Coffee smelling sweeter for Salada

LOCAL COFFEE maker Salada Foods' net sales remained flat for the quarter ended March 31, 2000, at $45.3 million compared with $42 million in the same period last year.

According to the unaudited figures for the six month period to the end of March, sales improved from $81.5 million at March 31, 1999 to $92.1 million.

Group profit after tax in the quarter ended March 31, 2000 was $6 million dollars compared with $1.4 million in the same period last year as Salada made no provision for taxation since there were substantial losses brought forward at September 30, 1999. The local makers of instant coffee recently said it was gearing to snatch a segment of the US market with a new brand of its brew.

Last year Salada initiated efforts to expand locally by broadening its distribution and marketing network with the appointment of T. Geddes Grant (Dist.) Limited, Musson Jamaica Limited and Lasco Distributors as the main suppliers within Jamaica.

But the coffee makers are not content with an estimated 80 per cent share of the local market as since July 1998 Salada has been courting the Agricultural Development Bank in order to encourage this financial institution to fund the installation of an agglomeration plant.

Robert O. Parkins, managing director, Salada Foods, said recently that "the plant is needed in order to realise substantial foreign exchange revenues and to double capacity."  

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