Retail suppliers Stationery and Office Supplies Limited (SOS) is reporting an after-tax profit of $33.1 million for its financial year ended December 31, 2020, despite a 76 per cent decrease over the previous corresponding period.

For the period under review, SOS recorded revenues of $972.3 million, a 20 per cent decline over the previous corresponding period ($1.2 billion).

As indicated by the company in its report to shareholders, the closure of schools and hotels, work-from-home orders, as well as curfew measures due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, resulted in an 80 per cent decline in its stationery and furniture sales, causing major losses during April of 2020.

“In response, we increased our product offerings to meet changing customer needs as our corporate clients sought to adapt their offices to satisfy new health and safety measures. We increased our sales in acrylic shields, dividers, sanitising dispensers, and masks,” the company said.

“We also began retrofitting offices in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Health. With the closure of schools and the shift to online classes, we shifted our SEEK production to focus on corporate stationery,” SOS said, noting that its SEEK line accounted for about $39 million of the revenue earned for the 2020 financial year.

SOS’s total assets declined to $888 million as at December 2020 from the $907 million recorded for 2019. The dip, the company indicated, was due to its efforts in reducing inventory to $232.7 million from $249 million and trade receivables to $99.4 million from $140.4 million.

During the 2020 financial year, SOS was also able to reduce its total liabilities to $278.3 million from $310.4 million in 2019.

“Through paying down on loans, we cut our borrowing by one-third to $81.5 million from $118.2 million in 2019,” it said, noting that overall the faster reduction in liabilities over total assets resulted in a rise in total equity, for the period under review, to $609.7 million from the $596.7 million recorded in 2019.

Pre-COVID-19, the company had its sights on selected regional projects. These included a call centre in the Eastern Caribbean, as well as fulfilling private orders for two companies which were put on hold due to the pandemic.

“It is said that, ‘What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’, and SOS has definitely proven that. We came out of 2020 stronger than when we began the year. We look forward to continued growth, increase in revenue and market share. We look ahead to expanding our operations in Montego Bay, new acquisitions, and partnerships with other companies throughout the Caribbean,” SOS said.