its auto batteries business segment remains the key driver of the company’s recovery, management said in its financials through the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
“Across our business channels, we have seen a gradual improvement in the trading environment which supported the overall improved half-year performance of the Company,” it said.
According to acting managing director Thomas Masaki, the company shall continue engaging its key stakeholders on initiatives to place it on a path to sustainable recovery.
“Battery technologies are central to delivering significant advances in a wide range of industries, preferably in a form that’s clean and renewable. This has catapulted battery technology to the top of the priority list for many players, leading to a huge boom in investment that the company is looking at in future to build its key positions in those markets,” the management said.
The firm has dealt with imports from the Energizer Egypt plant after it shut down its Nakuru-based plant in 2014.
It blamed illegal imports of cheap batteries for eating into its market share, leading to low sales.
By the time of shutting down, Eveready was producing between 40 and 50 million batteries annually, which was a drop from about 180 million batteries it used to manufacture in earlier years.
