For the first time in its history, Sterling Products Ltd has recorded sales in excess of $1 billion in 2000, securing a 7.8 per cent increase in profitability.
Stabroek News
July 26, 2001
Recorded sales in 2000 were $1.0054 billion, compared with $970.3 million the previous year. Net profit after taxation amounted to $114.3 million.
Johnny Carpenter, chairman of the company in which the Beharry Group now has over 51 per cent of the shareholding, said that innovative techniques and new management skills allowed the company to continue its growth in sales and profitability.
He announced in the annual report to shareholders at the Georgetown Club yesterday that Sterling Products earned the distinction as the top public company in Guyana when it was ranked among the top 20 companies in the Caribbean for 2000-2001. The company ranked seventeenth among the firms whose profit before tax were expressed as a percentage of net turnover and earnings per share to provide a rank of economic performance for the firms. The companies ranked highest would be those that created the most wealth for their owners and other stakeholders, relative to the size of their operations.
Carpenter said for Sterling Products to stay ahead of competitors it intended to maintain the highest quality products at the lowest possible cost. He indicated that the company had already improved its production system significantly as well as its quality assurance procedures.
The firm has boosted its production capabilities by adding new plant and equipment and it has also enhanced its steam generation capacity.
Carpenter said additional cold storage has enabled the firm to increase its share of the ice cream market while the replacement of key components have allowed the firm to increase its volume of detergent produced.
"Training continues to be of fundamental importance to us. We recognise that in order to take advantage of technological developments and other organisational changes that are precipitated by rapid globalisation of the region, the skills and knowledge of our employees would have to be constantly updated," Carpenter said. As such, the firm has facilitated both internal and external training of staff in areas such as production, marketing, management and quality assurance.
Sterling Products, in 2000, made a rights issue to raise capital for the acquisition of a state-of-the-art margarine plant that would significantly increase its productive yields. Stabroek News understands that it was this issue, which saw the Beharry Group's interest in the firm increasing from the single largest block to the single largest majority.
Carpenter said the plant has been ordered and the company was in the process of making the changes to accommodate it. The new plant is expected to be operational by the end of April 2002. He noted that an investment of this magnitude would require the support of and the concessions from the government. He said the government had accepted COTED's decision to increase the common external tariff on ice cream products based on collective lobbying by ice cream producers.
"With edible fats products, however, Sterling Products Ltd is alone in the fight to persuade the government to accept the COTED decision to increase the CET...," Carpenter said. However, he said, regardless of the effort required, the firm would persist in efforts to convince the government to support that initiative.
Based on its performance, the company recommended a final divided of 20 per cent for 2000, making it a total dividend layout of 30 per cent. Earnings per share for the company increased by 66 cents during that year, reaching $12.47.