Goddard Enterprises rebound continues

The surge in profits of Barbados’ last remaining multinational conglomerate has continued in the company’s third quarter, as Goddard Enterprises Limited (GEL) released its nine months of consolidated, unaudited financial highlights.

For the period ending June 30, GEL reported after-tax profits of $62.15 million, which was a massive 349.5 per cent jump over the $13.82 million reported for the comparable period in 2021.

In the Board Review which accompanied the financials, chief executive officer Anthony Ali and chairman Charles Herbert, described the performance of the group as “strong” given that it came against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The group’s improved performance is mainly driven by a turnaround in our catering and ground-handling division which has recovered from a loss in the prior year and has exceeded all projections for the current year as revenues grew by 104.9 per cent over the comparative period,” Ali and Herbert told shareholders.

They added: “This is a strong performance given the impact of the pandemic on the group’s performance in the preceding two financial years and the effects of global inflation on the input costs of some of our businesses during the current period.”

GEL, which last year celebrated its centenary, disclosed that revenue turnaround from the catering and ground-handling division was alsoattributed to an increase in airlift and passenger loads resulting from a pent-up demand for travel.

“This change in the revenue mix with increased sales from the division, allowed us to achieve a gross margin of 41.6 per cent for the overall group compared with 35.7 per cent in the prior year.

Restructuring undertaken during the pandemic also resulted in an improved selling, marketing, and administrative expenses to sales ratio during the period under review for the division,” they added.

Reporting on the performance of other divisions in the group of companies, Ali and Herbert said the manufacturing division continued to be a high-performing section of GEL. They said this was despite the performance of its local businesses falling below expectations as these entities grappled with high freight, fuel and other input costs during the period.

The building supplies division, they disclosed, was able to overcome supply chain disruptions and margin pressures to produce a solid performance during the period and posted a near 20 per cent jump in its top-line.

The GEL officials described the auto division’s performance so far as “marginally below expectations” though it “recovered well from a loss in the comparative period to an increase in vehicle sales of 56 per cent across the division”.

The shipping division, on the other hand, registered a small loss during the period which, they said, was driven mainly by low volumes in the freight-forwarding business in Miami. They pointed out that the management team is currently working on a plan to increase throughput.

Caribbean Distribution Partners Limited, which is GEL’s food and consumer goods joint venture with the Agostini’s Group of Trinidad and Tobago, continued to be the main contributor to the Group’s Earnings Per Share during the nine-month period, Ali and Herbert revealed.

“Post-pandemic recovery with increased spending in our regional economies resulted in an increase in revenues above that for the comparative period of 11 per cent for this business.

With the net asset value of GEL securities increasing from $2.53 to $2.70, the directors gave their outlook for the rest of the financial year.

“As the world grapples with the effects of the prolonged Ukraine war, increased inflation and threats of a recession, we remain confident of our ability to sustain a strong performance this year as we enter into our final quarter,” they stated.

According to the GEL officials: “We will continue to keep an eye on world events including the recent flight cap introduced by Heathrow due to staff shortages and any possible impact on our business. The Group’s diversity and the proactiveness of its leadership will continue to be our key strengths and drivers of our success.” (IMC1)