BICO Limited seeing profits

BICO Limited has almost doubled its earnings per share for the financial year ended September 30, 2016.

However, the company’s management is reporting that the year proved to be a litmus test of the company’s consistent, prudent, fiscal management and ongoing investment in product diversification, and efforts to maximise the use of its cold chain storage and distribution facilities.

BICO’s Executive Chairman, Edwin Thirlwell, said the review period was both challenging and rewarding, adding that despite the lack of any anticipated bounce back in the local economy, BICO recorded an impressive 98 per cent increase in net income after tax, also improving earnings per share by 94 per cent, from 16 cents last year, to 31 cents per share.

“The market is a little bit flat at the moment, and I think that’s reflected in the tightness of spendible money. Disposable income is not around as it usually is; it’s a little tight. However, it’s not a disaster; all it means is that we have a challenge for the rest of this year that’s remaining, which is just over a half.

“We have to do something spectacular to try and generate revenue, sales and keep things moving forward. I think that it is not an understatement to say the future is uncertain. There are so many uncertainties out there that it’s bound to affect the confidence of people who spend money, it affects the confidence of people who import goods for the hospitality sector,” Thirlwell noted during a press conference at BICO’s Harbour Road headquarters.

“Sometimes events happen that are very well beyond our control. However, we are very well aware of what is happening, we are watching what we do.

“There is a very old adage that in situations like this, you have to push up yourselves and push down your cost. We have no back stop, we have no central bank to fall back on, nobody is going to give us money if we don’t make ends meet.

“We can’t contemplate the situation where we are already committed to spending more than we think we are going to make. We are all set to put our best foot forward and maximise ourselves and minimise our expenses, that’s all we can do,” he added.

He said the company has again done well to record growth despite a difficult economic environment, managing to deliver a 7 per cent increase in overall sales, with the Food Service division being a star performer.

“These positive results have enabled us to pay a performance related bonus to staff, and for directors to recommend the payment of a dividend to shareholders,” Thirlwell said.

Expressing satisfaction with the BICO team performance overall, Thirlwell noted he was not as pleased about the level of BICO’s share price in trading on the local Stock Exchange. He said this continued to disappoint with current share price at just over BDS$2.00 per share, well below the net asset value per share which is in excess of BDS$6.00.

“The shared price is a factor well beyond our control. The Barbados Stock Exchange is not buoyant by any means, you only need to listen to the news every night and it tells you what’s happening in Jamaica and it tells you what’s happening in Trinidad, and when it tells you what’s happening in Barbados, [there is] no trading,” Thirlwell explained.

The Executive Chairman stressed that the contribution made by the Company’s policy of diversification and innovation, plus the energetic embrace of green projects could not be overstated and would continue in earnest. (AH)