Saudi Arabia’s Almarai, the Gulf’s largest dairy company, has reported a 22.5% drop in profit in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period last year, due to the pandemic and value-added tax (VAT).
Almarai’s net profit was SR1.28 billion down from SR1.65 billion last year in the same period a year earlier.
Almarai as well as other Saudi companies were hit with the double whammy of Covid and the hike of the value-added tax (VAT) which affected the purchasing appetite.
Gross revenues were down 10.1% because of the subsidy reduction.
