SEPROD Limited is accelerating its regional expansion as newly imposed US tariffs begin to weigh on product performance, particularly in its biscuit category.

While Chairman PB Scott made no declaration about stepping back from the US market, his comments at the company’s annual general meeting on Monday suggested a stronger focus on building out opportunities across the Caribbean.

Scott described the operating environment as fluid and complex, noting that the company continues to engage stakeholders on pricing but acknowledged that the discussions are becoming more sensitive.

“When a duty is added to a product, the question becomes where in the value chain will that cost land?” Scott said. “It leads to a lot of conversations, and they’re not necessarily positive conversations. But we’re not in this business for the next quarter. We’re building for the next 20 years and so any investment that we’ve made in terms of pricing is for the long haul.”

“…We have to be more competitive and continue to focus on exports and grow volumes. Obviously, we have other markets where tariffs are not affecting us, like the Caribbean,” he continued.

The 10 per cent duty, implemented in April under a US executive order, has disrupted long-standing duty-free access under the Caribbean Basin Initiative. But for Seprod, the shift has only reinforced the strategy it has been executing over the past two years, anchored by majority control of AS Bryden, the integration of Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) under AS Bryden and the buildout of regional distribution hubs across Trinidad, Guyana, and Jamaica.

The acquisition of AS Bryden in 2022 gave Seprod control in one of the region’s largest distribution networks, with operations across Trinidad, Barbados, St Lucia, and Suriname. Earlier this year, Seprod increased its stake in Bryden to 80 per cent, giving the group tighter control over regional sales, pricing, and supply chain coordination.

“We needed alignment,” Scott said. “With Bryden under the group, we’re better able to coordinate how we go to market—not just in Jamaica but across Caricom.”

Supporting that integration is a logistics buildout that includes a new consolidated warehouse in Trinidad, a facility under construction in Guyana, and a fully upgraded distribution centre in Kingston, Jamaica—all designed to move more product more efficiently across the region.

“These are not just warehouses,” the CEO Richard Pandohie told shareholders. “We’re building regional hubs, special economic zones that can feed all the different areas.”

With capacity constraints at its juice plant in Kingston now resolved, Seprod is also in a stronger position to run longer production cycles, improve efficiency, and reduce per unit costs, giving it more flexibility to manage export pricing.

While tariff-related friction has emerged in some categories, notably biscuits, Seprod’s beverage portfolio has so far been less exposed.

“We are seeing some impact on biscuits,” Pandohie told the Jamaica Observer in a follow-up interview. “Supligen and the wider beverage portfolio are holding steady so far.”

The trend points to entrenched brand loyalty and more stable pricing power for beverages such as Supligen, compared to the more price-sensitive and competitive biscuit segment in the US market. Nevertheless, Scott said he expects to see an uptick in Seprod’s export business by the end of the year despite the tariffs.

“Our distribution is very effective, not just in Jamaica. We have a distribution platform across the entire Caricom region, which is basically our domestic marketplace. So, if you think about it, that means what we produce in Jamaica, we can move duty-free to a shelf anywhere in the Caribbean,” Scott said.

Despite headwinds in some product categories and a modest start to the year locally, Seprod is pressing forward with its transformation into a regional powerhouse.

In 2024, the group grew revenue by 19 per cent to $133.6 billion, capping off a decade-long climb from $11.9 billion in 2014. Export sales have grown tenfold over the same period, reaching $5.3 billion, as Seprod doubled down on Caribbean integration through strategic acquisitions and infrastructure buildout.

Still, net profit for 2024 fell 27 per cent to $3.32 billion, weighed down by a surge in capex—more than $5 billion spent last year alone—as the company scaled operations across Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and Barbados.

The trend continued into Q1 2025. Revenue jumped 31.9 per cent year-on-year to $37.7 billion, but net profit slipped to $867 million, down from $1.23 billion, largely due to higher finance costs from debt-backed expansion.

Scott remained undeterred, pointing to Seprod’s scale—now 4,500 employees strong across the region—and the resilience of its diversified business model.

The group says it remains on track to hit its US$1-billion revenue target by 2026, supported by a logistics and warehousing platform designed to serve the entire Eastern Caribbean.

“We pretty much have coverage across the entire CARICOM region now,” Scott said in responding to a shareholder’s query. “So I think we’re going to see a lot of organic growth. But if the essence of the question is, ‘Are we going to hit a billion US dollars in revenue?’—I’m sure we are,” he continued.

Internally, Seprod is also squeezing out inefficiencies. With CPJ now under its business and an upgraded Kingston warehouse, Scott said the company working on eliminating costly cross-island redundancies and is investing in technology to enhance productivity.

SCOTT…we can move duty-free to a shelf anywhere in the Caribbean (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Seprod’s Butterkist brand butter cookies is one in a line of 18 biscuits produced under the brand. The company said its biscuit products are being impacted by tariffs in the US market.