Another major milestone in Honey Bun’s brief history of listing on the JSE Junior Market was reached at the end of the 2019 fiscal year, ending in September, with record revenues and profit.
The full-year results show pretax profit rising 73 percent to $183 million versus $106 million in 2018 and profit after tax rising 67 percent to hit $157 million from a 17 percent rise in revenues to $1.54 billion. Revenues grew even faster in the final quarter by 20.4 percent improvement over the 18.9 that revenues grew in the third quarter over 2018.
The results benefited from improved efficiency with cost sales rising well below the growth in revenues, with input cost increasing 12 percent for the year, driving gross profit margin to 48 percent, an improvement from the 46 percent in 2018. Selling and Distribution expenses rose 16 percent to $250 million from $214, Administrative Cost excluding depreciation rose 18 percent $284 million from $249 million.
Earnings per share rose to 33 cents in the just concluded year from just 18 cents in 2018. Importantly, the company is on the way to earn 70 cents per share for 2020 for a profit of $335 million and should go on to earn $1 per share or $490 million in 2021 and $1.30 or $600 million in the following year when the tax concession for half the regular rate ends.
The company is benefitting from a capital expenditure of $330 million spent over the last two years to expand the factory and bring manufacturing under one location as well as an expansion of product range. The operations generated gross cash flow of $230 million up from $145 million in 2018.
Shareholders’ equity climbed to $741 million from $618 million. Current assets increased from $209 million to $353 million with net current assets ending at $185 million from $89 million in 2018. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $193 million, up from $100 million, but the company has Investments of $92 million comprising quoted shares and money market instruments treated as non-current assets.
The company manufacture and distributes baked products for the local and export markets.
The stock receives the IC BUY RATED seal of approval. The stock traded at $7 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior Market for a PE of 10.