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Nampak, Africa’s leading manufacturer of beverage, food and non-perishable packaging, has reported a 13 percent year-on-year growth in its group revenues for the full year ending on September 30, 2015.

The Johannesburg-based company reported that its revenues rose to 17.2 billion rand ($1.2 billion) in 2015, 13 percent higher than revenues for 2014. Nampak also reported that its trading profit rose to 1.82 billion rand ($127.4 million) in 2015, 10 percent higher than its profits in 2014. However, the company’s profit for the year rose by just 2 percent year-on-year.

Nampak has been implementing a strategy of expansion across Africa to offset its flagging local business where manufacturing clients are reducing output due to lower consumer demand. Nampak hopes to generate half its profits from outside South Africa in five years.

“While operational issues in South Africa have been addressed, liquidity issues remain in the rest of Africa,” said Nampak’s CEO, André de Ruyter. “Nampak’s operations in the rest of Africa are profitable and continue to perform well, delivering a trading margin of 15.7 percent after adjusting for forex losses. We reported a 141 million rand foreign exchange loss as a result of liquidity constraints in Angola and Nigeria.”

Nampak stated that its headline earnings per share declined by 6.2 percent year-on-year to 208.2 cents, compared with 221.9 cents reported in 2014.

Earlier in September, beverage packaging manufacturer announced that it would build two massive glass bottle factories in Nigeria and Ethiopia, two of the most populous countries in Africa.

The bottling plant in Nigeria would cost about $90 million and produce 50,000 tonnes of glass per year while and the Ethiopian plant would cost about $65 million and produce 30,000 tonnes of glass per year, Nampak’s CEO told Reuters.

"The Ethiopian beer market is growing extremely fast and virtually all of their glass is imported at the moment," de Ruyter said.

Nampak operates in 11 African countries and the United Kingdom. In Nigeria, Nampak’s Ibadan-based plant produces cartons, cans, plastic closures, and wet glue labels to tobacco, food, and beverage companies. British American Tobacco, whose factory is located along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, is Nampak’s largest customer in Nigeria.

Chibuike Oguh is Financial Nigeria's Frontier Markets Analyst