Vivo Energy said on Tuesday it had made a strong start to the year, with first-quarter volumes continuing to recover from the “significant” impact of Covid-19.
The pan-African downstream specialist said gross cash profit was $195m in the three months to 31 March, a 9% increase on the same period a year previously.
Retail volumes improved 4%, but commercial volumes continued to be impact by weakness in the aviation and marine businesses along with the end of a large supply contract in the third quarter of 2020. Excluding these factors, group volumes were up 2% on the first quarter of 2020.
Overall group volumes “continued to recover from the significant impact of Covid-19 in 2020”, the FTSE 250 firm said, down 5% at 2.48bn litres.
Christian Chammas, chief executive, said: “We delivered a strong start to 2021. It was especially pleasing to see the retail segment return to volume growth, despite ongoing restrictions, continuing the positive momentum from the second half of 2020 and further demonstrating the resilience of our business and our markets.
“As we move through the year, we expect the recovery to continue, albeit subject to potential impacts from the prevailing mobility restrictions, with the strong first quarter reinforcing our confidence in the business moving forward.”
Vivo, which has a secondary listing in Johannesburg, operates a network of more than 2,300 service stations in 23 African countries under the Shell and Engen brands. It is intends to open between 90 and 110 new sites this year, and said it had already made “good progress” towards meeting the target.
Vivo also provides fuels and lubricants to business customers in a range of sectors.
