"A 900 Jamaican dollars, not US dollars, a book value of $900 has now mushroomed into $1.3 billion as of March 2023," said Managing Director Jeremy Barnes proudly at its recent annual general meeting.
In the financial year ending March 2023, FESCO's net profit amounted to $574.51 million, up $316.63 million, which is 122.8 per cent more than the previous year, surpassing its IPO net profit target by 57.8 per cent.
"We are one of the companies that, actually, in our IPO [initial public offering] , we tell you where we want to go, we give you a five-year outlook, and we've been able to exceed that forecast that we made. For the year ended March 2023, we exceeded our own projections by $209 million, at that time, we hoped to have earned $362 million," Barnes explained.
FESCO also expanded its market share of the local fuel industry to 8.3 per cent with 20 service stations in a market of over 450 service stations. For the year ended March 31, 2023, gross profits were $887.82 million, up $498.5 million from $389 million. Operating expenses and administrative expenses increased by $307 million for March 2023 from $134 million for March 2022, a $173 million increase, representing 34.6 per cent of the total gross profit ending March 2023.
The increase in operating expenses was attributed to significant salary increases, having moved the company from seven employees to 82 staff members.
"We're really proud of them [employees], and we're happy that they have embraced the brand and the company the way they have, and I want to point to them; I really want to tell them to thank you for all they have done to build the brand, FESCO," Barnes expressed with gratitude.
At the end of March 2023, there were 18 stations, which grew to 20 in September with the opening of FESCO Kitson and FESCO May Pen. A third new station is to open next month when FESCO Port Maria is expected to start operating.
"The only parishes we are not in currently are Portland and St Thomas. In the near future, we'll be able to extend our dealership network to those parishes," Barnes said promisingly.
With its new entry into the cooking gas market, Barnes revealed that FESGAS is a safer cylinder than traditional gas cylinders with the introduction of no boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (No-BLEVE) cylinders. "What that means is you can light it. I'm not telling you to try, but we can provide video evidence that if you light a hundred of them filled with gas, there's no explosion," he explained.
Barnes shared that Jamaicans will have more to look forward to from FESCO in the upcoming year, as it expands further into the LPG space.
"We want to further innovate, we've been a company that innovates. We look outward and try to apply some of the stuff we see happening around the world to Jamaica because we believe Jamaicans deserve better and deserve more. We're always going to diversify our operations and always look for opportunities to integrate," he said.
"We're really proud of them [employees], and we're happy that they have embraced the brand and the company the way they have, and I want to point to them; I really want to tell them thank you for all they have done to build the brand, FESCO," Barnes expressed with gratitude.
