Profit climbs 22% at Stationery & Office Supplies

Profit climbed in 2023 at Stationery and Office Supplies an under the radar company until listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange transformed it into one of the leading companies peddling office supplies in Jamaica. For the quarter ending September this year, profit after tax climbed 22 percent to $96 million from $79 million last year and for the nine months $294 million up 14 percent from $252.5 million.

Stationary & Office Supplies – Montego Bay office.

The year-to-date figures include a gain on the sale of assets amounting to $7.1 million and $30 million in 2022 as such this year’s ongoing profit performance is greater than the net figures suggest.
Year to date, the operating profit before finance charges and gains or loss on the sale of fixed assets is up a solid 38 percent for the nine months and 12 percent for the quarter.
For the September quarter, revenues inched up from $473 million to $488 million. A fair bit of the slowdown is due to price discounts granted based on originally listed prices following falling input costs. For the year to date, revenues climbed 16 percent to $1.53 billion from $1.32 billion in 2022.
Administrative and general expenses rose 23.5 percent to $138 million from $112 million in the September quarter of 2022 and for the year to date, it climbed 20 percent to $378 million from $314 million. Selling and promotional costs fell to $29 million for the September 2023 quarter from $35.8 million last year, with the year to date figures being almost flat at $97 million in 2023 versus $96 million in 2022. Depreciation charges were slightly down from $8.7 million in the September quarter of last year to $8.4 million this year and year to date the numbers are flat at $26.4 million.
Earnings per share for the third Quarter was 4 cents compared to 3 cents in 2022 and for the nine months end September this year, 13 cents per share, up from 11.33 cents.
ICInsider.com projects 19 cents per share for the year, from revenues of just over $2 billion and 30 cents for 2024. The stock last traded at $1.72, with a PE of 8.9 times current year’s earnings, well below the market average of 12.
Operations produced cash inflows of $356 million, up from $259 million in 2022 and at the end of the period with a surplus of $189 million that brought the total to $320.8 million up from just $99 million at the end of September. The 2023 growth in Cash inflows is after spending $72 million on acquiring property, plant and equipment, $50 million in dividend payments and $40 million used in repaying loans. Some of the amount on hand is earmarked to fund the acquisition of properties to be used for storage to allow for continued expansion of the business.
Current assets closed the period at $1 billion, with Receivables rising from $194 million to $317 million and inventories at $349 million compared with $356 million in 2022. Current liabilities rose to $305 million from $148 million in 2022.
Shareholders’ equity stands at $1.35 billion which is up from $884 million from a year ago and borrowed funds used in its operations is only $65 million.
Going forward, the Seek manufacturing division is to get new machines to help meet growing demand as the current facility is said to be at its peak. The distribution of 3M stationery products has been added to the company’s line in the latter months of 2023 and will boost revenues in 2024, with a full year of sales.