Honeywell invests N1bn to boost production, returns

Honeywell Flour Mills Plc says it has invested about N1bn in new equipment to make its system compliant.

This, according to the company, is in line with the directive by the Federal Government on the inclusion of cassava in flour production.

The Managing Director, Flour Mills Plc, Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola, who said these, in Lagos, promised that the company would meet the five per cent inclusion target very soon, having already achieved between three and four per cent high quality cassava flour inclusion, a statement from the company said.

“We demonstrated this by investing massively in different equipment. We must have invested close to N1bn in equipment in existing mills in Apapa just to be able to include high quality cassava flour in regular wheat flour that we produce,” he said.

According to him, the company has also taken up the opportunity that the government provided to invest in high quality cassava milling equipment in the western part of the country.

The Honeywell Flour Mill MD explained that apart from Cassava production, the company was working extensively on the use of sorghum flour.

He said, “Our research and development initiative on sorghum flour is on the next level already. I have some colleagues presently in Switzerland working on various samples of sorghum flour so that we can explore the possibility not only of high cassava flour but also high quality sorghum flour.”

He explained that the company, which started commercial production and sales about 19 years ago with a modest 200 metric tonnes per day, currently operated a factory with total capacity of 2,610 metric tonnes.

He explained that the company was not resting on its oars, saying, “We have future expansion programmes; as I speak, we are embarking on another expansion of a 500 per tonnes flour mill, we are presently embarking on a pasta expansion project which should increase our Pasta production capacity from the current 210 metro tonnes per day to about 1000 metric tonnes per day.”

He added that the expansion of the company’s facility in Shagamu would when completed become Honeywell’s food complex.

According to him, it is going to be one location where virtually all the foods business of the Honeywell Group will concentrate. He said, “The development plan of Honeywell is primarily to become a national food provider. By that, we not only want to play in the space producing food for humans but also producing food for animals. The Shagamu land which is a 68 hectare land will offer us that opportunity.”

Honeywell Flour Mills had paid a dividend of N1.34bn, representing 17 kobo per share as dividend for the financial year ended March 31, 2014.

This came after the company grew its profit after tax by 18 per cent to N3.5bn from N2.8bn the previous year.