Company reports $2 bn. profit

The company reported net profit of made $2.27 bn., up from $1.7 bn. a year ago. Sales topped $44 bn., up more than 15% from $38 bn.

Vice-president of finance, Ian Parsard, said that growth was achieved in all three geographical segments led by the United States operations, up 21%, mainly driven by the hatchery assets acquired at the end of financial year 2016. The Jamaica operations increased revenue by 12%, fed by its chicken, feed and baby chick product lines, while the Haiti operations continued its "impressive growth", up 24%.

Jamaica Broilers spent roughly $1.4 bn. on biological assets for the year ending April, which fuelled its sales. Parsard said these biological assets included breeder birds and fertile hatching eggs, broiler birds in the Jamaica operations and layer birds in Haiti.

In a breakout of the earnings in each geographic segment last year, Broilers reported that the Jamaica operations earned $2.87 bn. from $32.2 bn. in revenues; the US operations made $1.29 bn. from $13.78 bn. in revenues; and other Caribbean operations $943.7 mill. from $2.12 bn. in revenues. The three segments earned $4.9 bn. overall, which when adjusted for unallocated corporate expenses, resulted in $3.2 bn. in operating profit.

The improved results follow the disposal of Jamaica Broilers' loss-making ethanol facility JB Terminal Port Esquivel Limited to West Indies Petroleum Limited. The poultry group reported a gain of $39.47 mill. gain on the sale after factoring foreign exchange movements.

The company closed the year to a larger pool of cash, which nearly doubled from $873 mill. to $1.59 bn., due in part to higher profit.