The recently released 2020 Annual Report of Caribbean Container Inc. has disclosed that the company returned an after tax profit of $220.2 million, a 117% improvement over 2019 as a result of which earnings per share reached $1.46 as against $0.67 in 2019. Turnover for the year was recorded at $1.383 billion, 10.8% ahead of the 2019 turnover. Gross profit for the year was recorded at $437.1 million, a 44.5% improvement over 2019.
In its analysis of the factors that contributed to the company’s enhanced performance last year its Annual Report listed “efficiency improvements, lower raw material prices (primarily imported paper) and increased packaging demands” as many if its customers “took steps to increase their finished goods stock levels in the light of pandemic-related uncertainties.” The report says that its expenses last year remained ‘generally in line with 2019,” alluding to what is said was a “record-breaking performance” last year. Going forward, the report says that CCI is placing particular emphasis on “further advancing the efficiency improvements throughout the company’s operations, particularly in the light of significant increases in paper prices being witnessed in 2021.”
And against the backdrop of several particularly challenging years CCI is reporting a “sizeable capital commitment for this year to cover projects designed to improve support/ancillary infrastructure, enhance product quality and improve equipment reliability.
Over the more than four decades of its existence under various incarnations the CCI has faced a plethora of challenges not least of which were circumstances that forced the suspension of the operations of its Paper Recycling Plant, the only one in the region, a circumstance that resulted in a return to the importation of paper, the primary raw material for its box-manufacturing operations.
The CCI says in its 2020 Annual Report that the company “is actively considering the suspended Paper Recycling Plant with a view to taking a decision on its future.” The report also alludes to the exploring of income-generating opportunities for idle property belonging to the company,” undertaking to apprise shareholders of “any significant developments in this regard at the upcoming Annual General Meeting.”
