November 15, 2022
Spur Tree Spices Jamaica Limited (SPURTREE) for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, reported a 9% increase in sales revenue to $672.06 million from the $614.29 million reported in 2021. Revenue for the quarter fell 6% to 233.20 million compared to $247 million booked for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.
Cost of sales rose by 2% for the period to $433.80 million (2021: $423.84 million). Gross profit increased year-on-year by 25%, from $190.45 million in 2021 to $238.26 million in 2022. Gross profit for the quarter rose 3% to $75.03 million (2021: $72.67 million).
Administrative and other expenses rose by 32% to $116.65 million, up from the $88.27 million recorded a year prior. Management noted that, “the increase was mainly due to increases in marketing spend, staff costs and rental costs.”
Operating Profit for the period grew by 19% to $121.99 million (2021: $102.66 million). Spur Tree reported third quarter profit of $30.06 million, a decline from $37.28 million twelve months earlier.
Finance costs amounted to $3,23 million, a vast decline from the $11.42 million documented for the nine months ended September 30, 2021.
Profit before tax for the nine months period closed at $118.77 million relative to $91.25 million reported twelve months earlier.
At the end of nine months, , SPURTREE reported a Net profit of $118.64 million relative to $71.31 million recorded for the corresponding period in 2021. While, for the quarter, net profit closed at $29.39 million (2021: $25.65 million).
Earnings per share (EPS) for the nine months totaled $0.07 relative to $0.06 in 2021. EPS for the third quarter was $0.02 (2021: $0.02). The trailing twelve months earnings per share was $0.08. The number of shares used in the calculation was 1,676,959,244 units. Notably, SPURTREE’s stock price closed the trading period on November 14, 2022 at a price of J$3.36 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 40.64 times.
Spur Tree indicated that, “the Board of Directors is pleased that other distribution partnerships locally and internationally have been finalized, the most recent of which is the strategic partnership with Massy Distributions, for increased regional distribution. Having been affected by challenges that one of its North American distributors experienced earlier this year, the Company expanded its focus to develop more channels for products distribution. With our increased production capability through CANCO and the final stages of the factory expansion project at Exotic Products underway, the company is well positioned to meet the increased demand for its products locally and internationally for the remainder of 2022 going into 2023.”
Balance Sheet Highlights:
The Company, as at September 30, 2022, had total assets of $872.10 million (2021: $513.12 million). This was primarily due to ‘Property, plant, and equipment’ which increased to $228.27 million (2021: $85.20 million). Receivables also contributed to the overall asset growth valuing $337.26 million (2021: $135.96 million).
Total Stockholders’ equity as at September 30, 2022, closed at $739.72 million (2021: $253.75 million). This translated into a book value per share of $0.44 (2021: $0.15).
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