April 29, 2021

Consolidated Bakeries (Jamaica) Limited (PURITY) recorded a 3% decrease in revenue to $993.98 million from $1.03 billion reported for the corresponding period in 2019. For the quarter, the Company recorded revenues of $223.98 million (2019: $240.61 million), representing a 7% decline.

Cost of sales for the year ended December 31, 2020 fell by 6% to close at $601.94 million (2019: $642.42 million), leading to a gross profit of $392.04 million (2019: $384.84 million). Within the quarter, PURITY recorded cost of sales of $135.95 million, down 11% relative to $157.62 million booked in the same quarter last year. As such, fourth quarter’s gross profit totaled $88.02 million, reflecting an increase of 1% year over year (2019: $86.99 million).

The Company reported total expenses of $389.26 million, a 0.1% rise when compared to the $388.95 million reported in 2019. Of this, Administrative expenses amounted to $215.58 million, a 6% increase relative to $204.05 million reported in 2019. Selling expenses contracted by 9% to close at $139.94 million (2019: $153.45 million), whereas depreciation closed at $33.74 million (2019: $31.45 million).

This resulted in an operating profit of $2.78 million for the year end compared to an operating loss of $4.11 million documented for the comparable period in 2019. For the quarter, operating loss amounted to $13.45 million relative to operating loss of $18.99 million recorded in the prior corresponding quarter.

Finance costs increased by 12% to close at $19.04 million versus $16.97 million booked twelve months earlier. While, other Income fell by 49% to close at $5.81 million (2019: $11.37 million).

Consequently, PURITY recorded loss before tax of $10.45 million compared to pretax loss of $9.71 million for the same period last year.  Pretax loss for the quarter closed at $17.31 million compared to loss before tax of $20.05 million in the previous comparable quarter.

The Company incurred taxes of $3.98 million (2019: $2.78 million) for the period under review, resulting in net loss of $14.42 million versus a loss of $12.49 million booked twelve months earlier. For the quarter, the Company recorded a net loss of $19.67 million compared to a loss of $20.90 million for the corresponding quarter in 2019.

Total comprehensive loss closed the period under review at $13.90 million compared to total comprehensive loss of $14.36 million in the prior comparable period.

As a result, loss per share (LPS) for the year end amounted to $0.065 compared to earnings per share (EPS) of $0.056 reported in 2019. For the quarter, the loss per share totaled $0.088 relative to LPS of $0.094 in 2019. The number of shares used in our calculations is 222,709,171 units. PURITY stock last traded on April 28, 2021 at $1.70.

Balance Sheet at a glance:

PURITY, as at December 31, 2020, recorded ‘Total Assets’ of $996.41 million (2019: $1.00 billion), a 0.4% decline year over year. The decline was attributed mainly to a 25% and 5% fall in ‘Cash and Cash Equivalents’ and ‘Trade and other Receivables’ which closed at $63.91 million (2019: $85.48 million) and $96.72 million (2019: $102.14 million), respectively.

Shareholders’ equity totaled $693.52 million (2019: $706.30 million), resulting in a book value per share of $3.11 (2019: $3.17).

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