Graphic records strong performance

Graphic Communications Group Limited has again proved to be the icon among all state owned companies including its sister companies in the media industry. Charles Benoni Okine reports.

THE Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) has recorded a profit after tax of GhC7.1 million in the 2012 financial year.

The amount which represents a whopping 195.8 per cent increase over the previous year’s figure of GhC2.4 million makes the company one of the most efficiently managed and  profitable State Owned Enterprises (SOE) in the country.

In the same period under review, the company also managed to increase its turnover from GhC30.2 million in 2011 to GhC41.8 million, representing a 38.4 per cent increase.

The growth in the turnover of the company was premised on the enhanced print quality and colour capacity which propelled it to organise several supplementary pages on special occasions to increase advertising revenue.

In the process, the company produced increased number of pages of the newspaper per edition to deliver more value for money to our readers.

Additional income also came from newspaper printing contracts the company secured to utilise excess capacity of its ultra-modern printing facilities.

In view of the performance of the company, the Board of Directors also recommended a dividend of GhC600,000 for 2012, representing an increase of 20 per cent over the GhC500,00 paid in 2011.

Unlike many other companies in the public sector including some in the private sector, the company also fully honoured its tax obligations to the state with the release of GHC4.7 million to the government by way of corporate taxes. The amount included Value Added Tax (VAT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and import duties.

The Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, who stated this, added that “the board also ensured that the company met all its other financial obligations, especially VAT, import duties and loan repayment”.

He said this in his report at the 10th annual general meeting of the GCGL in Accra yesterday.

Growth

Mr Ashigbey told the meeting that the company achieved a 38.4 per cent turnover growth in the midst of competition from many partisan newspapers that challenged its market share last year.

“However, our enhanced print quality and colour capacity enabled us to organise several supplementary pages on special occasions to increase advertising revenue. In the process, we produced increased number of pages of the newspaper per edition to deliver more value for money to our readers.

“Additional income also came from newspaper printing contracts we secured to utilise excess capacity of our new printing facilities, and to understand our readers better and increase customer satisfaction, readers of all our brands were given the opportunity to send feedback during our first ever in-paper readership survey,” he said.

G-Pak Limited

G-Pak, a subsidiary of the GCGL, also registered a net profit of GHC44,390 in 2012 as against a huge net loss of GHC184,157 in 2011.

The company’s sales revenue of GHc1.90 million recorded in 2012 represented an increase of 36.7 per cent on the 2011 revenue of GhC1.39 million.

The success story of the company was attributed to GCGL’s installation of the quarterfold on the KBA Press that could print books at high speed and quality and G-Pak’s finishing capacity.

Outlook for 2013

For 2013, the Board Chairperson of the GCGL, Dr Doris Yaa Dartey disclosed that announced, among other things, that a new design centre would be set up at the Marketing Department to assist clients with artwork and designs for their advertisements.

“We will work towards achieving our vision and living our mission. All these measures are in response to meeting the challenges ahead and growing or increasing market demands in line with our revised five-year strategic plan to become the biggest and most influential media organisation in the West African sub-region,” she said.

On his part, the Managing Director of the company, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, gave the assurance that the company will continue to invest in customer service orientation programmes for its staff, streamline ICT in company operations to deliver reliable services.

FACT SHEET

The company published its first newspaper, the Daily Graphic, on October 2,1950 and followed it up in 1953 with the weekly Sunday Mirror, now called The Mirror.

In 1957 when the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain and changed its name to Ghana, the West African Graphic Company also changed its name to the Ghana Graphic Company Limited.

In 1962, the Government of Ghana acquired the company by an Act of Parliament and turned it into a statutory corporation. It, therefore, became known as the Graphic Corporation.

In 1999, the company took advantage of the Statutory Corporations Act, 1993, Act 461, to change from a subvented public corporation to an autonomous public limited liability company to become Graphic Communications Group Limited.

It later came out with four more publications; the Junior Graphic (2000), the Graphic Advertiser (2004), the Graphic Nsempa (2007) and the Graphic Business (2008), the company’s financial newspaper.