Incessant rainfall during most of the year together with political disturbance in the first quarter of the calendar year quite badly affected the mobility of our sales force posing serious difficulty in meeting our sales target for the year. In spite of those challenges, SMC was able to meet its revenue and profitability targets for its for-profit subsidiary SMC Enterprise while at the same time make significant progress towards its non-profit program objectives.

The company’s sales revenues including program income during the year reached in excess of Tk. 3,758 million representing a growth of 15.4% over the previous year or 1% over the target resulting in a revenue surplus of 20% over cost. Although SMC achieved its value target, it fell short of meeting the volume target for some contraceptive products which affected achievement towards the Couple Years of Protection (CYPs) objectives. During the year, contraceptives sold by the company protected 4.272 million couples (CYPs) from unwanted pregnancies as against the target of 4.523 million. Almost the entire shortfall was due to a drop in SMC’s condom sales which is getting hurt by a huge influx of cheap, imported condoms. These cheap condoms provide high trade margins to encourage traders’ push.

On the program side, SMC reached over 1.21 million married women of reproductive age and caregivers of children with messages on family planning. The company also reached almost 250,000 adolescent girls and boys with communication messages on health and hygiene. Almost 4,000 Blue Star providers received basic and refreshers training particularly on the new injectable method Sayana Press.

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