Grace Kennedy surviving global financial crisis
Grace Kennedy and Company Limited is a conglomerate headquartered in Jamaica. The Grace Kennedy Group comprises a varied network of sixty subsidiaries and associated companies located across the Caribbean and in North and Central America and the United Kingdom. Their operations span the food distribution, financial, insurance, hardware retailing and food-processing industries. The success of the company has been constant, but now there is a global financial crisis. Its hardware business has been struggling and has fired eighty employees and is consolidating two of its businesses. Since the conglomerate has a large presence in Belize, News Five’s Jose Sanchez asked Alberto Young, Grace Kennedy Belize’s General Manager, if there are any concerns about the continued viability of the company in the jewel.
Alberto Young, Gen. Manager, Grace Kennedy Belize Ltd.
“H and L Hardware and Lumber in Jamaica and part of that was a restructuring that began in 2008. It’s been expedited or moved along very quickly because of the downturn of construction in Jamaica. Overall, as a group though, Grace Kennedy continues to do very well. In fact, on February twelfth our Chairman sent a release and we always pre-empt it before the press gets any information, where our performance at the end of 2008 was nine to ten percent above 2007 in terms of group revenues. Our group is divided in two divisions; financial investments and also food. Food continues to hold very strong. In Belize we’ve seen a downturn in terms of demand. Remember we sell to wholesalers and to retailers as well, but we’ve seen a contraction of sales in terms of inventory. People are holding less stock, also in anticipation that prices will go down very quickly. It has been going down but not as quickly as people are anticipating.”
Jose Sanchez
“Grace Kennedy’s H and L had to let go about eighty people, any downsizing on your end?”
Alberto Young
“H and L did that because of restructuring also expedited by the downturn in the construction industry. But in Belize we haven’t done so, no plans to do so. Hopefully, things will improve throughout the course of this year. In January we increased salaries by a five and a half percent average. Some people got five, some people got six, and some people got six point five depending on performance. That’s because we had a record 2008. This year we’re below target but still profitable because, like I mentioned, we’ve seen a reduction in number of cases being taken by major wholesalers who are doing that because they don’t want to carry stock at a higher price. They are leveling inventories as well, plus there has been a little dip in demand. But our objective is to remain competitive, to pass down as much savings to our customers so that they can in turn pass it on to consumers. But there are not plans in place, at least not in the immediate horizon, for a reduction in staff. This will be a though year and we anticipated it. We will just have to work with our strategy and make sure all our people are on board and that they help us to achieve those goals.”
Young says that though they have cut some spending in areas such as advertising, Grace Kennedy Belize has just hired additional employees.
