Company reporting success at mitigating the write off of expired stock

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Net profits are surging at Montego Bay-based pharmaceutical company, Indies Pharma Jamaica Limited, owing to a number of measures employed by the husband and wife management team of Guna and Vishnu Muppuri.

Net profit for the six-month period ended April 30, 2022 increased by 68 per cent to J$115 million, up from J$69 million posted during the comparable period in 2021.

Vishnu V. Muppuri, co-founder and executive director, reports that “this encouraging increase was not by accident, and it represents the company’s strategic management of the business to yield positive profit levels despite the interest payments bring incurred on the loan acquired in 2020 towards the growth capital”.

During the half-year period, Indies Pharma Jamaica earned gross revenues of J$336 million, representing a 30 per cent increase or J$78 million when compared to the similar period in 2021. The company has maintained its focus on managing and implementing strategies to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic and contingent impacts on cost of sales.

Sharp rise in admin expenses

There was a marked increase of 19 per cent in administrative expenses, due mainly to high-level of fleet vehicles maintenance, salaries and royalty obligation. Nonetheless profit from operations grew by 48 per cent to J$144 million in 2022, up from J$98 million in 2021.

Total assets at half-year stood at J$2.3 billion, up from J$1.7 billion in the comparative period 2021, reflecting an increase of 35 per cent. Shareholders’ equity has increased by 51 per cent during the period under review to J$1.07 billion compared to J$710 million in 2021 while total liabilities increased by 23 per cent in 2022 to J$1.2 billion from J$965 million in 2021.

The earning per share for the half year period increased by 80 per cent to J$0.09c/unit from 0.05c/unit when compared to the same period last year.

Second quarter out-turn

For the second quarter ended April 2022 revenues increased by $50 million or 25 per cent to $201 million. This is as a result of the strong demand for the Indies Pharma Products along with the strategies implemented to drive sales.

Gross profits for the quarter increased to J$179 million, which represent an increase of 49 per cent or J$59 million in comparison to J$120 million for the previous quarter 2021. One of the main contributing factors contributing to this is the robust approach taken in monitoring inventory and to mitigate the write off expired stock.

Operating expenses increased to J$99 million for the current quarter in comparison to J$85 million of prior quarter, which represents an increase of 16 per cent. Contributing factors are due to increases in servicing cost for fleet vehicles and contractual royalty agreement for parent company, Bioprist.

Net profit for April quarter increased by 213 per cent to J$64 million from J$20 million in 2021.

In closing, Muppuri states, “the company remains healthy and consistent in these challenging and trying times and continues to deliver and maintain a consistent upward trend in its performance and profitability to its shareholders”.