Cost cuts and moderate revenue growth drove profit at Lasco Manufacturing 41 percent higher for the year to March this year to $1.33 billion, with the fourth quarter rising 83 percent to $367 million over that of 2020.
Pretax profit jumped a strong 83 percent for the quarter, to $457 million from $249 million in the 2020 March quarter and 46 percent for the 12 months to March, with $1.75 billion up from $1.2 billion in 2020. The profit is subject to full taxation as of October 12, last year.
Gross profit margin came in at 38 percent for the year, up from 37 percent of the 2020 fiscal year. Revenues climbed four percent for the fiscal year, with $6.2 billion but were flat at $2 billion for the fourth quarter.
Administrative and other costs fell 13 percent for the year to March to $1.19 billion from $1.36 billion in 2020, resulting from a fall of $167 million in staff cost from $717 million to $550 million, primarily as the company incurred no share option cost in the year versus $185 million in the prior year. Selling and promotion expenses fell from $291 million to $137 million.
Finance cost dipped from $94 million to $59 million as the company continues to pay down loans that stood at $1.05 billion at the end of March 2020 to $820 million, with $454 million earmarked to be repaid in the 2022 fiscal year. Taxation consumed $376 million of profits, up from $217 million in 2020.
The company’s principal activities remain, the manufacture of soy-based products, juice drinks, water, and packaging of milk-based products.

Lasco Manufacturing products.
Shareholder’s equity stood at $7.9 billion at the end of March 2021. Cash funds and investments amount to $2.35 billion after the company generated $1.6 billion in cash inflows, before working capital and capital financing needs and paying a dividend of $251 million.
Lasco generated earnings per share for the year of 33.2 cents, up from 23.67 cents in 2020. ICInsider.com projects earnings of 40 cents for the fiscal year to March 2022.
The stock last traded on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $5.50, with a PE ratio of 16.6 based on the reported earnings and 13.8 based on the 2022 projected earnings. The price target for the stock, to March 2022, is $7-8.

Profit attributable to shareholders was $278 million in the quarter, up from a loss of $971 million in the 2020 quarter. Earnings per share amount to 23 cents for the quarter.
For the six months to March, profit after tax grew 20.7 percent to $112 million from $92 million in 2020, with revenues coming in 13 percent ahead of the 2020 income of $876 million to close out the March 2020 half year at $989 million.
The company reported their full year results to March this year, with profit before tax of $141 million, up slightly from $137 million earned in 2020, but below the forecast in the prospectus.
Net profit attributable to shareholders grew US$1.02 million or 79.6 percent to a record US$2.29 million for the 2021 nine months period, from US$$1.28 million for the nine months to March 2020. For March 2021 quarter, net profit climbed to US$1.03 million from a loss of US$355,800 in 2020.
Gross profit rose at a slower pace to that of sales growth, with an increase of just 3 percent to $416 million, from $404 million in 2020, which management attributes to a shift in sales mix during the period. “Revenue on some of our higher margin products declined slightly, we saw increases in lower margin product sales which drove the top line,” the directors reported in their commentary on the results.
Cash flows from operating activities generated $541 million for the nine months, up from $387 million in 2020, but after paying dividends of $100 million, repaying loans and lease commitments of $92 million and providing working capital of $210 million was retained and added to the balance of cash funds of $599 million previously pushed cash on hand to $809 million, an increase of 52 percent.
The performance is commendable, viewed against the modest rise the company enjoyed for the 2020 period with two and a half full months of uninterrupted service. The company reports that revenues for March 2021 increased by 5.63 percent over March 2020.

Before the company announced a ten to one stock split, the stock traded at $28.22 on January 12, this year, the day