Lasco Distributors Ltd (LDL) doubled its second-quarter profit ending September 2015 to $247 million due to growth of its relatively new iCool and Unilever lines.

It puts the growth projections of the company on target.

“This growth was driven mainly by contributions from our iCool and Unilever lines of business, both of which have been doing very well. Net profit for the quarter was $247 million, which was 119 per cent more than the same period last year,” stated Peter Chin, managing director, in his statement accompanying the results released this week.

The increased volumes of distributed product resulted in efficiency gains in the quarter. Chin explained that the ratio of operating expenses to revenue was 11 per cent compared to 13 per cent in the same period last year.

“This efficiency gain is directly attributable to increased volumes, enabled by a strategic strengthening of our sales force and logistics infrastructure. Management remains committed to containing operating costs in spite of the challenging economic environment,” he stated.

The company earned $628 million gross profit compared with $474 million a year earlier. While total assets jumped 48 per cent over the period to $6.3 billion due to ongoing expansion.

“This growth was driven mainly by additional inventory arising from our new business lines, and capital expenditure relating to our Warehouse expansion,” Chin stated.

Last September, LDL announced another round of expansion with plans to increase warehouse space by one-third to 340,000 square feet. It would accommodate increased inventory in order to facilitate the plans to double annual sales to $20 billion in three years.

LDL is one of three affiliated Lasco companies under the chairmanship of its founder Lascelles Chin. Each of the three companies was listed on the junior arm of the Jamaica Stock Exchange in 2010.

At the 2013 annual general meeting, the chairman initially made the challenge to double profits at the three companies in three years. The projection would double LDL profits to roughly $1 billion, LML profits to $1.2 billion and Lasco Financial Limited profits to roughly $320 million, based on the 2013 projection.