“We did not incur any damage to our warehouses but our factory did get flooded which has affected our manufacturing operations resulting in the company being forced to shut down all equipment for at least 4 to 5 days,” said Hefni.
The top executive said that the company is currently in the process of accounting net losses of raw materials as they relate to finished goods.
Hefni however said that the local food market will not be affected by the pause in manufacturing, adding that the current high food prices in Jeddah are due to global conditions, not the recent floods.
“We have seen large increases in the prices of raw materials such as sugar and dairy products over the past two years. We expect the prices to continue to rise over the next 6-9 months as demand grows against local supply,” Hefni added.
The company said last month that fourth-quarter profits rose to SR17 million from SR8.3 million the previous quarter. Shares also increased from 0.2 percent to SR42.1.
However, since the anti-government protests in Egypt began two weeks ago, Halwani Bros. has seen its stock price tumble 10 percent to SR36.90. Egypt represented 32 percent of the Jeddah-based company’s revenues in 2009.
