Shutdown proved too costly for Singer in 2020

Singer Bangladesh, a household name for household appliances, saw its profit slump about 24.2 per cent last year as the company failed to make up for the missed quarter of sales thanks to the two-and-a-half-month-long countrywide shutdown to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The company logged in profit of about Tk 78.3 crore for its last financial year, which runs from January to December.

The summer season, which is the months between April and June, typically makes up 40 per cent of annual sales of refrigerators and air conditioners, Kazi Ashiqur Rahman, company secretary of Singer Bangladesh told Dhaka Tribune. 

But the stores were closed for a large chunk of that season.

The countrywide shutdown was lifted on May 30 and Singer Bangladesh was raring to make the most of the pent-up demand for household appliances as well as need-based buying as consumers spent more time at home and bought appliances to ease household chores.

The company ran promotional programmes to tempt consumers to loosen their purse strings and resume discretionary spending after months of austerity measures, according to Rahman.

Subsequently, Singer logged in profit of Tk 42.6 crore between July and September, up 1.7 per cent from a year earlier.

In the end, the missed quarter of sales turned out to be a mountain too steep to climb. 

Given the drop in profit, the company’s board of directors yesterday declared a 30 per cent cash dividend for the year, down from 77 per cent disbursed a year earlier.

Shares of Singer Bangladesh, which has been listed since 1983, closed at Tk 178.8 yesterday, down 0.2 per cent from the previous day.

In 2020, Singer shares lost 2.1 per cent in value.