Date: September 23, 2019
“Our 30 year milestone is not a plateau, but rather a launching pad for our sustained success,” the Chairman, Lascelles Chin stated. The Chairman also highlighted that, “the innovation and dedication of the LASCO team along with the loyalty of customers and consumers continue to bear the fruits of increased citizen and shareholders benefits.”
General Manager, Dwaine Williams, discussed the Company’s performance and the outlook for Lasco Distributors for the upcoming year. LASD generated revenues of $18.13 billion relative to $16.27 billion in the prior year. While, the Company achieved net profit of $597.80 million versus $1 billion in the same period last year. He highlighted that, “the decline was heavily due to the one-off gains from proceeds of the Pfizer case in 2018. Expenses were higher than planned driven by increased investment in elevated marketing campaigns to maintain market share gains in beverages and continued to invest ahead in support of the new brands such as Lyrix, Konka and reduced sugar beverage products.”
In addition, an overview was given of the Company’s existing divisions, namely Consumer and Pharmaceutical Division. Revenues from the Consumer Division was $15.15 billion due to growth in the flagship brand, LASCO Food drink, growth of 7% and continues to make steady strides. Furthermore, the Company is focused on rationalizing their product portfolio and explore the possibilities of introducing new products to deliver increased value to consumers.
With respect to the Pharmaceutical Division, revenues grew to $2.98 billion or 14% over the prior year as a result of strong growth across all major categories, improved supply chain management, deeper partnership with principals. The Pharmaceutical Division continues to deliver strongly to the overall performance of the business, driven by healthy growth in ethical drugs, diagnostics and over-the-counter categories. New product lines from Merck, AstraZeneca and Aspen have expanded the range of offerings and have set the Company on a path to continue their accelerated growth in the Pharmaceutical sector. Mr. Chin stated that, “the future looks even brighter and plans are already in the pipeline to expand our therapeutic offerings and further diversify our portfolio, to bring more cost effective solutions to the people of Jamaica.”
The Company is based on brand development and sales growth which is achieved through strategic focus. As such, Mr. Williams highlighted actionable objectives for the upcoming year:
- Value chain optimization- continued efficiency gains in buying, warehousing and distributing.
- New products- build out a robust and focused innovation pipeline
- Export- drive share gain in key markets whilst focusing on opening new high value markets for expansion
- Technological improvement- analytical capability to be at the heart of business operations with seamless integration across core processes to drive service improvement
New Products
- LASCO Choco Munchies and LASCO Choco Craze
- LASCO Food drink low sugar creamy malt
- Jamaica Mountain Peak Decaffeinated 2g Sachet
- Jamaica Mountain Peak Roasted Line
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