No plans to exit Nigeria, says Guinness

Guinness Nigeria Plc has debunked rumours it is planning to exit Nigeria.

In a statement signed by its management, which was made available to Western Post, Guinness said it was committed to continued investment in Nigeria.

“The attention of the Management of Guinness Nigeria Plc has been drawn to some false, malicious, and misleading publication trending on some social media platforms falsely alleging that Guinness Nigeria is relocating out of Nigeria and therefore planning to sell its Ikeja Brewery site.

“A bogus ‘sales brochure’ circulating online in various formats claims that the Ikeja site sale is part of an exit plan, and this falsehood is being irresponsibly circulated by faceless persons purporting to be property agents,” the company said.

According to Guinness, rather than leaving Nigeria, it was expanding its business in the West African country.

“Guinness Nigeria Plc. certainly has no plans to exit Nigeria contrary to the orchestrated false publication making rounds. We are strong, stable and delivering value to our esteemed customers.

“We would also like to clearly state that the malicious publication is not in tandem with our current expansion and investment drive, as we recently reaffirmed our long-term strategy expansion plans in Nigeria with the acquisition of an additional 25-acre commercial property in the Ogba industrial area of Lagos purchased recently in late 2021.

“Guinness Nigeria also recently announced our half year Unaudited Financial Result for the 6 months ended 31st December 2021 in which we notified our esteemed shareholders of our stellar performance in which our 6 months’ Operating Profit grew by 266% to N13.6Billion.

“Contrary to the false information being circulated by detractors, we are renewed in our efforts to serve our revered consumers and creating more job opportunities for Nigerians as seen in the new 5million additional production line recently commissioned at our Brewery in Ogba, Lagos in October 2021.

“We are also pleased to state that we are on the verge of completing work on our new ultra-modern head office block located in Ikeja where we will be moving in the next few weeks,” the statement read in part.