The Wisynco Group is reporting a slight delay in the commissioning of its US$2.7 million co-generating plant, which is expected to save the company US$1 million per year in electricity costs.

The plant, which will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), should have come into commission by the end of this year, but this deadline will not be met given that the components for the plant have just arrived in the island, much later than scheduled. Speaking with the Caribbean Business Report at the end of Wisynco’s annual general meeting, ChairmanWilliam Mahfood expressed confidence that the plant will be up and running by the latest March next year.

He explained that the plant should have been commissioned this year but the delay was with the supply of the equipment.

“The equipment is now here…the equipment is being installed as we speak and we intend to start those engines by the latest February- March,” declared Mahfood.

CEO Andrew Mahfood told shareholders that the LNG plant is one of the exciting projects that the company is implementing, as part of its thrust to drive down expenses next year.

DRIVING DOWN COST THROUGH LNG PLANT

He said the management has set a target for 2020 of reducing expenses to 22.5 per cent of cost of sales while at the same time growing net profits from 10.2 per cent to 12.9 per cent next year.

Referring to the LNG Plant, the Wisynco CEO said “We are excited about the project and in this regard, we expect it to drive down our cost of power by four cents per kilowatt power and based on the kilowatt hours that we use at Wisynco we are expecting a savings of US$1 million per year and a payback on that investment of approximately three years.”

Beaming with excitement that the investment is coming on stream, Mahfood acknowledged that it has taken a bit longer than expected, but it’s coming to fruition.

The Wisynco CEO also gave details about the company’s financials for the just ended 2019 fiscal year.

During the year Wisynco achieved its highest ever sales of $28.4 billion which was 15.8 per cent higher than 2018, in which sales totalled $24.5 billion. The increased revenues translated to higher gross profits of $10.5 billion, up from $9.1 billion a year earlier.

Income from other sources grew in the period, primarily from rebates and bad debt recovered totalling $288.7 million from $92.2 million in 2018. Selling and distribution costs grew 13 per cent to $6.1 billion while administrative expenses grew 14.7 per cent to $1.1 billion.

Finance costs remained largely stable at $230.2 million. Profit after tax totalled $2.9 billion or 27.7 per cent higher than 2018.

Turning to the balance sheet, Wisynco ended the year with $11.1 billion in equity up from $8.7 billion a year earlier due to increased retained earnings arising from net profits.