With a group of companies scattered across the Caribbean, AS Brydens & Sons Holdings, otherwise called Brydens Group, is looking to leverage its distribution channels across the region.

The acquisition of a strategic stake in Caribbean Producers (Jamaica) Limited (CPJ) with operations in Jamaica and St Lucia will hasten the Brydens Group’s accomplishment of this goal, Chairman PB Scott told shareholders on Tuesday at the company’s AGM.

The group acquired CPJ with its “existing facilities…that we drew down on” and cash resources, he revealed in response to a shareholder’s question.

“It delivers to AS Brydens an arm in Jamaica with regard to premium beverages. It also delivers to AS Brydens a hotel and restaurant food service business, which we don’t have in the rest of the Caribbean nor in Jamaica, and that will allow us the opportunity to build such a business,” he outlined.

Scott revealed that the Group has embarked on the construction of distribution centres in Guyana and Trinidad, both of which will have facilities to house frozen foods and other chilled products.

“And hopefully we can leverage the relationships that we have at CPJ to grow that business outside of Jamaica,” he added.

This strategy, Brydens Group CEO Richard Pandohie chimed in, is not different from the company’s acquisition of Barbados-based Stansfeld Scott in February this year.

While pointing out that Stansfeld Scott and CPJ are both distributors of premium beverages servicing their respective hospitality markets, Pandohie noted that this strengthens the group’s regional strategy “and now forms one of the key pillars that we’re building on.”

Scott, in reply to shareholder’s question, shared that though one advantage of the CPJ acquisition is that it brings in US dollar earnings, it was not the only criterion for the recent purchase of shares in the company.

From a local standpoint, the chairman believes that Jamaica’s prospects in adding “a significant amount of [hotel] room stock” could benefit CPJ and other related companies in Jamaica and the region.

He added that a distribution company like Facey Commodity with talent, warehouse infrastructure and technology could also benefit.

Another shareholder questioned whether AS Brydens will consolidate its distribution. To this, Scott replied that given the subsidiaries operate in various markets across the Caribbean it would be “limited, if not impossible”.