Evaluating impacts of COVID-19 on the financial performance of food and beverages industry in the UK: Case study of Nestle Plc
Department of Management, Leadership and Marketing, Ulster University Business School, London.
Review
World Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2024, 04(02), 006–018.
Article DOI: 10.53346/wjcps.2024.4.2.0024
Publication history:
Received on 18 April 2024; revised on 29 May 2024; accepted on 01 June 2024
Abstract:
It has been established that COVID-19 affected the world economy with negative impacts on the profitability and financial performance of many businesses. This study evaluated the financial performance of Nestle Plc pre-, during, and post-COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent lockdown. The study used secondary data from the company’s audited annual financial reports (2017 - 2022). Financial data was collected and analysed using a mix of analytical methods such as descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and single ANOVA in Excel 2010. The financial ratios analysed include financial performance, profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, gearing ratios, and investors ratios. The results indicated that Nestle's financial performance was affected during the period of the COVID-19 lockdown between 2019 to 2021. However, based on the result for investor ratios (p-value = 0.708), the study states that there is not enough evidence to conclude. The study also identified limitations such as only Nestle used is not representative of the food and beverages industry as well as the number of ratios analysed. It recommended that further studies should include more players in the industry as well as the number of ratios with more companies in the food and beverages industry in the UK and perhaps outside of the UK.
Keywords:
Nestle; Food and Beverages Industry; COVID-19; Pandemic; Financial Performance
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Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0