ORANE
GRACEKENNEDY Limited's latest results show revenues increasing by 7.5 per cent to $33.0 billion from $30.7 billion.
The company last week released its fourth quarter unaudited results for the year 2005.
Douglas Orane, chairman/chief executive officer in his comments said, "GraceKennedy continues to show increased revenues year over year which is encouraging in a Jamaican market that particularly in recent months has been increasingly soft in terms of consumer demand.
In spite of these challenges, our group made over $2 billion in profits in 2005 demonstrating GraceKennedy's ability to make significant profits in variable market conditions. In addition, the shareholder equity of the company increased from $13.4 billion in 2004 to $15.3 billion, showing that the company continues to strengthen its balance sheet. We also paid $327 million in dividends to our shareholders in 2005 compared to $292 million in 2004, an increase of 12 per cent."
GraceKennedy's profit attributable to shareholders for the year 2005 was $2.075 billion compared with $2.171 billion in 2004, a decline of 4.4 per cent, and is within the forecast range which GraceKennedy gave in December regarding its profits for the year 2005.
PLATFORM FOR GROWTH
Mr. Orane in his comments continued, "GraceKennedy is building a strong platform for future growth based on developing our GraceKennedy people, building our brands to connect with our customers and streamlining our internal operations to gain greater efficiency. These are all activities which are ongoing and which have contributed to the company's success in varying macro economic circumstances."
In December 2005, Grace-Kennedy issued a forecast that profits for the year 2006 would increase over the prior year between five per cent and 15 per cent. Mr. Orane stated that the forecast remains in place.
