Chellarams Plc, said on Friday that revenue for its combined packaged dairy business known as FMCG and its bulk milk ingredients business fell 44.5% to N4.5bn for the full-year ended 31 March, down from N8.1bn in the previous year.

The FMCG business alone which includes packaged Oldenburger, Regal and Real milk brands, as well as its Real Active malted food drink declined 39% to N3.8bn.  The firm recorded N6.3bn in sales in 2016.

The ingredient business which includes bulk branded milk sales to other manufacturers and processors fared worse with sales falling 63% to N693m from N1.88bn.

Chellarams which is a diversified conglomerate involved in the importation and sale of dairy goods, industrial chemicals and turnkey equipment for the foam and mattress industry announced in late June that it had entered into a new strategic joint-venture agreement with its long-time business partner, German-based dairy producer, DMK Limited. The new venture named Chellarams DMK Limited main goal is to produce, market, sell and distribute the company’s dairy brands in Nigeria instead of importation.

The loss in value of the Naira over the last year has made import of raw materials expensive for many manufacturers. To make matters worse there has been limited availability of foreign exchange which has driven up input costs and forced many manufacturers to revamp their business models.

The Chellarams entire group sales for the year fell 38.2% to N12.4bn, from N20bn recorded in 2016. The FMCG and ingredients segment constitute 31% and 6% of group sales respectively.

Net income for the entire group rose 113% to N334m, from N157m, while pre-tax profit for the FMCG and ingredients segments declined 33% to N1.35bn, from N2bn in the previous year.