The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Girish Sharma, has attributed the company’s strong start to 2026 to operational efficiency, localised decision-making, and expanded market reach, saying the measures have repositioned the business for sustained growth.

Sharma, in a statement from the firm’s media agency on Saturday, said the performance reflected both financial resilience and the strength of a restructured operating model.

“We grew distribution, we’ve become far more efficient today, and we were able to make our people more agile because we brought decision-making down to Nigeria,” he said during an interview with CNBC Africa, according to the statement.

“The past year has been a year of reset, but expecting 144 per cent revenue growth might not be what we should be looking at. However, I don’t see why we’d not be growing by double digits at the very least.”

The comments followed the company’s release of its 2026 performance, in which Profit After Tax rose by 48 per cent year-on-year to N10.39bn, while revenue increased by four per cent to N122.77bn.

The company also reported improved earnings per share and a decline in net finance costs, reflecting tighter cost management and improved capital efficiency. Its Board approved an interim dividend of N2.00 per share, amounting to about N4.38bn.

According to the company, the performance was achieved despite inflationary pressures and currency volatility, supported by disciplined execution and a strengthened balance sheet.

Sharma said the company’s recovery followed a strategic reset implemented over the past year, built around four key pillars.

“From a strategy perspective, I spent the first 100 days drawing the blueprint,” he explained. “At the end of it, we actually broke the strategy into four pillars. First was culture; we needed to make people feel more empowered, more than anything else. Second was operational excellence by localising what we do; we wanted to achieve more efficiency with this.”

He added, “Thirdly, we are very obsessed with the consumers, so we had them at the centre of our strategy – we took out a few products and became a lot more innovative in adding some. And finally, is the financial performance.”

Sharma said the company’s portfolio strategy was increasingly being shaped by Nigeria’s cost-of-living realities, with future growth expected to come from value-driven innovation targeted at consumers under pressure.

He cited the recent launch of Orijin Beer in PET format as an example of how product offerings and pack sizes were being adjusted to changing consumer demand.

He also identified growth opportunities over the next two to three years across ready-to-drink beverages, mainstream spirits, beer, and malt categories. “Consumer tastes are evolving quickly,” he said, “and our job is to stay close to those shifts and respond with the right products.”