When Uganda Clays Limited listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange in January 2000 – the very first company to do so – it carried with it a certain national pride. Here was a company founded in 1950, older than Uganda’s independence, a maker of the bricks and roofing tiles that had literally built this country.
Investors who bought shares at the IPO price of UGX 20 per share were not just buying stock; they were buying into a piece of industrial history.
Twenty-five years later, those same shares are trading at around UGX 4.50. Now, that is not a typing error.
The journey from UGX 20 to UGX 4.50 tells a story of persistent underperformance, mounting debt, and longsuffering shareholders who have watched their investment erode while receiving nothing in dividends. In 2023, the company lost UGX 2.85 billion. In 2024, it lost UGX 4.95 billion.
For ordinary Ugandans who may have put their savings into UCL shares at the USE’s launch, it has been a quarter century of tears.
That is why the 2025 results – modest as they are – deserve to be read carefully.
As Pedson Mumbere reports, Uganda Clays posted a net profit of UGX 142 million in 2025. In isolation, that figure is barely worth celebrating. But placed against two consecutive years of billion-shilling losses, it represents something real: a company pulling itself back from the edge.
Total revenue grew 10% to UGX 34.8 billion, driven by improved production stability across its plants. Operating costs fell 8% to UGX 10.5 billion, down from UGX 11.3 billion in 2024, a sign that the belt-tightening is working.
Earnings per share, which stood at a loss of UGX 5.5 in 2024, recovered to a positive UGX 0.16. The company’s cash position also strengthened, rising from UGX 332 million to UGX 554 million.
None of this would have happened without deliberate strategic intervention. In mid-2024, Uganda Clays unveiled its Turnaround, Repair and Aggressive Growth strategy — known by its acronym, TRAG — a ten-year roadmap running from 2025 to 2034. The plan is ambitious: reposition the company from a traditional brick manufacturer into a regional building solutions provider.
Operational Challenges
It envisions a shift toward premium roofing tiles for Uganda’s growing middle class and a highly automated, large-scale brick production line, including a circular kiln capable of producing up to 400,000 bricks per day — potentially adding UGX 69 billion in annual revenue.
Critically, the plan also confronts the company’s most persistent albatross: debt. Uganda Clays owes the National Social Security Fund – its largest shareholder with a 32% stake – a restructured liability of over UGX 20.6 billion.
That debt traces back to a UGX 11 billion loan taken in 2010 to expand factory capacity, a loan that was never fully repaid and has ballooned with interest over time.
Finance costs in 2025 rose to UGX 3.9 billion, compared to UGX 3.2 billion a year earlier. Under the TRAG plan, the company intends to sign an addendum with NSSF to begin structured repayments. Until that debt is tamed, profitability will remain fragile.
There is also a lingering leadership question. Managing Director Reuben Tumwebaze, who launched the TRAG strategy, saw his five-year contract expire and was not renewed.
The Board has since appointed Jones Muhumuza – previously the Head of Finance – as Acting Managing Director from February 2026.
Muhumuza credits improved plant efficiency and cost discipline for the current turnaround. Whether the next substantive MD will maintain the strategic direction now remains to be seen.
For shareholders, the picture is still far from comfortable. No dividends have been declared for 2025 as the Board chose to preserve cash for debt servicing and operational recovery. That is the right call, but it means investors must again wait.
Still, after 25 years, a profit, however thin, might be the small cloud to smile a start. The foundations laid by the TRAG strategy are starting to be visible in the numbers. UCL is not out of the woods yet, but for the first time in a long time, the long-suffering shareholders might be able to see some light at the end of a long tunnel.
