Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Cans Limited (PABC) concluded Q12025 (January to March) with net sales of Rs 4.65 billion, marking a modest 1 per cent Y-o-Y increase most importantly, avoiding a decline. The company also recorded a Y-o-Y surge of 4.29 per cent in its gross profit, arriving at Rs 1.445 billion from Rs 1.385 billion clocked during Q1 2024.
In a market where Coca-Cola Pakistan and Pepsi-Cola International have seen mid-single-digit drops in domestic volumes, maintaining stable revenue reflects a noteworthy outperformance. Across the region, Western soda brands faced a 7 per cent sales downturn in the first half of 2024 due to ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Market researcher NielsenIQ reported a 7 per cent decline for Western soda brands across the Middle East and South Asia in the first half of 2024. For PABC often seen as a back-end supplier closely tied to multinational performance such a downturn could have posed a serious threat. Instead, the company weathered the storm by tapping into a growing base of regional and local beverage producers, many of whom had already begun transitioning from PET bottles to aluminium cans.
A recently completed debottlenecking project has boosted PABC’s nameplate capacity to 1.3 billion cans, with the plant operating at around 89 per cent utilisation outside the October-to-January off-season. Its customer base has expanded to include everything from energy drink start-ups to dairy and iced-coffee brands many of which have seized the cola boycott as an opportunity to gain shelf space.
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Stable quarterly revenue doesn’t equate to stagnation. For the full calendar year 2024, PABC’s revenue rose 17 per cent to Rs 23.1 billion, driven by high-single-digit export growth and a more favourable product mix. While the cost of sales increased roughly in line with revenue, gross profit still climbed 10 per cent, sustaining a robust 37 per cent gross margin.
A Rs 2.2 billion boost in other income primarily from exchange gains as the rupee strengthened late last year pushed net profit up 22 per cent to Rs 6.1 billion, with earnings per share rising to Rs 16.9 from Rs 13.9. Despite a sharp increase in selling expenses, driven by expanded regional marketing support, operating profit remained steady a margin resilience clearly reflected in the table on page 2 of the briefing notes.
Looking ahead, management projects FY 2025 revenue of Rs 22 billion on the back of 890 million cans sold, assuming macroeconomic stability and continued uptake by new local beverage brands stepping into the space once dominated by the cola giants. While aluminium price volatility remains a concern, most contracts include pass-through mechanisms, and the company has hedged its forex exposure on primary ingot imports to mitigate currency risk.
By diversifying its customer base ahead of an unforeseen crisis, PABC transformed what could have been a difficult year into one of steady consolidation. Revenues held firm, margins remained strong, capacity grew, and reliance on any single buyer dropped to a historic low. As long as local challengers continue filling the shelf space left by Coke and Pepsi, the Faisalabad-based can-maker appears well-positioned to keep its growth story quite literally on tap.
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Image Source: PABC / Facebook
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