Despite an “extremely challenging” first half of 2022, the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) Group has seen a 4.2% rise in pre-tax profit.
Group Chairman Komal Samaroo in his statement to shareholders in the interim report for this year said that turnover for the first half of 2022 was 15.8% higher than in 2021. Domestic revenue rose by 14.2% and export revenue by 19%.
While the Group was beginning to recover from the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine erupted in February this year compounding the existing difficulties caused by the virus.
Samaroo said: “In 2022, prices on goods and services generally have skyrocketed. DDL has been specifically affected in our production processes, having had to absorb unprecedented price increases in the cost of fuel, transportation, raw materials as well as packaging materials. Shipping rates on both imports and exports have increased exponentially”.
Further, he said that the delays in shipments whether due to the unavailability of containers or delays at in-transit ports have disrupted the supply chain for inputs into operations as well as exports of its products.
The Ukraine war has also adversely impacted the real dollar value of the group’s revenue proceeds from the European Union which is one of the Group’s major markets.
During the year, Samaroo said that DDL completed the construction of the Bulk Terminal near its distillery operations at Plantation Diamond and the anticipated benefits from the project were seen in a timely manner as the delay in the shipment of bulk products required additional storage.
