Spaulding RADIO JAMAICA (RJR) is set to break ground later this year for construction of new television studios to house the facilities it acquired from the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) three years ago.
RJR chairman and managing director, Lester Spaulding, said it had planned to start work on a new television broadcast house at Beechwood Avenue, St. Andrew before, "but despite our best effort to fulfil the minute details of the terms of our agreement with the Government, there has been some delay because of an inability to conclude certain contractual conditions."
Addressing shareholders during the company's annual general meeting at the Hilton Kingston Hotel last week, Mr. Spaulding said, however, that coincident with the delays, the capital market was changing and the company stood to benefit from new advances in technology and reductions in prices for equipment and other materials.
"This means that we will not raise the level of funds originally anticipated, or conversely, we can now concentrate on getting closer to the digitalisation revolution taking place in the rest of the world," Mr. Spaulding said.
The chairman said 1999 was a watershed year for the company because it was the period in which they returned to profitability as a group with consolidated accounts, after showing a loss the previous year.
RJR earned $29 million in profits after tax for 1999 and Mr. Spaulding assured the shareholders that "this trend will continue for (the year) 2000."
He said that while they would have liked to make greater strides "in our journey, the economic conditions have compelled us to be fairly cautious and to delay some of our plans."
In examining the market, for instance, "your Board made a key strategic decision to slow down the process of raising capital during 1999," he said. "The Board took the decision, because of the economic climate, to hold the company's current capital base. It took the decision to use internal cash flows to fund developments, recognising that progress would take place at a slower, but safer pace."
RJR's annual report for the period ended December 1999 shows a reduction in its full-time employees from 218 in 1998 to 178 last year. The number of part-time employees on the other hand, was increased by three to 150. The changes also affected the company's wage bill, costing $135.6 million in 1999 compared to the $140.2 million it cost to pay the workers in 1998.
