Stationary and Office Supplies – Montego Bay offices.
Stationery and Office Supplies (SOS) purchase of equipment used to manufacture various types of writing books as well as the brand name SEEK.
“This purchase will allow SOS to enter the manufacturing industry in Jamaica starting with books and a plan to continue to manufacture other stationery products in the future”, SOS states.
Machinery purchased includes the following: Ruling machines, Guillotines, Gluing Machines, Stapling Machines and Book Presses.
The total value of the purchase is $60 million and is being financed through a bond with Jamaica National amounting to $80 million at an interest rate of 8 percent, and a duration for repayment of 7 years. The company expects that the total investment including machinery, raw materials and renovations will exceed $80 million. The Company said with this expansion, SOS initially be employing an additional 25 persons with production expected to start during the first week of May 2018. Prior to the acquisition a compliment of 40 persons were employed with a mixture of full time and part timers. Revenues expected in the first twelve months is estimated at $130 million but could rise beyond this, as the business maintains most of the customers for books and SOS leverage their existing customers base and others for more business. According to 
Allan McDaniel, Deputy Managing Director & Director of Warehousing and Logistics, the previous owner operated for about six months per year, but SOS will be able to operate full time and at less cost. The operation will be housed in the adjoining building they acquired last year and effectively fills out the space with their expanded inventories occupying about half. Profit margin is attractive and will almost ensure that the company will profit from it, this year, with growth estimated by them to likely be in the 30 percent region coming from both local and export sales. The new operation could deliver around $40 million to profit in 2018 and around $70 million in 2019, IC Insider.com estimates. Speaking about SOS operations, McDaniel would only say they are happy with the first quarter, that was helped by an increased inventory, now around $170 million compared to $117 million in March last year, just ahead of the public share offer. McDaniel said that while some of the fellow businesspersons are talking about a weak first quarter, SOS expects to report continued growth.
The company’s stock ended at a record close of $6 on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Tuesday gaining 200 percent since it was listed in August last year.
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There was just modest volume trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange main market on Monday, with the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index declining 763.81 points to 320,289.16 and the JSE Index declined by 695.92 points to 291,819.62.
Trading resulted in an average of 89,171 shares valued at $690,844, for each security traded, compared to 384,933 shares valued at $8,896,464 on Friday. The average for the month to date is 1,015,505 shares with a value of $4,839,315 and previously 1,111,701 shares with a value of $5,320,039. In contrast, March closed with an average of 626,526 units with an average value at $20,492,207 for each security traded.
The average volume and value for the month to date, amounts to 147,346 units at $595,413 compared to 156,870 units at $634,740 on the prior trading day. March closed with an average of 149,999 units valued at $623,819, for each security traded.
Eppley ended trading with a loss of 9 cents at $9.51, with 288 shares, Express Catering traded at $5.30, with 2,639 shares, FosRich Group finished trading at $2.40, with 11,040 shares. General Accident closed with a loss of 5 cents at $2.95, with 229,895 stock units, GWest Corporation ended with a loss of 59 cents at $2.50, with 179,700 units, Honey Bun concluded trading with a loss of 35 cents at $4.40, with 6,500 shares, Iron Rock finished at $3, with 109,700 shares. Jamaican Teas ended trading with a loss of 16 cents at $5, with 750 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded at $4.15, with 18,938 units, KLE Group closed with a loss of 5 cents at $2.45, with 11,500 shares, Knutsford Express ended with a loss of 1.52 cents at $12.48, with 850 shares. Lasco Distributors concluded trading $4.02 higher at $4.02, with 160,040 stock units, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 2 cents at $5.28, with 8,970 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled with a loss of 1 cent at $3.99, with 271,118 shares, Main Event ended trading with a loss of 4 cents at $6, with 14,067 shares. Medical Disposables traded at $5.10, with 7,400 shares, Stationery and Office closed 48 cents to a record closing high of $6, with 267,550 units and tTech concluded trading 5 cents higher at $5.80, with 5,000 shares changing hands.
Losses| National Enterprises shares fell 10 cents and ended at $9.65, with 835 units, 
In US dollar trading, dealers sold US$39.54 million at a rate that fell by 15 cents to J$125.13 at the close, compared to $37.73 million at J$125.28 at the close, on Friday. 
Trading levels rose sharply on the Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Monday with 2,407,626 units valued at just $18,652,792 changing hands, compared to 8,083,593 units valued at $186,825,752 changing hands on Friday. 
Radio Jamaica rose 4 cents and finished at $1.09 with 45,943 shares, Sagicor Group gained 1 cent and settled at $37.56 with 77,870 shares and Sagicor Real Estate Fund fell 50 cents to $14.50 with 13,983 shares. Salada Foods added 10 cents and ended trading at $11.20 with 2,940 stock units, Scotia Group traded 164,153 units, rising 5 cents to $50.20 in the process, Seprod fell 10 cents and finished trading at $35.40 with 118 shares, Supreme Ventures ended at $11.65 with 10,500 shares after losing 5 cents, Victoria Mutual Investments rose 5 cents and concluded trading at $4.20, with 191,987 stock units and Wisynco Group rose 27 cents and ended at $10.48 with 119,419 units trading. In the main market preference segment, JMMB Group 7.25% finished trading at $1.50, with 100 units and JMMB Group 7.5% closed at $1, with 240,686 shares changing hands.
In 2018, there will also be greater emphasis on building out exports by targeting new markets in Central America and the Greater CARICOM region,” the Managing Director reported.
Trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange main market ended on Friday with the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index dropping 1,552.80 points to 321,052.97 and the JSE Index shedding 1,414.78 points to 292,515.54.
The US dollar market closed on Friday with Productivity Business finished trading at 56 US cents after falling 1.23 cents with 500 shares and Proven Investments closed trading with 25,000 units valued at $5,280 and closed at 20 US cents. Trading ended with a fall of 1.13 points of the market index to 162.84.
PanJam Investment closed at $42, with 981 stock units. Sagicor Group settled with a loss of 5 cents at $37.55, with 71,388 shares and Sagicor Real Estate Fund settled at $15, with 53,000 shares. Scotia Group traded with a loss of 1.85 cents at $50.15, with 113,898 units, Supreme Ventures ended 17 cents higher at $11.70, with 122,713 shares, Victoria Mutual Investments concluded trading 5 cents higher at $4.15, with 95,150 stock units and Wisynco Group finished 6 cents higher at $10.21, with 41,525 units. In the main market preference segment, Jamaica Money Market 7.5% fell 5 cents to $1.90, with 466,462 stock units and Proven Investments 8.25% settled at $5.15, with 20,000 units changing hands.
The amounts of foreign currencies traded by dealers during the past week jumped sharply over the prior week as dealers bought US$239 million in all currencies, up from US$192 million bought in the previous week. 
At mid-day on Friday dealers purchased US$12.16 million at an average rate of J$124.45 and sold $15.18 million at an average of J$125.32. At mid-day on the previous trading day, dealers purchased US$15.84 million at an average rate of J$124.42 and sold $10.57 million at an average of J$125.23.
