Out-turns from its newest subsidiaries, Spicy Hills Farms and Arosa Limited, along with that from its Select Grocers location in Clarendon, helped to beef up revenues for the Derrimon Group at the end of the six months ended June.

Spicy Hills, which was acquired at the start of 2022, is a soup and sauce maker company boasting a wide portfolio of authentic Jamaican products. Arosa, which it later purchased in April of last year, is a meat and wine processing company.

According to the company’s half-year report, both entities, adding to revenues from a number of other group subsidiaries, including Caribbean Flavours and Fragrances, Woodcats International, and two other US companies, accounted for almost a third or near $3.2 billion of total revenues.

The Select Grocers locations, coupled with its other retail location, Sampars, spread across the wholesale and retail segment, on the other hand, accounted for over $3.6 billion of revenues, while the distribution segment secured the remaining $2.6 billion.

“Our Select Grocers location in Clarendon continues to see increased traffic and business from customers in the surrounding communities and along the route to their destinations. Some businesses we expected to open at this location had minor delays and we now expect them to open later in the year,” a signed report from chairman and CEO Derrick Cotterell accompanying the company’s latest financials stated.

“For the overall six-month period, revenue increased by 7.17 per cent to a record of $9.50 billion as we reflected contributions from both Spicy Hill Limited and Arosa Limited,” the report stated.

“The reduction in cost of sales pushed gross profit up by 14.31 per cent to $2.17 billion, with group gross profit margins to 22.82 per cent. Total expenses remained flat at $1.63 billion, which resulted in operating profit being reported at $675.63 million, an increase of 34.02 per cent. Profit before tax decreased by 30.39 per cent to $229.10 million, with consolidated net profit at $199.32 million, with earnings per share at $0.039,” it continued.

The company — though challenged by a decline in commodity prices; foreign exchange rate stability; and inventory management, which marginally impacted second quarter revenues that fell to $4.57 billion, backed by increased profits of $125.6 million — its management said, is expected to improve in subsequent quarters.

“We are continuing to monitor the various developments in the market especially as the impact of higher costs such as insurance, security and wages are expected to increase the cost of business for several firms. The Derrimon team is also in dialogue with our financial advisors about potential ways to extract further value from the Group by way of the capital markets,” Cotterell stated, while noting the cessation of tax remissions for its CFF subsidiary which after the reporting quarter is to become subjected to paying the full 25 per cent in income tax charges.

“The company has performed well so far this year and we are however very optimistic for the remainder of 2023 as we seek to deliver greater value to our valued shareholders,” the CEO concluded.