Salada Foods focuses on expanding exports

Jamaica’s largest coffee processing firm, Salada Foods Limited, will be primarily focusing on increasing exports of its products as part of the strategy to take the company forward, according to managing director Julian Rodney.



He is projecting growth in exports by at least 20 per cent this year, based on new distributorships they will be seeking to identify, as well as increased marketing to give the products a stronger presence in the local and international markets.



"The local market is a finite market, so really where we have to look at is the export market," said Rodney, in an interview with Sunday Business following the company's annual general meeting at the Wyndham Hotel, New Kingston on Wednesday.



"We expect to grow exports by at least 20 per cent this year if the strategies we employ do work – and I do believe they will – so we expect to see that (level of) growth or more," he said.



"We are looking to newer territories. Some territories have started to bear fruit,” he said, adding that the quantity of their products in China, for example, has grown significantly over the last year and they would continue that push.



He said there were also a number of other territories in Asia in which the company was trying to market its goods.



For the financial year ended September 30, 2011, Salada’s local sales volume grew by 12 per cent, while exports increased by 35 per cent, driven primarily by increased sales to Asia and North America.



While Rodney declined to divulge information on revenue earned from exports, he said that volumes sold to China were close to the level sent to North America, currently the company's biggest export market.



Turnover at the end of the financial year 2011 totalled $560.8 million, an increase of 31.5 per cent compared to the previous year.



Despite the increase in turnover however, the company saw a dip in net profit to $71.9 million compared to $81.4 million for 2010.



Rodney, who succeeded former Salada managing director John Rosen last year, said that since joining the company he has been working on several projects, the main one being the launch in December of two new products under the Jamaican Ginger Tea label – one with sugar added and another without.



The 12 per cent increase in sales volumes locally was supported by the new products as well as the addition of four new distributors in the export markets.



Rodney said the company is now working to push distribution of the products both on the local and international markets.



Salada, which has been in the coffee processing business since 1958, last traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $9.51.



Its 103.8 million ordinary shares are valued at almost $988 million.



sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com