Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances (CFF), a subsidiary of Derrimon Trading Limited (DTL), is on track to reach its $1-billion revenue target for the year ending 2025.

Ian Kelly, chief financial officer of CFF and CEO of parent company DTL, expressed confidence in achieving the target, stating: “We are committed to pursuing every option to realise this goal. If the year is a 100-metre race, we see ourselves accelerating around the 50-metre mark. So it’s just for us to continue on the trajectory, and I think that based on the team that we have, we are committed and we want to ensure that we provide the best returns to our shareholders.”

The company reported sales of $529.2 million for the first half of 2025, including $302.8 million in the second quarter. Net profit for the period was $82 million, close to the company’s total earnings of $83.9 million in 2024. CFF’s best year on record was in 2023 when its revenue and net profit peaked at $900.8 million and $132.8 million, respectively.

Despite strong sales growth, CFF is facing rising working capital pressures. Receivables, which are amounts owed to the company by its customers, rose to $158.5 million in June 2025, up 23 per cent from December 2024. This outpaced revenue growth of 18.2 per cent over the same period, suggesting longer cash conversion cycles. At the end of June, receivables represented 19 per cent of total assets — the overall value of everything the company owns — and 59 per cent of assets expected to be converted into cash within a year.

These metrics would typically indicate vulnerability, but CFF maintains a deliberate approach to credit risk. The company segments its customers into clear risk tiers: large Trinidadian clients, described as “reliable payers despite foreign exchange challenges”, form the core of its overseas receivables, while smaller buyers in more volatile Caribbean markets face active restrictions.

Still, the company is betting on export sales to drive growth over the next few years.

In its latest annual report, Chairman Howard Mitchell stated the company had “set a bold but achievable target to arrive at 50 per cent of total revenue from export markets”. Kelly clarified that is a 2030 target for the flavours and fragrances producer.

A nearer-term goal aims for 30 per cent of revenues from exports by end-2027.

In the first half of 2025, exports accounted for 11 per cent of revenues or about $58.2 million. Kelly said that export revenues reached 18 per cent in July and projections suggest this level will be maintained for the remainder of the year.

Growth is partly attributed to ventures in Caribbean markets, including Spanish-speaking territories.

“Well, we’re still having a lot of discussions with customers in the Dominican Republic. We are doing a little business in Dominican Republic and in Panama, and we’re hoping that based on some of the activities and some of the innovations that we are showing to potential customers in this market, we expect to have some closures within this financial year.”

To accelerate its export push, CFF has been seeking a commercial manager for two years who can help drive growth, particularly by developing the larger Spanish-speaking markets they are targeting.

The company anticipates activity in several additional targeted countries where there is already some interest. Recently, a team spent about a week in Guyana providing further explanations of prototypes and usage models for products it wants to introduce to expand beyond its current customers, including Demerara Distillers, a rum producer.

“As Guyana’s economy grows and demand increases, particularly in flavours and special ingredients for the baking industry, we are going to see some levels of demand ignite, and we should be the one who’s striking the match for some of these potential customers,” Kelly noted.

In 2024, the company maintained exports to core markets like Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Eastern Caribbean. CFF also recently attended a regional trade convention in Trinidad to develop new partnerships.

The company has been focusing on product development and innovation, particularly for the baking and savoury industries, which has helped improve returns in those sectors. Local and international markets have shown significant interest, with many products moving beyond testing phases and some already being used in commercial batches with positive feedback.

“In addition to that, within the beverage industry there has been a lot of innovation that many companies, local and international tested and thus far the outcomes have proven to be very successful to the point that we are now getting large commercial orders for many of these innovations,” Kelly added.

The company has focused teams in its laboratories, and as a research-driven organisation, invests significantly in training and development. Staff are also exposed to new international trends, which has resulted in excellent solutions and noticeable improvements.

The innovation efforts across the savoury, bakery, and beverage industries are particularly promising and continue to show strong potential in markets such as Suriname, Trinidad and Jamaica.

The innovation efforts across the savoury, bakery, and beverage industries are particularly promising and continue to show strong potential in markets such as Suriname, Trinidad, and Jamaica. However, alongside this growth in product development, CFF is also placing increased scrutiny on its inventory management. Although stockpiles have remained steady at $197.9 million, representing approximately 24 per cent of current assets, management acknowledges carrying elevated inventory levels as a necessary buffer against global supply disruptions. This approach is defended by Kelly as essential to maintaining customer reliability, drawing on lessons from supply chain challenges in 2024. That year exposed significant vulnerabilities, including month-long delays for ingredients from suppliers in Mexico and the US, panic-induced global shortages triggered by geopolitical crises, and “empty shelf” failures where CFF was unable to fulfil key orders, affecting product availability. In response, the company undertook a logistics overhaul in 2025 aimed at addressing these issues directly.

“What we would have done in terms of logistic is that we have broadened some of the partnerships that we have with some of our shipping arrangements. We have incorporated into our whole logistic arrangement, break bulk from different markets, and as a result of that, rather than waiting on containers… we have found different ways in order to ensure that we get the products there on time for our suppliers.”

In addition, the company is carrying higher levels of just-in-time inventory for some products due to arrangements with certain customers, reflecting improvements in their planning processes.

“Many times we do that because of the demands that we have from our customers, and we prefer to incur some of that carrying cost rather than to be out, which would encourage our customers to seek alternatives,” Kelly pointed out as he indicated that inventory could reach as high as $250 million this year to ensure the company can supply its customers. “We want to be their first call, and when they call, we want to ensure that we are able to deliver, and that is what we have been able to do,” he said.

Caribbean Flavours and Fragrances.